Despite a restless night’s sleep, I jumped out of bed and hit the ground running this morning. I was determined to get as many details of J’s birthday party taken care of today as I could so that tomorrow wouldn’t be such a mad dash to the finish. Collage finished, check; photo chosen for cake, check; laundry going, check; boys and husband out of house, check–well, you get the idea.

All the while, I was listening to my ipod and, instead of listening to podcasts as I tend to do, my 80’s playlist was the soundtrack as I worked. Janet and Michael Jackson, Wham!, Hall and Oates, and, of course, Rick Springfield. I was cleaning but having a pretty good time. By 9 AM, I was pleased with my progress.

And then Rick Springfield’s “My Father’s Chair” popped up on my ipod and my cheery mood was crushed.

Rick Springfield performed “My Father’s Chair” during his acoustic sets in Hershey (1/25/13) and Atlantic City (1/26/13) and I only cried the first night.

April 14 was my dad’s birthday and it’s one of those days you dread after someone close to you dies. One of those dates that looms on the calendar like a storm cloud on the horizon. So when Rick’s song about the death of his father started playing, I lost it. I started crying so hard I scared the puppy (but he’s afraid of a lot of things).

Now I’ve probably heard that song and its predecessor, “April 24, 1981” hundreds of times and I’ve seen Rick perform them in concert several times without much of an emotional reaction but this time it was different. The tears snuck up on me, and for a few minutes, they wouldn’t stop. All the while the poor scared dog kept peeking at me trying to figure out what my problem was.

In the eight years since my dad died I’ve learned that when the calendar does turn to one of those days I dread, it’s pretty anti-climactic. I make a mental note of the date, think about the boys’ milestones that he’s missed, and then, inevitability, I think of lyrics to another Rick Springfield song–“Something sweet had come and gone for everyone.”  And then the day goes on like any other.

Yeah, I’m going to have to remove that song from my “80’s” playlist.