Zombies, Christmas And A Woman I Love

So... I may get a little sappy with this post, but it'll be personal and y'all can crane your necks into my little window of life and I won't slam it shut on the back of your head or nuthin'.   Climb into the Cowguy time machine and we'll roll on back to 1998, that would be the year that Sally moved to Missouri... and we fell in love.

Now the woman that I love in this particular post isn't Sally.  *big giant intertubal group gasp from around the world*  It's another woman.  Yes.  See when Sal moved here she brought 3 kids with her.  One of those kids is the one this is about... our daughter Nicky.  It's never easy melding 2 families, this one was no exception, but I think (get in real close here)... I think Nicky loved me from the start.

I cinched it though, that first Christmas of 98.

Here, here's a pic from that year.  I played Santa for something or another... that's Nicky, 16 years old, sitting there on Santa's lap.

I didn't cinch it by playing Santa though.  Let's get a little background about my taste in music right at this point.  As I've mellowed with time, my taste in music has become rather diverse.  To be honest I'll listen to about anything except Polka and if I'm good and loaded, hell fire... I'll give it a go too.   Nicky learned to love classic rock thru some of my input, and inversely, I learned to love a lot of what she listened to.

About 2 weeks before Christmas Nicky and I took off by ourselves to go Christmas shopping, I still remember parts of the day like it was yesterday.  We had a blast.  Anyway, Rob Zombie had left White Zombie and had come out with his then new album Hellbilly Deluxe....

... perfect Christmas album, eh?  Nicky wanted this album pretty bad.  Sally wouldn't go for it.  I dunno, maybe all the Satan bullshit on the album cover etc etc influenced that.  But me?  I just looked at it as "show".  I was an Alice Cooper fan back before it was cool in the day.  Rob was just more of that... but with a driving techno beat and a nice mix of metal.  

I bought it for her that day and figured that I'd just deal with Sally's unhappiness with what I'd done later on... cause that's what men do.  That's what "I" did.  We rocked out that whole day with that CD playing.  

I cinched the deal.  I became cool. 

I can't begin to tell you how much joy and love this girl has brought into my life.  She means the world to me.  I've learned from her, and she from me.  

Smartass comes pretty easy around here.  Nicky has smoothed it down like hot pudding.  When Jake was little he raced go-karts.  This pic is from a race somewhere and he's posing with his then patented somber racing face...very serious and everything.  That's Nicky and I photo bombing him like maniacs behind him.

And from a couple of weeks ago she's telling me that I'm number one....

...and from that same weekend where she just has "kickass" wrote all over her with that AR-15 and those boots.

 ...and probably my favorite pic of her ever.   She's the Mom of 3 of her own now, and is doing it up perfectly.   That's her youngest with her.

And in the end folks... sometimes you just need to stop and tell those that you love, just how much you DO love them.  Life is short and the train runs fast.

I love you with all my heart Nicky.
XOXO

J.





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