This video shows how I felt all day yesterday. From beginning to end it was wonderful. I wanted everyone to join in.
My dad turned 80 on Friday, April 24th, and, of course, the only "present" he wanted from his kids was for us to be all together. He loves it even if he sits there and watches the Lakers in the playoffs~! And what more could he ask...Lakers kicked Jazz butt.
I actually got to wash my car yesterday and make it shiny and silver again and then drove out the Valley. My baby brother called me just as I was getting on the freeway because Red Writer was hungry. (Yes, that will be her name in the blog from now on. She did not like her stripper name, Cinnamon. Sheesh.) She was STARVING and wanted to meet somewhere to eat. We decided on the Old Spaghetti Factory off the 210. Duarte? Not sure, but it started the day in the best way. I told my brother that I finally give up--I am going to get the iPhone. Leo LaPorte convinced me. He did say though that once you get used to a smart phone, you can't live without it, so I may be in trouble. My laptop is already an extension. People just assume I always have it with me now. Poor Red Writer. She is so not a geek, not even a wanna be geek. Her eyes glaze over and you can see her mind wander off into Red Writer land. I pestered her into a blog because she tells the best stories and I know she would be a hit in blog land. Now, I am tormenting her to get on Twitter (my new love). When she started to glaze over I asked her what was she thinking right NOW? She said do people with hairy moles not own mirrors or do they think it looks cool or do they not care? LOL. She also wanted to know if graffitti could be done in the Comic Sans font? (She heard me ranting about how people had their panties in a bunch about this font.) Graffitti in a funny font?
Which reminds me. We had to go to CVS Pharmacy near my mom's house so they could buy a card for my dad and while waiting in line I noticed the tattoos on the guy in front of me. Don't get me wrong. I like tattoos for the most part. But this guy looked like a Mexican gang member, or if he wasn't, he sure was wearing the uniform of one. You know, kind of baggy pants, white t-shirt, attitude. He had sleeve tattoos, really well done, but the one I was dying to take a picture of was on the back of his neck. (I admit it, I tried to sneak a pic but I figured that probably was not too smart if he caught me.) It was a bar code with his birthday-09-18-1985. I really really wanted to ask him if the bar code was real. I mean it looked real. Thick lines and thin lines. Like the movie "Hitman."
We went home and had the best BBQ. These are my nephews up a tree in my parents' backyard. The youngest one is Mr. Stoic. He takes pride in not talking a lot and getting him to laugh is a challenge. Yesterday we got them both laughing so hard we were all crying and our faces hurt. Teddy Bear and Killdozer drove in late and I think Killdozer is now convinced I am nuts. It has been a long time since the family has sat around my mom's kitchen table and told family stories for hours, took tons of pictures, and laughed till it hurt. He has never actually seen me that way before.We sang Happy Birthday to my dad (8 candles), he opened his gifts, and everyone ate cake and ice cream and jello with spray on Cool Whip. What is up with that? Cool Whip was made to eat right out of the container with as big a spoon as possible for goodness sake. I wish my sister could have been there with her family but she is in Coachella at the Stagecoach Festival with a good friend of hers. I hope she brought her shit kickers.
I love you, Dad~! Happy Birthday~!
5 comments:
Oh what fun!! made me feel like I was there. You are a geek but funny thing is we listened to Leo on the way to my brothers and I want a new phone too! Its the apps that call to me. As far as the lap top goes we dont assume its always with you. ITS ALWAYS WITH YOU! but we love it! Thanks for sharing your happy day and please stay away with gang bangers with tattoos. The picture would not have been worth getting caught. xoxo The Greek
this is a sweet happy birthday post to your dad. and i LOVE that you and your family got together and had such a laughing good time!
as for the tattoo guy with the bar code? my guess is the date is a death date not a b-day. you should have just asked him to take a pic. i doubt he would have minded. that's what i would have done.
;)
I loved that video. I mean, could that have been more fun? I don't think so!
Glad you had a wonderful day with your dad! It's good to enjoy them while they're here. I wish I could still enjoy mine, that's for sure. And what you guys did - BBQ and watching the Lakers sounds PERFECT! I'm glad it was so great. :-)
Glad you're still posting here. I would miss it.
Karen, I am so glad you guys do not mind the computer/growth~! And, yes, the apps are what totally make me want it. My brother is on a campaign for me to get one and he shows me all these fun apps. You and I would go nuts playing with an iPhone.
Namaste-That's funny that you say that, I was totally going to ask if I could take a picture of his tattoos but I think my baby brother was having a coronary with us giggling and laughing. The only reason I thought it might be his b'day was he looked about the right age, about 24. Scary to think it might be something else. Wait till you hear the story my mother told us. It is the one that made me and my nephews practically wet ourselves.
Jeanne- I love this video, I keep watching it over and over. It is hard watching my dad get older and more fragile. He is on oxygen now but the damn doctors still have not done an overnight pulse oximetry on him. I am pretty sure he desaturates and needs nocturnal oxygen. (He snores like mad, holds his breath, blah, blah...you know the drill~!)He takes it easy though and looks good.
He made me and my sister-in-law cry. I took a video of him in front of his beautiful red amaryllis (spelling?)and had him say a few words. He said he was 80 years old and happy we were all there and that when we look at his red flowers when he is gone, we will think of him, especially because they bloom around his birthday. Yes, we were both sniffling after that. It is a busy month and now I am real glad I will be spending a lot of time in the valley.
For better or worse, I am Happy Hour...Somewhere and I kinda like it and not going anywhere~! Are you still playing with Twitter?
I don't do Twitter. I checked it out a couple of times and decided that enough of my time is taken up by the internet. Maybe I'm growing up!
I love the poetry of remembering your dad by the blooming amaryllis. It's so special Kat, and you will be comforted by it after he's gone. I have a Laker cap and Tshirt I gave my dad about 6 years ago for his birthday. My mom gave it to me after his funeral. I had always told her I wanted it. He wore the cap all the time and the Tshirt still smells like him. I didn't wash it and he'd worn it just once like the week before his death. He used to call me during Laker games to ask if I was watching it and we'd talk a bit. I'll also always remember our last time together. It was so special. So I'm glad you have such a special thing to remember him by. And he should take the overnight pulse oximetry. I kow my dad had bad sleep apnea and he'd never let them test him. He'd have been on 0h2 a lot sooner, that I know. Grrrr...stupid doctors.
Say "like, hi" to the valley for me!
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