February 25, 2006

Junior Mints

I love these things. I was going to do something like this for the "comfort challenge" at dpc, but decided not to because 1) there will probably be 50 eleven shots of chocolate (understandably so), 2) I had to clone a bunch of stuff out cuz I was lazy in my set up, and 3) I have a painting with light shot that is way too cool! (I think. I might actually score a 5)

Back to the subject. I think many people like or dislike stuff based on their childhood/young adult experiences. I know I do. One of the reasons I like Jr. Mints so well is probably because my daddy would buy a big ole' box of them when he would take us to the movies. I always enjoyed that time. Our movie theater was an old fashioned type theater that had one screen, and one movie would show at 7, one at 11 and a matinee. Nothing like the mega-plexes now that go 24-7 with a gazillion movies. Life was simpler then.

My daddy was an interesting man. He was always very quiet, preferring to listen rather than talk. When he did say something, it was wise to be quiet and listen, because it was probably important. Oddly, both my sister and I married guys with that same trait and my little sister is dating a guy like that. Maybe it is just so we can talk more. :) He was also an avid outdoorsman and absolutely hated winter time because it kept him in. At one point, he had broken his leg (long story), and the dr. had ordered him to stay off of it. Mom missed him one day and found him outside in a chair working on the water lines of the house. Growing up, if a big snowstorm was predicted, he would load us up and head to Florida. No lie. I remember, more than once, checking out of school on Friday, going to Disney World on Saturday, Sea World on Sunday, and back at school on Monday.

On June 1, 1999 my dad suffered a massive heart attack. Attempts to revive him were successful, but he had been "out" for almost 20 minutes. As a result, his brain swelled and caused irreversable damage. He was in a chronic-vegatative/semi-comatose state for 2 1/2 years after that. My mom kept him at home and took care of him 24/7 despite the fact that she had never had any medical training. To those of us that knew Daddy, we could tell when he was "alert" and when he wasn't. We could tell when he was aggravated and when he was trying to communicate with us. It wasn't easy, and I know that many would say it was unfair of us to "keep him alive" (he had a feeding tube, very similar to the Terry Schiavo case last year), but I know that for our family, those 2 1/2 years brought us (including Daddy) closer together than we would have ever been without that trial.

Daddy passed away, quietly in his sleep, early on the morning of January 3, 2002. Interestingly enough, it was the first snow of the winter. That was about like him. :) Eight days later, I would give birth to my first born son. THAT, my friends, was an emotional week, but speaks of the cycle of life.