Can I See Your ID Please?.....

My favorite TV show of all time was probably Dallas. I started watching it about 1980 when I would go visit my Grandmother, and she would fill me in on all of the charactors..After she died in 1981, I was still hooked on the show. Of course my favorite was J.R. EWING. What a cad!
Over the years, he bedded a bevy of women, but my favorite mistress of his was a hot chick named Mandy Winger!
Speed foreward to Friday April 11, 1986, a cold snowy evening, the maternity ward of Flint Osteopathic Hospital. My wife had just given birth to our first child, a 7# 8oz. baby girl!
At first we wanted to name her Ariel, a Sprite from the Shakespeare play The Tempest. But my sister-in-law made a crack about the name, and after that my wife was ambivilant about any name, so she gave me the honor of naming our daughter...Hahahaha No brainer! Mandy!!
Amanda Marie Haynes....Thats how she got her name! She was named after J.R. Ewing's Mistress!
She was always a brave little girl. When the day came for her to start Kindergarten, both me and my wife worked for the State at the time, and we could not get off of work. The lady at the day care where Mandy was at said that she stood in the rain all by herself waiting for the bus to come. That night she came home all by herself, without a hitch. When she was 8 she wanted her ears pierced , so I took her to Clairs in the Mall, and she got both pierced without even wincing! When she was a senior in High School, she graduated 4th out of 780 kids. She had already got accepted to Michigan State University, and I thought that was where she was going.

OK,......STOP....... to anyone that does not really know me well. Both Me and my wife are U/M graduates! I've had season football tickets to U/M since 1976...I Bleed Blue!!! And my daughter is accepted to our In-State Rival? Hey, whats the big deal right? It's a great school. It's close to home(40 miles). And she picked it!

The week of Graduation she comes home and tells me that..." Oh daddy, I got accepted to U/M in Ann Arbor". And walks away without a word......Ann Arbor? I didn't even know that she had applied there. You know how hard it is to get in there? You can have a 4.00 and not get in.
But she perservered and finally got accepted. Although she would never ever say it, I know in my heart that she went there for me. This year is her junior year. Last year she got accepted to a foreign studies program, and she picked Prague Czech Republic. Prague? Why in the Deuce would she pick Prague? Well come to find out, they are not on the Euro Dollar, and their money goes about 3 times farther than anywhere else in Europe. Thats my girl! Smart AND cheap!!
She has had the chance of a lifetime, and has taken full advantage of it..On her own, she has gone to London, Helsinki, Berlin, Paris, Edinborough, and Athens....
Still the brave little girl waiting at the bus stop!

But today, she is no longer my little girl. I always wanted to buy her a beer for her 21st birthday, but she is in a foreign country. She is closer to Iraq, than Flint Michigan!
I miss her terribly.She is a smart, funny, talented, and resourceful girl. I haven't seen her since I took her to the airport in August, she hugged me good bye and said, " Don't worry Daddy, I'll be OK".....She may be 21, but she'll always be my little girl......I love you Mandy..
Happy Birthday!!!