Day 274: Happy Birthday Daddy... Please Come Home...

November 2nd... Day 274... this day, today, is my dad's birthday...

Unfortunately, we were unable to celebrate his birthday because he is not home from work yet. I haven't seen him, at all, today, but I plan to stay up until he gets home.

When I was younger, about 20 years ago, the two main things I remember my dad holding, in his hands, was either a guitar or a camcorder.

When we'd come home, he'd be sitting at the end of our brown couches, which we kept until about a few years ago, and he'd have his guitar in his arms playing to himself. The first few years it was an electric guitar but he switched to an acoustic guitar in the last couple of years. After he was done playing, he'd leave the guitar on the couch until the next day, when he got home from work. Sometimes, when we tried watching movies or just sitting around, the sound would drive me nuts. Nowadays, his electric guitar stands up in the corner of his bedroom. When I hear the slight sound of a guitar, it's him I think about...

During the same years, we would go out on family outings to Sea World or Disneyland. Those were the years the camcorder was a bit smaller than the cameras they used for movie production. We'd all be enjoying our surroundings and activities while he'd walk around with his huge gadget and record... except... he'd always record everything else but us. Afterwards, we'd sit down together to watch those home videos, but we'd have to pay close attention just to catch a glimpse of the one of us running by, in front of the camera. My mom would say, "We're not even in this! Where are we? You're so weird... what makes you think it's interesting to watch other people in our videos? Why didn't you record the kids?" He'd just nod and say, very calmly, "I did a good job... look how steady I'm holding the camera..." The one time he did record me, he caught me picking my nose on a ride...

Happy Birthday Daddy... I would like to wish many more years of the sound of the guitar in our home and many more videos of strangers at theme parks. I would not change one second of the sound of the guitar and one second of your steady recording for silence and a room full of recordings of me. If you, in any case, read my blog, ever... please come home... I'd like to say Happy Birthday before I go to bed tonight...

Tip of the Day: Watch old home videos sometimes to remember those little, special quirks, moments, and personality traits of the family.