Today is father's day. My family and I celebrated it with my father by having an intimate lunch party. Which turned out to be my treat, or rather mine and hubby's treat. I didn't expect to be spending big for it. You know how small parties become. Especially with today's text messaging frenzy.
So now, the Scrooge in me is feeling the pain in my pocket. And before you think of me as an ungrateful daughter, I have to say, I do not mind spending something for my dad. It's just that a few days before, we had to make big budget cuts in our household because our water bill shot up to eleven freaking thousand. Yes, that's 11,000. And that's a whole story altogether.
Anyway, so....my dad days ago, shocked as he was about learning of our waterbill, said that we didn't have to spend for his birthday, which is also father's day incidentally. But of course, it's typically Pinoy of us, we still celebrated despite little resources. My mother offered to pitch in, thankfully. We had my brother and his pregnant wife over. A few cousins and friends. Intimate lunch and so forth.
All the while I....I was already doing mental accounting of how we're gonna survive the week scrimping. But hey, we've done this lots of times before, so it's not supposed to be a big deal, really. That's just me being me, the worrywart that I am.
But you know what, that wasn't the highpoint (or lowpoint) of my day. Read on...
They say: behind every dark cloud is a silver lining. Well, my dad did the silliest but very endearing thing today that proved that. And I think I will not forget this gesture for a very long time.....
Because I'm still having the toughest luck (I hate 2007! Hate it! Hate it!), trouble and problems seems to be springing from one to the other. Today of all days, and for the third time this year, our exhaust fan for our computer station exploded while we were having lunch. At first I thought it was the computer itself because the explosion was loud. Some of us even jolted from our seats. But none were more so shocked than I was ---- my face may have been a give-away. I think my epression spelled out: "Oh no, gastos na naman!" But as my husband assessed, it will only cost us P600.00 to replace it. P600.00 is minimal by today's living standards. But for this week, when at least one month's worth of a person's salary has dented our budget with our water bill and this party, even spending 100.00 would be greatly felt.
Well, my dad, perhaps sensing I was doing mental accounting again, suddenly took out his wallet and then gave me P600.00 right then and there. And then he said --- "Nak, sa exhaust fan lang kita matutulungan, ha? Hindi ko kaya yung sa tubig eh. Hehe." For the record, he did say "hehe". Parang nahiya pa sa inabot! But boy, that made me laugh. My father, I realize, still wants to take care of me after all these years. He still provides. And that made me feel I was his little girl again. And that was all it took for me to say --- to hell with bills and spending. They happen. Shit happens. But priceless moments like this, it's a goldmine. I feel richer already.
Oh, about the water bill. No, we don't have a pool at home. We also do not have a water theme park. We don't have an elephant to give baths to. We had a leak that we detected a little too late. So our usual bill of 700.00 shot up to 11,000. Sad no? The leak has been fixed, sort of. I had made arrangements with our homeowner's association (running a household is tough, man!)...and for now, it's all good.
Anyway, this one is for the daddies out there. Many of you go unappreciated because, let's face it, mother's get more recognition than fathers. But be that as it may, you still deserve one day a year to celebrate fatherhood. Fathers are good guys too, as this movie will show. This is The Martian Child, starring John Cusack, a guy who I originally wanted to be my kid's daddy, ever since I was 15. *mwah* Hahaha!
Trailer pa lang, I was already crying. Movie opens in October.
[John Cusack], [Martian Child], [Father's Day],
