I Remember...

My Dad left in 2004, I don’t remember the day he left, just he was gone and everything was different. I remember sitting in my room waiting for him to open the door and come home.  I remember the days turning into nights and nights bringing the pain, I remember tears streaming down my face hoping my dad would pick up the phone. I remember the weeks turning into weekends, the three of us, plus our 150lb coon hound, piling into our 1999 suburban at 5 am to see him. I remember the endless boat rides and car rides. I remember the phone calls to the attorney’s, them trying explaining the situation. I remember never staying in one place. I remember each house we ever lived in. I remember the evictions, the constant moving, the bills not being payed because my dad couldn’t put down a bottle. I remember nights with my grandma, falling asleep on her lap watching Showtime. I remember having to sleep in a VW van behind our house because it was either that or the floor. I remember the 13th birthday I spent sitting in the car, not allowed to come out all day, a pancake thrown in the window at one point. I remember the screaming, the contact of his hand to my face when I couldn’t do what he asked, the fear I felt constantly as I hid from him. I remember the relief I felt being back in my mother’s beat up suburban, hugging the seats the whole way home. I remember the lights going out and the water turning off and our surprise sleepovers at Mrs. Jeanne’s house. I remembered it all. I remembered when it changed. 

*FULL DISCLOSURE*

HAS BEEN EXAGGERATED SIGNIFIGATLEY

I guess you could say I'm a "Lifer"

So tell me about you?

In every application/ Interview/ Website sign up/whatever or what have you, they always ask an "About you" type question
 Well I don't really know about me. And in 144 characters or less I really couldn't tell you. If I took a gander, I would say I am a musician, a "student" if that counts, a daughter....but really I'm a "lifer."Somebody who lets life take them where its meant to go.
My dad use to say if he could define his life in one phrase it would be "Pura Vida." A Costa Rican phrase that means Pure Life. For the past ten years my dad has said a big F*** you to the corporate world and has done well,what ever the hell he has wants to do. In the past ten years, my dad has ran the Boston marathon and the dominated in the Marine Corps Marathon, built hundreds of houses for Habitat for Humanity, Went back to college, Learned a whole new trade, Explored and surfed Costa Rica and Renovated two "green" houses. 

My dad has friends all over the world. Every city we go to all around the world my dad has had a story of your mothers cousins aunts friends new business idea  or mets an incredibly hipster chick on the sidewalk who is really into poetry … Even though my dad and I have chosen to go our separate ways. My dad is an extraordinary human being.  Fifty percent of the time my dad is the cool dad. He is the smartest man I have ever met in my entire life which also makes him the most annoying man because hes always right and you cant argue cause he just knows everything.Like any little girl, growing up, my dad was "God".I had the "cool dad." He wasn't around, so I could make him out to be any way I wanted.  Because no little girl wants to hate their daddy.

 In a lot of ways my dad has gifted me with a very special childhood.From his backyard tie dye parties to his unnecessarily big blue pick up truck, my dad did a pretty good job when he could. Like come on I had hippy parents. I still do. Look at my mom she a freaking fruit loop. (JK mom, you're super cute <3)

He taught me a very good life lesson in my unconventional childhood. 
He showed me that no matter what life threw at you; no matter how bad it got; it would be okay. He taught me to trust my decisions. He taught me to take the unconventional route. Though our relationship isn't what it used to be or even how I wished it would be. In a way I admire his choice; even though in a thousand words or less I could tell you otherwise, He showed me the right way of life.

 I love that part of my dad, just by being him he could change someone's outlook on life; The special part of him whose pure motto in life is to solely live it happily. 
So I guess in 144 characters or less I couldn't really define myself as well as my dad could.But I'm working on it. I'm getting there, it took me a while to start to listen but now I am.I guess you could say, I'm on my way to becoming a "Lifer"