Rant #1,356: The End of An Era

On Sunday, something happened in my home that is probably only important to me, but it signified the end of an era, at least in my household.

My wife and I arose from bed. We both went to bed a little later than we normally do, because we had company over, but it was time to get up anyway.

We went into the kitchen, and as has become a Sunday ritual, I scoured the freezer for a frozen breakfast.

During the week I eat my Cheerios, on the weekend I eat other things, including frozen breakfast entrees.

Anyway, I found what I wanted, and I put it on a microwavable plate, put it into the microwave, put the unit on the desired two minutes, and waited for it to heat up.

At about the 1 minute, 45 second juncture, I heard a pop come from the microwave.

I let what I was heating up stay in for the full two minutes, and then took it out of the unit.

I discovered that while my meal was heated, the plate was not in such good shape. It had cracks in three places, and was ready for the trash bin.

It was the end of an era when I place the plate in the trash. I had used my daughter's old baby plate to heat my meal up--as I had for years, since she is all grown up now--and now, it is gone.

It wasn't her first baby plate--that was one that had raised portions so you could separate the parts of her meal--but it was the baby plate I used for her when I was divorced from her mother and she would see me every other weekend.

When she was about two or three years old, she loved the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and they were on this plate. Donatello was her favorite, and we talked endlessly about the TMNT whenever we saw each other.

I bought her not just plates and cups of the TMNT, she had T-shirts, games, videos, figures, the whole works. She really loved that stuff.

Look, she couldn't stay a baby forever, but the TMNT seemed to be our link together when she was a child.

In fact, it came up during our idiotic court sessions for child support, where my ex-wife claimed that I was turning our daughter into a lesbian by allowing her to watch the TMNT.

I kid you not.

Anyway, my daughter is going to be 27 years old this year, so the TMNT thing is in the past with her.

She barely sees me, hardly talks to me on the phone, shows absolutely no respect for me, and I really wonder about our relationship at this point in time.

She acts like she couldn't be bothered, and I really do feel I have missed out on a lot of things as she has grown up to be a woman.

We still have some other tableware in the house that we used when she was little, including her old 101 Dalmations plate. That was her very first movie, which I dared to take her to one Saturday afternoon, although I knew she wouldn't sit still for the entire movie, and she didn't, but it was lots of fun.

But there was something about that TMNT plate that really brought back the good memories I had of her as a little girl.

So it is now gone. I guess it is somewhat symbolic of what we once had, and where we stand today.

But it is gone, the relationship we had is gone, and like the plate, I don't think it can ever be repaired.

And what's worse, I have no idea why she treats me this way.

Yes, I think I have gotten the raw end of the deal here, but you know what? She has lost out too.

The more I beg her to keep in touch, the further away she pushes me, so what can I do?

At least I had that plate to remind me of better times. Now it is gone, and those good times went with the plate, right in the trash.

I still love my daughter, always will love my daughter, but I have to wonder if what we had is totally gone, or simply dormant.

Right now, I just don't know.

(P.S.: My daughter did call me today, nothing with nothing, but it was nice to hear from her, even if we didn’t speak about very much.)