advice from rayce

Photos from this recent Christmas, photo of me courtesy of my brother Christian
I've always gotten along quite well with my father, Rayce. Doesn't mean to say that he and I don't have our moments (politics mostly, sigh), but with only the slight contention we definitely have a respect for one another and I truly feel that no matter where life takes me he will support my every move.

My dad has given me plenty of advice over the years. I should probably grow out of it but I call him for help out of habit. In fact the other day he came to work to fix my car because my battery sucks. I offered to buy him lunch but his exact reply was "I don't take money from my kids." Chill, it's just lunch. But either way I find it great.

Some very memorable Raycisms (that really sounds terrible but I'm also laughing)-

You can sleep when you're dead. Basically said to me every day when I used to sleep in until ten am.
You think this is the worst thing you'll ever go through? No matter what the trouble happened to be: work, boys, school, this was always my dad's reply. And he was always right, something worse always seemed to come up at some point. Made all those other things seem ridiculous.
God doesn't give you what you can't handle. I'm Catholic and so is my father however we aren't the best at attending mass, etc. However, he has said this to me in times of trouble too and regardless of where I'm at in my life it always serves as a comfort.
Grow some shoulders. I'm still not sure I understand the meaning of this...I think it's his equivalent to "grow a pair".

My dad also has stories. Stories he will tell over and over and over.

"Chad Vigil was the only guy who applied." I don't know Chad Vigil but apparently he was the only one who applied for a job so the company he worked for was forced to hire him...
"Why can't you be more like Mary Augustine's daughter?" When my life goal was to work at Target forever my dad told me to be like his friend Mary's daughter, Beth, and apply for the phone center at my current place of employment. Well see dad, I was more like Mary Augustine's daughter for a minute.
Remember the year of .78? In the event that said place of employment (where both me and my dad, and the Augustine's work) gets a bonus, they do it by percentage. Rayce tells me to always be thankful because one year the bonus was .78%, so I should be grateful (I always am).
Graycliff Lodge is haunted." This is a restaurant up Ogden Canyon about 45 minutes from where I live. My dad worked there in his late teens/early twenties and had several encounters with "Spargo" including cups being turned around when he re-entered a room and a mysterious broom being propped up against a door on it's own.

A few other things he has taught me-

Sometimes you just need to go out into the middle of the lake in a rainstorm and wear your camping hat.


If you tell the same story over and over you can win stuff you love. The Graycliff Lodge ghost story I mentioned above? I posted it on a radio stations website and won an autographed Roswell script, t-shirt and hat, all of which I still have.

Back when I danced, even my performances were about him. My last full year of dance I was on a scholarship with my studio and all of the gals in the program did a dance together. This was tradition. On the final night of the review, the dads of the girls (usually four of them) came out after the dance and presented the girls with bouquets of flowers. My dad bawled through the entire thing, apparently. At least that's what some of the younger dancers told me as they also watched backstage. When he came out on stage, he knew they were filming it for the performance DVD so he purposely held onto our hug for a really long time and then walked very. freaking. slowly. off stage for more camera time. This was after I almost hugged the wrong dad (it was so dark).

He likes to Facetime with Moz.


So that's Rayce, or at least part of him. I feel like his -isms need to be shared with the world. He should write a book or something.