Sunday, February 6

11:30 pm
Hotel

Man, what a fantastic weekend.  Weather aside, this weekend was fun as Hell.  Just what I needed.

Thought I was gonna be able to sneak around a little easier since everybody who's anybody was in Dallas and Cate and I avoided the high-profile parties.  But then ESPN had to go and mention my negotiations to buy into the Falcons, and BAM!  All of a sudden everybody was looking for me.  But we just stayed with our plan, stuck close with Shy and Char and ignored all the hoopla.

Man, I've been to a lot of Super Bowls, but this one was just HUGE.  The events and parties surrounding the game were just crazy.  Everything really is bigger in Texas, ha ha.

Even bumped into Richie.  We didn't plan to meet up, but sure enough we couldn't get away from each other.  He and Nikki are doing great, enjoying the party circuit.  I'm really happy for him, the WTB line is really taking off.  Now I just need to convince him to let Steph intern there, ha ha.

But ya know, he can have it.  I was having way more fun with my wife and the hard-core football people.  Cate kept teasing me about being more excited to hang with the execs, talking about the contract negotiations and potential off-season moves, than I was to see the game.  That's not true.

Well, not really.

But she's right that I miss being involved with the Soul.  It was a great franchise -- IS a great franchise, and I really enjoyed learning the business of sports.  Too bad the new league sucks so much.  I would have loved to have stayed involved with AFL, but just couldn't do it.  We did something so unique there, with the Soul and the Foundation and all the community involvement.  Wish more of the teams had followed suit.  But when the majority of the owners consider the league their own personal playground, it was never gonna work.

Nah, NFL is where I want to be.  It's always been the dream, but now that I understand the business it's becoming a passion too.  Will be fun once the deal is done.

As for fun -- it was nice to relax and just hang out with Cate and our friends.  I know she was pleasantly surprised; she usually just kinda smiles and endures these events.  She's way more of a homebody than I am, and even though she loves football she's just not into all the parties and appearances and all.  But this weekend we were really just Mr. & Mrs. Bongiovi, visiting our friends in Texas to take in a football game.

Cate and Char picked up where they left off last time, had a great time talking and laughing and drinking wine.  They're a lot alike.  Wouldn't surprise me if Char finds some way to pull Cate into one of her projects or causes.  And I doubt Cate could turn her down.

I had a lot of fun watching my wife this weekend.  Though we've been together almost two years now she's still not completely comfortable in this crazy world of mine.  Not that she's uneasy or anything -- she handles it just fine, with her usual strength and grace.  But I see the disbelieving little smiles and shakes of her head when she realizes where she is or who she has just met.  It's sweet.  I love watching her, being able to give her these great experiences.  I always said I wanted to show her the world, to give her all the best of everything.  And I'm trying to, a little bit at a time.

We had a great time watching the game from Jerry's box -- no press, no roving cameras so we could just relax and enjoy the game. And that halftime show was something else -- the Peas really nailed it. It was quite a sight to behold.  Of course that Fergie is a sight to behold pretty much any time, ha ha.  She's pretty damned hot.  May have to figure out a way to work with her one of these days.

It was absolutely hilarious watching Cate when I introduced her to Slash.  She was literally speechless.  I've always suspected she's had a thing for him -- Hell, she's practically told me as much. It's gotta be the hair, or maybe the Top Hat.  I swear, she practically growled when she met him.  WTF?  I thought I was her Rock God Dreamboat, ha ha.

But I gotta say, Slash is such a good guy, so laid back and so Zen.  He and Richie are pretty tight; I've met him a couple times but we don't have that guitarist bond, ya know?  He and Richie have a lot in common, they were both buddies with Les Paul.  Actually, I think they're planning some sort of collaboration at some point.  Maybe during our break after this tour.

It was really cute that Cate was totally in awe of Slash.  I thought she was gonna faint when he kissed her cheek and hugged her.  It was pretty damned funny.  Wish I'd had my camera to capture the moment.  My wife the Groupie.

Guess I gotta work extra-hard to impress her now, ha ha.

Sadly the weekend went too fast.  Now we're back in the hotel to try to grab a little sleep before we have to go home tomorrow.  I tried to get us on the same flight but no dice; Cate has to leave early because she's going into the office.  I'm going out a little later, getting back in time to pick up Jess from school.

Back to reality.

I can't say I was trying to escape my thoughts this weekend -- that wouldn't be fair, or completely true.  I thought a lot about what's going on in my life this weekend, but I was able to do it a little at a time.   A couple things I realized:

I love my kids, I love being a parent.  Even the hard parts, like what's going on now.  I just needed to put what happened with Jess out of my head a little bit, give myself a chance to chill out before I go back and start a new phase of fatherhood.

I still can't believe I'm in this situation with him -- I always thought it would be Steph.  Isn't that the stereotypical situation -- Daddy freaks out about his daughter's romantic life?  Well, I guess I did freak out a little when I saw her and Brendan kissing, but Cate took care of that.  She was absolutely right, Steph's a smart young woman and she has a good head on her shoulders.

But what about my son? Somehow he's in the other role, the one I know all too well.  The one I worry about with my Girl but somehow secretly cheer on in my Boy.  I'm not really proud of that as a parent, but I have to admit as a Man a little part of me snickers with satisfaction that my eldest son is somewhat a Stud.

Is that wrong?

But after much consideration I'm pretty confident now that I'm gonna handle this right, both for my son and for his mother.  And for myself.  Life is full of hard decisions, and part of being a Man is stepping up and making them.  That applies to me as much as Jess.

I'm going to talk to Jesse tomorrow, before I talk to Dorothea.  I'm not going to tell her everything, just enough to make her aware of what's going on in Jesse's life.  She's gonna have to trust me for the rest.  Same with Cate; I'll tell her a little of what happened but not everything.  I'm curious for her take on the Booty Call situation since she's not a parent.

Not yet anyway.

It seems like forever since we talked about our future as a family, but I know Cate's still thinking.  And it's only been a couple days since we sat curled up on the couch, sharing our thoughts.  There's just been a few things that have happened since then, ha ha.

A couple times this weekend we caught each other smiling when there were babies or little kids around.  Then we shared our own little private glances, our own sweet little silent secret.  Hopefully someday soon we'll have our own little one to smile about.

In a couple days I kick off the long haul, six more months of touring.  And there's lots of stuff coming up with the Foundation, and the White House Council, plus the movie and a few other projects I have working.  And pretty soon a football team.

I know all that is weighing on Cate's mind.  We're gonna be spending more time apart.  Not to mention that she has her own commitments with her cases and the traveling she's gonna have to do for them.

I wonder if that's going to deter her from admitting what she really wants, in her heart.  I hope not.  It won't be easy but I know we can find a way to make it work.  After this tour is over we can really focus on completing our family.

That will be the most exciting project of the bunch.