here's one for the man i love

YOU GUYS: This man is my father.
Here be a very rare photo of us together.

(Happy birthday dad! after cut)

I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I got the better side of my temper from my father. If I ever come across as patient ("mahaba ang pisi") -- that's him. If I ever come across as someone who tries to see the good in people -- that's also him. He's my model in crisis resolution -- he never loses his cool, he takes a moment to be quiet, to step back and to fix things. And he fixes things all the time.

My dad has always treated me like an adult -- like that time they discovered my smoking habit when I was nineteen, or that I was gay. My father just always said I was old enough to know what I was doing and that's that. It's like he just knew -- years later I'd pull myself together, graduate from college, get a job, and quit smoking for a girl who won't make me cry anymore.

(LOL I remember that semestral break I spent at home, the one where I broke up with my first girlfriend that first time over YM and we were all sleeping in the same room and I was trying to very quietly cry in my bed and my father got up and told me to drink Decolgen for my colds. My colds haha. Good one, dad.)

Anyway. Have I mentioned my father was a pilot? I'll never forget that time we all rode the plane that he was driving. I was very young and we went to Cebu. It never happened again but I'll take that memory with me to the grave. In conclusion: My father was a damn good pilot yeah.

Just a couple of weeks ago, he called me very early in the morning just to say that Angelo Reyes got shot at Loyola Memorial. When the bus explosion on Buendia happened, he also called to ask for updates. Whenever there was news about a coup d'etat or about anything really, he'd call me and we'd talk about news. That's what we're into these days, heh. It's the typical father-daughter thing.

Apart from the news, we also like talking about my siblings and how they're faring, how they're so serious with their lives (LOL). Occasionally we talk about family finances but it's very, very rare and I hold myself truly lucky that my parents treat me like I'm a self-sustaining entity that is best left alone economically, having lived out of the house for roughly a decade now. (This just occurred to me as I looked at the year 2011 in my calendar)

People ask things like, Are you close? And I'd perhaps answer, Not in the way you think. The way I grew up -- he was a pilot and always out of the house, and then I was in college and out of the house, and then life generally happened in between -- it's easy to say maybe we weren't. It's not a touchy-feely household, we don't do hugs, etc., but if you were to really ask, I'd say yes, we're close, and you know how?

Say I'm in a bind and I have to ask myself, What would my father do? I know exactly what I'd answer. We're that close. But sure, there are gaps in some stories that I think have to be filled -- and trust me when I say I still have a lot of questions -- but you know, all in due time.

For the meantime this: I love this man. I really, really do. :)