Michael got to the shower before I did, so I've got a few minutes to keep writing before getting ready for Jocelyn's ceremony.
Hate to admit it, but I'm kind of liking writing in this thing. It feels like talking to a friend. There are plenty of kids in school who I consider friends. These are kids I hang out with all the time in school, but, for some reason, things get weird anytime I mention my family, especially my dad. It's like the other kids are afraid to even mention his name.
One time, Billy from class wanted to come over after school to my dad's house so we could both go out to the part of his property that's near the water and look at the frogs jumping around in the reeds. His mom and dad came to pick him up and when he asked them if he could go to my dad's house, they got this shocked and scared look on their faces and they didn't know what to say. They made up something about him having to visit his grandparents. Then they all drove away. He didn't come over that day or any other day. So, yeah, I can hang out with kids when we're in school, but no one ever wants to come over and play at either my mom's house or my dad's house.
I really like hanging out with my cousin, Molly. She's like two years younger than me but has already read every book I've read and then some. She's super smart and funny. We even had an adventure together once when we rescued this guy Johnny, one of my dad's employees. So I have her to talk to I guess, because she has some of the same family drama I do.
And there's Dominic. It's funny, he's not family and we haven't been friends that long but, when he comes around, I feel like I've known him forever. I guess some people just have the knack of making you feel loved and accepted no matter what. Like family, but better because you can choose whether to be around them or not.
Okay, so, maybe I can list who's coming to the baptism? Well, there's my mom, Jax and Michael, of course. And then my dad and Kristina and my cousin, Molly, and their mom, Alexis. My mom kind of hates her, but she's my step-dad's friend so she'll probably come. I think mom's friend Olivia is also going to be there. Maybe her boyfriend, Johnny, but I'm not too sure. I'm not sure if Grandma Bobby is back from Seattle yet, but I know for sure that Grandpa Mike will be there. Lulu, my mom's cousin, is going to be Jocelyn's godmother. And Jocelyn and I are going to share a godfather, which is Jason. He's my mom's best friend and my namesake.
Dominic is coming too, which reminds me: I should bring a deck of cards so that during the slow parts of the ceremony, he can show me some more poker tricks. He started teaching me poker the last time we hung out. Whenever I've tried to play with my mom or Michael they always kill me because I can never tell when they're bluffing. And they bluff A LOT! I can't tell lies worth crap. Lying about stuff just makes me feel weird, I guess. Dominic's teaching me how to play the game without feeling like I'm cheating. He says there are ways to play the game well without feeling like you're a creep. Besides, he says, lying is a part of the game. He says there's two ways to win at poker: have a good hand or make the other players think you have a good hand. If you think of it as just a game where you're not really hurting anyone, you're just taking away their money before they take away your money, it makes it easier to lie, he says. He says most people break even at the end anyway, so it's no big deal.
He says no one ever got rich off of a night of poker, and if they did they didn't stay that way for long. He says even the high rollers in poker, even the people who play poker for a living, don't always win, and most of the time they lose. He says for some people that first taste of winning, of making a pile of cash in a couple minutes, from doing nothing more than being a really good liar, does something to their brains where they keep wanting to push it, make more and more, not even stopping when they're way deep in a hole. He says the only way to make money and be successful for real is to work hard.
I don't know how a guy like him ended up working for my dad. Most of the people who work for my dad are lug-heads who can't really do anything else. Dominic, though, not only is he pretty smart, but he really thinks about other people. As much as I love my dad and my step-dad and Jason and Michael, the person who I really admire the most these days is Dominic. He's not just words, you know? My dad tells me how much he loves me all the time. And we do fun stuff together. But most of the time he's so wrapped up in this work, that spending time with me isn't always a priority for him. Dominic seems to really like his work too. But I think he knows that the family you keep and the friends you make are, in the end, more important than the work you do. I really admire him and want to be like him one day.
Funny I may come back to this journal like ten years from now and read this and I will have become as great a guy as Dominic. Then I'll be all like, "I told you so!" LOL
Okay, Michael's finally out of the shower. Don't even ask me what I think he does in there for so long! LOL.