What two hour-long discussions lead to.

I talked to my dad tonight for a couple of hours. It was a general discussion about everything that was going on in our lives, and everything that's happened.

We used to do this all the time, and I used to hate it.

But not anymore.

You see, I understand why he wanted to do this tonight. My grandma had to go to the hospital earlier today, and might have to get heart surgery tomorrow. It's a scary thing even though it's part of life. And it helps my dad to talk things out, even if we're not talking about the particular subject that's on his mind or mine.

The biggest general theme of what tonight amounted to was that despite all the crap that may or may not have happened, we've got to appreciate what we have right now, and we can't take it for granted. Dad told me stories of the really dumb things he did in high school and college, and he said he understood it was part of life to make mistakes and to learn from them and move on.

He told me he doesn't worry about me as much as he used to.

What I appreciate about my dad is that he is willing and wants to talk about everything. You don't always get people like that, and it's such a pain in the ass. He calls it "opening the lines of communication."

Just a year ago, it drove me crazy that he had to talk like this all the time. I didn't want to talk, I wanted to go out there and just do whatever and not have to deal with discussing what I thought or what I was going through.

I guess I've grown up a little since then.

Update: My grandma's doing better now, she was discharged from the hospital. The good news: there's no blockage in any of her arteries. The bad news: They have no idea what caused her to feel the chest pains and to get all cold.