As a writer of what I consider literary form I am often afraid that my true point may not be as clear as intended. Long ago I told a friend that if what I said can be taken in a different manner then it sounded he can be assured that was exactly the way it was intended to be taken. For a much longer time I resolved myself to the fact that I entertain the heck out of myself by communicating in this dual manner only as often as I can't think of a way to mean three things. This is not necessarily an effective way for an author. While it was a few weeks ago, it was a matter of a few posts ago that I posted on Frequency. While the post concerned blogging, the true subject was quality over quantity and what had me thinking it was the old adage that divorced, separated, and never-been-married single parents use for time with their kids--instead of quantity time, they go for quality time. This also goes for busy parents as well.

The problem is that without quantity, you can't tell when you might get quality time. Like the stupid over-played enhancement commercials (is it really THAT big a problem?) you never can tell when the right moment will happen. However, there are a few, extremely few, times that you can plan a quality moment.

Last night, my two oldest children and I went to see Wicked! on its final night playing in Birmingham. My middle child has turned 13 today, which provided a bit of a boost to the choice of day, but my girls have loved the music for over 2 years. For my part I still am afraid that I am the only straight man to sit through a televised viewing of the Tony Awards because my 2 girls are lovers of music, musicals, drama, and the stage. Before the show my elder child mentioned to the people seated next to us that she knew every word to every song and couldn't wait for it to start. I added that I knew every other word to every third song and I was kind of excited, too.

Perhaps I should be embarrassed (but those that really know me, know I'm not) to admit that "For Good" almost always tears me up. "Popular" is not just a popular song, but one of the best, and "Defying Gravity" ranks up there with "Loathing" in my book. Did my eyes water last night? Yes. Did my girls? Yes. But ever the overachieving Boy Scout I had 2 handkerchiefs. The show was fantastic, but the time with my girls was over the top.

I love being married, but I love being a dad more.

Three tickets to see Wicked!: $230 Parking: $10 A CD, a shirt, and a magnet: $75 A bottle of water and a bucket of popcorn: $9 Being a husband to a great woman and father to 3 girls: Priceless

Having a loving family is priceless, for everything else there's money.

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As an aside, the post name came from a line in the play when Nessarose was asking what was in the punch.