Life Through the Lens is a photo/drawing challenge thing that Diana and I organized. (mostly Diana – I just make banners) The theme for this first week is “fear.” And unfortunately, which image to use was easy for me. This isn’t one that I took, but I’m in it, so I’m going to call that close enough.

me and my dad, Thanksgiving 2008 (I think)
My dad died in February 2012 of a very aggressive, very nasty form of cancer. By the time he had a diagnosis it was too late. There was nothing to do but make him comfortable and pray like hell that he didn’t linger too long.
In all the times I’ve tried to take my own life I’ve never felt fear. All of the car accidents, all of the near misses, all of the other shitty things that I’ve brought on myself – I never once felt fear. But when my dad got sick, I was petrified.
I miss him, a lot. He was a great dad and I always knew that he loved me and was proud of me. I’m still doing my best to make him proud. (you too, Mom)
Now, let’s not all be all bummed out because it’s time for…
In all reality, I had no idea where the hell else to stick this post this week, so there ya go. The theme for this week was “memories of a childhood vacation.” My first thought when Juls and I discussed this was, “how in the fuck am I supposed to draw shit that I don’t remember?” (I remember very little of being a small person for some reason. I blame the drugs. And the Lithium.)
And then I remembered the vacation my sister and I took with my dad’s parents when I was about 11, maybe. It was very eye opening. We drove from here – middle of the country, literally – out to the east coast to visit my uncle and his family who lived in Maryland, near DC. DROVE there. And my grandfather was a shitty fucking driver even then. Motion sickness galore.
Anyway, my favorite memory from that trip was the day we went to the beach. We all got sunburned as fuck, plenty of sand in our bathing suits and butt cracks, and on the way home we stopped at a roadside vendor and bought several large paper grocery sacks of freshly steamed Maryland Blue Crabs. My aunt covered the patio table with newspaper, we stayed in our bathing suits, and dug in.
Somewhere I posses a photo of the carnage – it was EPIC. Nothing on this earth have I encountered that is as delicious as freshly steamed Maryland Blue Crab eaten right out of the shell with your bare hands while wearing your still wet bathing suit. Nothing.
That is my homage to the Maryland Blue Crab. May he ever be tasty.

And now, because it’s Friday, here’s a random funny…

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