  Sometimes I might refer to my biological father, Gary, as Biodad when I'm talking about him. I kind of like it. It has a superhero quality tone to it (Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's... Biodad! ) The reason I refer to him that way is because I've only known him for the past few years and most of that was just via email. I grew up knowing of him, but he wasn't a part of my life. I had a wonderful stepdad who was and always will be my 'dad' and so I can't quite bring myself to refer to Gary as dad and I don't think I ever could. So I like Biodad. Anyway, after my dad passed away I began to feel curious about Biodad. But I didn't really pursue it.
It wasn't anything more than an 'I wonder what he's like' curiosity anyway. All I knew of him was his name, that he and my mother went to high school together and dated for a bit and I was the result. A typical story really. I also knew he worked for a newspaper in Montana. That's it. Well around 1999 or 2000, I can't recall which, I stumbled onto his address and email online when I put his name in on a lark. On a whim I decided to contact him via email and just see what happened. I figured it would be nice to know whether he would care or if he didn't want anything to do with me.
That way I'd never go through life just wondering. I'm so grateful I did. I wrote to him, though I can't recall exactly what I said. I do remember saying something along the lines of 'I promise not to drag you onto Jerry Springer for a surprise reunion' or something to that effect. Nervousness brings out the comic in me. Anyway he found that amusing and after the shock of my email wore off we began corresponding. Then I introduced him to instant messaging and we began actually chatting. I found I had a sister just a little older than my own daughter whom Gary brought with him the first time we all met.
It was just a dinner at Applebee's that first time but it was very pleasant if a little bit awkward :) Since then we've talked a lot more and hooked up a time or two when he's in town. His own father, who would be my grandfather lives here in my town, though I've yet to meet him. He's retired and I'd occasionally see him doing the greeter thing at Walmart - I imagine he did that to get out of his wife's hair :) It was weird seeing him knowing who he was, but he didn't know who I was. Very odd feeling. So that's a bit of background on Biodad and the reason I'm writing all of this is because I think a new step has been passed after his last visit this past week. I miss him now. It's another weird feeling. He and his wife have divorced in the time that we've been writing to each other, and he has a new girlfriend now. This past week was his family's renunion in another city here in nebby so he brought her down with him for the week and stayed at a hotel across the street from my place.
This meant we got to spend a lot more time with them. I adore his gf and think she's really cool - she's a junior high school teacher which means she was able to get along really well with my junior high school kid and both of them were incredibly supportive for me while I was going through this whole job thing. It marked the first time I went to him for advice and support and he came through for me bigtime. It also marked the first time he spent time with my daughter without me around as they "borrowed" her for the day and took her with them as they did an 'About Schmidt' tour of Nebraska, hitting the pioneer museums, the Imax, a planetarium and all that stuff.
My kidlet told me later that night that she had an absolute blast hanging out with them. Later that evening they met me for dinner which happened to be on the day of my interview and then we retired to the lobby of their hotel while Gary restrung her new guitar with some nylon strings he bought for her and showed her how to use the electric tuner he also bought her. Then they had a few lessons which I managed to capture urlLink here :) Unfortunately after that they had to get going to the reunion but yesterday as they passed through my town on their way back to Montana we were able to see them again for a quick coffee.
And now today I find myself really missing them and wishing they lived closer or we lived closer. I'd like to get to know his daughter better because from what I know of her, she's a pretty incredible kid - a music wiz, a science wiz, wants to be a published novelist before she turns 21... I think that's really cool. The other times we met Gary for a quick dinner and a stroll through a park it was really nice and all but I didn't have the feeling afterwards that I do now. Maybe because we simply didn't have a lot of time to really get to know each other in person and even though chatting online is nice and convenient - it's still just not the same as being there. Anyway I'd better wind this up. I thought I'd write about it because you always see those long-lost reunions on TV where the reunited family members greet each other after years apart, or after meeting for the first time but you never get to really know what happens after that initial meeting. So this was my story :) 
