Wednesday, December 26, 2007

I had two interesting moments during my Christmas of 2007 yesterday. One was kind of sad, the other one was pretty funny, to me at least. I'll start with the sad one.

After I left my father's house last night, I unexpectedly decided to take a drive by my old apartment building. I wrestled with the decision a little bit, and then I decided to do it. I pulled up to the parking space behind the building, and I walked through the gate, and looked at the back of the apartment. The back windows were brand new, there was no evidence of any smoke damage, and it looked pretty damn good. Then I walked around to the front of the building, and I noticed that all of those windows had also been replaced, the doors has been painted, and out front I even recognized one of the young girls I used to see around there. She was running her mouth on the phone, completely oblivious to my presence. And then I went back and sat in the car, to drive toward my current home, and I quietly closed that chapter of my life. That's not to say that I won't be vividly thinking about the fire and its effects from time to time, but everyday that goes by I get a bit more closure(and as corny as that may sound its really true). I woke up at 5:54 this morning(its 6:15 now) and forwarded all 15 pictures of my burned apartment to my brother. For legal purposes I am not going to delete them, but I didn't want access to them anymore, because its just not healthy..not to me at least. Ok, on to the good stuff.

About 20 minutes after I arrived at my dad's house yesterday, I expressed my hunger to him, and he said he'd whip us up a salmon salad. I sat down in the living room watching basketball, reading the paper, and talking to him while he cooked. He meticulously cut up the cucumbers, tomatoes, onions, lettuce, etc, and I felt bad and asked if he wanted my help, but he politely told me to sit my ass down(of course he didn't curse, but that's how I took it). He then went downstairs in the basement, where the big screen tv is, and said we would be eating down there, and then he came back up and told me I could make my plate. First I put the salad on my plate, and then as I headed towards the salmon, my father said to me, there are two pieces there, just take the one you want. Now when he said that, I fully expected there to be two EQUALLY sized pieces of salmon in that dish, but of course that would be way too easy. One of the pieces of salmon was clearly bigger than the other, and instantly I knew I had been set up like Marion Barry. I looked back at my father, he wasn't even paying attention to me, he was just preparing his salad. So I looked back at the unevenly yoked pieces of salmon, and I had two choices: I could take the bigger piece of salmon, and basically disrespect this man in his own house, even though it would feel good to take a stand. OR I could play my position as the guest and the son, and take the smaller piece, and possibly eat it slow to make it feel like the bigger piece, thereby keeping the peace in the house.

I took the smaller piece. And on top of that, I finished my salad first, and I looked over at him, and he was still enjoying that big piece.

Sucka Nigga - A Tribe Called Quest
I think this is the first time I typed the "N" word in the blog. If it offends you, get over it, the song was too good of a fit today to pass up.

2 comments:

BewRadley said...

did u ration the salmon to cover the whole salad tho?

£ said...

You're a good son Rashad. I'd have done the same thing. You should have let him see you taking the smaller piece though, so he could see just how good a son you are.

and, why would anyone get offended by that word? doesn't it mean never ignorant getting goals accomplished???