VAN DER MEER, Tobias R.

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Tobias Robin Van Der Meer (more commonly known as Toby) was born on February 26th 1969, in Hartford, CT. In late 2014 he divorced his childhood sweetheart, Lily Van Der Meer, after twenty-two years together. The couple have two children, Julian Van Der Meer (21), and Willow Van Der Meer (19). He is currently CEO of Mediacom, based in Manhattan, New York. Recently, Toby remarried, getting hitched to Mona Lisbon in Las Vegas. ......................................... the first time my dad really became my hero was when i went into his office with him. i must have been about fifteen, a real dick, class clown, thought i was the biggest badass going. i got suspended for some stupid prank, and my dad took me to work with him for a couple days. before then i thought all he did was sign the odd contract and get taken out on big expensive lunches. i wasn't too far wrong. but it was the way people looked at him, the people who worked for him... they were clearly scared, sure, but it was more than that - they respected them. that's when i realized you didn't have to seek attention out to really own a room. my dad's got this quiet authority that i thought came from being my dad, but no, he has it with everyone. he works like a dog. willow likes to think we're classic victims of yuppie parents, that he's emotionally distant and absent, but he's not. he works long hours and goes on business trips, but he's never missed a single birthday, recital, graduation, you name it. when it counts, he's there. that's because his attitude to being a dad is the same as it is to everything else: pure determination. good dads play ball with their sons, so my dad did that every single weekend with me. good dads intimidate their daughters' prom date, and dad just about picked up a bat when willow's date showed up at the door. he's a total ballbreaker because he holds himself to impossible standards, and by extension us too. it's a lot of pressure, but that doesn't excuse what our mom did. it doesn't excuse willow's shitty attitude. say what you like about my dad, but he aims for to be the best and he gets closer than anyone else i know. mona, though... mona can fuck off. the first time i realized how pissed at my dad i am was when i went into his office with him. i think i was around eighteen, it wasn't that long ago, but i'd graduated and was bored and i think he thought it'd impress me, or something. it didn't. i knew his whole job was to be schmoozed by people, but i didn't realize how many of them were a) female, and b) under the age of thirty. it was gross, all these girls calling and emailing and trying to convince him to let them take him to lunch. i guess what was really gross was that under all his grand displays of irritation, i really think he loved (and loves) the attention. why else would he end up marrying that skank? my mom was a saint for putting up with him. he was barely ever there, always on a plane to london or la or paris or fucking australia. then he comes back and makes a big show of being at school plays, embarrassingly cheering on and applauding louder than all the other dads. as if those short bursts of attention could make up for months of him basically not being there. julie totally buys into it too, the dumbass. the way he indulges dad, you'd think he thought he walked on water. he doesn't get it - he's the golden boy, the chip off the old block. me? i'm the slutty daughter of his skanky ex wife. sure, he acts like we're the same, but i can tell. i can always tell. sure, he threatens boyfriends and pretends to take an interest in my life, but it's so obviously bullshit. the worst part is how much of a hard time he gives us all if we don't live up to his im-fucking-possible expectations: a b+ might as well be an f-, an art course might as well be a crash course on how to burn money. he hardly ever splashed the cash on us the way my friends' dads did, and when i wanted to quit ballet he basically said i should, given how much i sucked at it. i was seven! i don't blame mom for cheating, she could never live up to the perfect idea of her he had in his head. julian's a traitor for siding with him. say what you like about my mom, but she's only human, and she's about a billion times warmer than he's ever been. then there's mona. if there's one thing worse than a hypocrite, it's a cliche. ......................................... ......................................... LEX . HAR GABRIEL MACHT . RESIDENT .........................................