2004-06-20 - 11:43 p.m.
Father's Day.... When I was a kid, I used to go to my dads house for a weekend every summer.. He used to sell fireworks at the flea market every weekend, which meant that we'd get up at 5 a.m. and drive into the city to get a good spot. He used to take me to McDonald's for breakfast, something my mom NEVER did! It was heaven..
One year for father's day he packed up the tent, and the bed rolls.. filled the cooler with food and sodas..OMG A CAMPING TRIP!!! I was soo excited to be going camping.. I thought it was going to be the most wonderful weekend ever! So we all load into the car.. My step-mother, my father, my little baby brother all buckled in for an awesome adventure... YAY!! Fun times here I come!!
So we're in the car and I'm watching the scenery.. The woods, the creeks.. the mall, the.. wait!! the mall? WTF? where are we going.. we're heading into the city.. there's no mall on the way to camping.. There should be empty fields.. not the mall.. where the pier should be, there's Burger King..There's no Burger King on the way to camping.. the lake should have been appearing soon but no.. All I was seeing was commercial real estate..Empty office space..dirty parking lots, heat shimmering off the asphalt..
So then we arrive... in my mom's driveway..Why am I here? I should be opening my bedroll.. I should have on my tie-died shorts set but i have on jean shorts and a t-shirt..I should have been wearing my sandals but I'm wearing my sneakers.. I should be ready for the lake but instead I'm ready for a hot day in the city..
I'm still ok when my dad takes me out of the car..but when he takes my bag out of the hatch, I go nuts.. I'm screaming bloody murder in front of god and even worse, the neighbors..
My mom runs out to find out what's wrong and proceeds to have a shouting match with him on the street, in front of the neighbors..I don't remember what they were saying.. I had my face pressed into my mother's leg and was crying hysterically... It was that day I realized the level of animosity between my parents. That was also the day that my mom stood up for herself in front of me. She stood there telling him that if he wasn't taking me camping, he had to tell me why..
He made some lame excuse that my 6-year-old ears couldn't make any sense of. I still don't know why he did it.
So this is a loving tribute to my daddy, on this, my 27th Father's Day .. Happy Sperm Donor's Day daddy.... and thanks for not fucking me up any more than you did.
