Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads (but especially to mine!)!

I haven't been home for Father's Day in a while, and it's always a bummer, especially because my dad's birthday is always close to Father's Day, if not on it directly. When I was little, we used to go on hikes to celebrate (and Rachel and I would often go ahead to narrate collaborative stories, with each of us saying a word and building on the story word by word, almost always featuring a protagonist flea named Fluffy), or sometimes we would go for bike rides. I went for a bike ride today with some other gringas who were far away from their dads, and we reminisced about traditions with our dads.

I remembered my dad trying to figure out whether my sister and I had genetically inherited his perfect pitch by playing a note on the piano and then asking us (with our eyes closed while he played the note) to see if we could replicate the note (we usually couldn't, and it was concluded that the perfect pitch trait had sadly not been passed on). I also remembered being so excited to tag along while my dad visited patients in the hospital, and being thrilled that we got to eat egg salad sandwiches at the hospital cafeteria. And then, while on the train of thought about hospitals, I remembered when my dad noticed that I had an extra lump near my clavicle while he was tickling me at one point as a kid, and I was rushed off to the hospital only to discover via x-ray that I have an extra rib. Finally, I remember when Rachel and I were left to stay alone for the first time in our apartment, and Rach and I played tag and she prompty ran into a door frame and cut her lip open and bled all over the place. Dad took Rach to visit a plastic surgeon to make sure that it would have the least scarring possible, while I took pleasure in calling Rachel's stiches her "whisker". Sorry about that Rach, but I'm glad that Dad took you to the best of the best of surgeons, because now you can never tell that you used to have a whisker.

I'm sad to be far away from my dad now, but excited that I'll be coming home in August and we'll be able to eat blackberries (YESSSSS), ride bikes, and visit our mini beach!

Happy Father's Day, dads!