Originally Posted by Papi (Post 1179763)

A happy Papi/Patticake day my friends,

I must begin with an apology to all of you my dear friends, I know many have said there isn't any need to apologize, and appreciate the reasoning for your thoughtfulness, but it is imperative for me that I do, as you have responded so many time's to this Patticake thread with so much love, and your many kind and encouraging words of support, not only for me and Patticake but for all the dear friends who were in the forefront of making Patticake a reality, I must tell you how sorry I am, how terrible I feel that I didn't reply to each and everyone of you personally throughout much of this journey of love we have all taken togeather, I am sincerely ashamed as you were all certainly deserving of the courtesy and respect, and I feel I failed you there, I'm very sorry my friends, maybe as there won't be so many post in one thread in the future, I will be able to keep up, and give you the common courtesy of a reply, please forgive Papi.

Something that remains out standing in my mind, and as appreciative as I may be for all the praises, accolades you have so kindly bestowed upon my writting, and story telling it has been a little embarrasing for me, and very humbling, may I please explain why, I wish to be as honest and forthright with you as possible, first of all I wouldn't even know how to lay out a story properly, all I do is write what I think and feel, never looked at it as a story, just another post even so, befor the whole world, and ashamedly I am going to give you some truth's about Papi's abilities, as some of you have thought I may be a teacher, a professor, or some other honorable profession, and if not you feel I should be, and I thank you, I am honored believe me but the truth of the matter is I am not qualified to be in the same leaque with these talented people, for one Papi's future to have a career in any field has somewhat diminished because of my advanced year's, then on top of that, due to some stupid, wrong choices in my early life as a teenager, young man, I don't have much of an education to speak of, I sorrowfully confess to you, I left school a half year into the 10th grade, and even when I attended school, English and Grammer were my worst subject's, I didn't know a verb from a prounoun, an adjective from and adverb, never mind understanding what a present participle was, and when it come's to punctuation's in my post, now don't laugh, Ok, I don't mind, it is laughable but the truth is I just throw them in where I think they might go, or it looks good, just never got it sadly, nor do I this very day, then about 6 months after leaving school I enlisted in the Army at the ripe old age of 17, after serving 3 years active service, I did a mandatory 6 more years in reserves, I received an honorable discharge in January 1958, I then decided I was going to take a year off befor finding employment, I needed a long rest after my service, in 1960 I found employment with a national brewer of beer, my title, occupation was brewer, where I remained until 1973 when they went out of business, now what do I do, I didn't have an education, fortunately the Veterans Administration paid for and sent me to a tractor trailer driving school in Brooklyn, NY, where upon completion I was now a bonified Tranportation Engineer as we tarctor trailer driver's prefer to call ourselves, rather than truck driver, 18 wheeler, as it has such a educated ring to it, in our minds an elevated status, my friends I must inform you this is only pun, though when someone asked me what I did for a living, I would jokingly tell them I was a Transportation Engineer, don't you just love it ? :)

To truck on, I drove for 26 years until I retired, I can only tell you my friends, I was not happy being a tractor trailer driver all these years, I honestly detested it, my only consolation was back then one could make great money, and the benifits were unsurpassed in the trucking industry, at least in my union it was true, they even paid for glasses, and all dental, including braces which both my daughter's ended up needing, I had the opportunity to support my family well and pay the mortgage, this was my first trucking employer, my second outfit which I was employed with for my last 14 years, sadly gave no benifits, except hospitalization which we had to pay into, the way it is now with most companies but I was greatful for the hospitalization of course, the only other positive with this employer was the last year or so they permitted me to bring, and have Kassie Kisses as my co-pilot, and she loved it, I'm sure not many of you can boast you had a "Truckin Yorkie" I guess I could say this was the happiest, and the highlight of my trucking career.

Now you ask, why is Papi divuldging so much personal information ? it's because for one I want to be honest with you my friends, the other is to let you know I don't have any particular talent or professional abilities which qualify me to be a writter or story teller as much as I appreciate your kind words, your love, the many high praises, and the accolades you bestowed upon me which I feel, I surely am not deserving of, the wonderful and true talented writter's here are Lauren and Corinne, I so admire their beautiful writting skill's, they are the ones who deserve the praises, the accolades without any doubt, I only wish I could in fact write as well, I mean a true writter as without a doubt these friends are.

Please my friends this is no intent on my part to offend anyone, I do sincerely appreciate all the kind things you attribute to my writting, you obviously see something in it I don't, and I've just tried to explain why I don't, please, I hope no one gets upset with me nor think I'm being un-appreciative, I'm just a poster, not a writter.

I would just like to add a note which may be of some interest, I have Patticake 2 weeks today, and you probably won't believe what I'm about to tell you, in just these two weeks she is just about fully potty trained, she does all her poops outside now, she only occasionaly will widdle on a pad but that also she prefers to do outside, she is absolutley phenomenal, so unusually smart for such a young age, I believe I've had such good progress with her potty training as for one I'm retired, and have the opportunity to take her for long walks frequently during the day or anywhere else I go, the grass has become her favorite wee wee pad thankfully, she is just so amazing, thank you Brenda for such a smart baby, thank you my friends for making it all possible, when I think I can't love Patticake anymore than I do, she will alway's find something new to surprise me with, put a smile on my face or laugh hysterically, she is just so very precious, just as your babies are for you also, I love her so very much my friends.

Papi & Patticake thank you so much my friends for the wonderful blessing you have given us, thank you very much.

Goodnight our friends.

Papi & Patticake.