It was a cryptic little text message that took me a minute or two to figure out.<\/p>\n
It read: \u201cHi, it\u2019s Lauren. Do you remember what day it is today?\u201d<\/p>\n
It was from my sister in Tampa, that high schoolin\u2019 theater nut with a penchant for dying her hair pink and thinking her brothers are running on two expired brain cells, share between us.<\/p>\n
She had impeccable grammar for a text message, and I was impressed. But did I know what day it was? What kind of question was that?<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course I do,\u201d I almost texted back, \u201cit\u2019s Saturday.\u201d But as she\u2019s the smart one in the bunch, it occurred to me there had to be something more. What she really meant, in high-school-kid-code, was: \u201cHey, doofus. Today is a very important day and you better shake that bag of rocks on your shoulder so you remember \u2026 quick!\u201d
\n
\nBut what was it? What could it be? Think, think, think \u2026 August. Aug. 22. What happened on \u2026 BINGO! What day do I forget every August \u2014 and I mean EVERY August?<\/p>\n
Dad\u2019s birthday!<\/p>\n
And I forgot it again. Worse still, I had to be reminded by a high school kid. Someone who is supposed to be so vain, self-absorbed and clueless that she can\u2019t be bothered with the simplest and most mundane things in life, like breathing. Yet she remembered \u2026 and even had to remind her older brother. Shoot, she even knew I would forget. Why else would she text me?<\/p>\n
I felt bad. Low. Even worse, I was out at dinner celebrating a friend\u2019s birthday. I snuck outside \u2014 pitiful and pathetic \u2014 to make a call to Tampa.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, uh, dad,\u201d I said when he answered. \u201cToday\u2019s kind of an important day, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, then I think you better thank your daughter because if not for her, I would have totally forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n
He had a good laugh about it.<\/p>\n
But why can\u2019t I remember his birthday? I don\u2019t have a problem with other family members. My wife\u2019s is easy to remember, if only because I don\u2019t want to die a young man. My daughter\u2019s birthday is the day after Christmas, and my mom\u2019s and sister\u2019s are close enough to Christmas that you kind of associate them with the holidays. My brother is a week from mine, and my aunt\u2019s I never forget because my mother always reminds me.<\/p>\n
But my dad\u2019s is impossible \u2014 like a brain teaser. It\u2019s stealthy and sneaks up on you in the heat. August is a no-man\u2019s land \u2014 a virtual desert with no markers or birthday signs to help steer the way. Nothing hints at its coming or gives me a mental tweak.<\/p>\n
And I know that\u2019s no excuse, or at least it\u2019s a bad one. But it escapes me every time.<\/p>\n
I think my dad, trying to help my brother and I along, drops hints. But we\u2019re too dense to catch-on. He says simple, subtle things like, \u201cSo, I\u2019ll be turning a year older soon \u2026 in three days\u201d or \u201cBoy, I sure hope my two dumb-ass sons don\u2019t forget my birthday again this year.\u201d Nothing obvious.<\/p>\n
But we don\u2019t get the message, and inevitably it slips by before we even catch wind of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, dad,\u201d I\u2019ll call to ask. \u201cUm, wasn\u2019t it your birthday recently, because I think we missed it?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOh yeah, you definitely missed it,\u201d he says. \u201cBut it was just four months ago. No big deal.\u201d<\/p>\n
I feel like dirt. Worse than dirt \u2014 dirt poop!<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s always a good sport about it, too good probably.<\/p>\n
So, happy birthday, pop. Almost missed it this year, but thanks to your responsible daughter, you at least got a call. I\u2019ll try to remember next year, or maybe I\u2019ll just pay Lauren to send me another text message reminder.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It was a cryptic little text message that took me a minute or two to figure out. It read: \u201cHi, it\u2019s Lauren. Do you remember what day it is today?\u201d It was from my sister in Tampa, that high schoolin\u2019 theater nut with a penchant for dying her hair pink and thinking her brothers are running on two expired brain cells, share between us. She had impeccable grammar for a text message, and I was impressed. But did I know what day it was? What kind of question was that? \u201cOf course I do,\u201d I almost texted back, \u201cit\u2019s Saturday.\u201d But as she\u2019s the smart one in the bunch, it occurred to me there had to be something more. What she really meant, in high-school-kid-code, was: \u201cHey, doofus. Today is a very important day and you better shake that bag of rocks on your shoulder so you remember \u2026 quick!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,561],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2009-nutshells","category-family"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":377,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions\/377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nutshellcity.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}