constant narrator

For some number of years I got into the tradition of baking my Dad homemade bread on his birthday instead of a cake. This was my present to him. It was summer and school was out and I would start in the early afternoon, letting the batch rise and kneading it back down, so it would be baking in the oven by the time he got home from work in the evening. He said he loved walking into the house with the smell of bread baking. It always seemed to make him incredibly happy. He would often be whistling.

I always made white bread , from his mom’s recipe out of the “Finger Lickin’ Good Eatin’” Clarksville Church orange-covered cookbook that we all received as Christmas presents from my Grandma E. one year. When it was done we’d let it cool a bit and then I’d push a big taper candle into the crust and light it and we’d sing happy birthday to him.

Happy Birthday Dad, I’ll make bread this weekend. I miss you.

I’ve returned from Santa Barbara where I stood up with Kia and her Michael as they were married. (There were four Michaels being referred to at this event, so every one of them became “so-and-so’s Michael” to avoid confusion.) Despite a few hairy moments between family members, the weekend was really nice. I got to see peeps I had not seen for a long time. I was also put in an excellent mood by the Pacific ocean, by which I spent as much time as I could. It was misty most of the time but I managed to get a full swim in the COLD water with my M. on Sunday morning which improved my post-BBQ-wine-and-Dorito-binge digestive hangover considerably. We also saw dolphins the first and last time we walked on the beach, which I took as a good sign.

The ceremony was sweet and moving (and I got to read a passage from the Velveteen Rabbit about Real Love), DMF did a great job. The reception gorgeous and fun. I got a kick out of seeing Daniel Ash spinning 70s funk tunes for the parents and grandparents. Kia and her Michael looked uber-blissed out and I had to be a cuddlemonkey on my own M. because I just couldn’t Contain The Love! Since Kia was putting on her wedding band during the ceremony, I got to wear her engagement ring for a few hours. I came to understand how nice it might be to have a permanently sparkly thing on one’s hand. I’m not aiming for it, but it’s an interesting thing to grok.

Now I’m back at work and M is driving around the western half of the U.S. I wanted to stay on the west coast with him, but work called, or at least the paycheck did. Personal notes to self: more vacations, more oceans.