When I was 14, a freshman in high school, my family moved into a new house. My parents, being the wacky kids they were, didn't bring the stove with them and we had to start anew with what was left behind by the previous owners. (ewww gross whatiftheywerecanibalsohmygod!) My dad works for a huge company. He travels pretty frequently, sometimes works long hours, and loves his job almost as much as he loves his family. He has a wicked sense of smell. (luckily for me I wasn't so much a drinker in high school - he would have smelled that vodka permeating my pores in a hot minute) My dad is also a huge dork who is pretty into online gaming to unwind. My mom, bless her little heart, raised my brother and I as a stay-at-home mom.
She made dinner just about every night.
When we moved into this new place, either my mom made something messy that spilled to the bottom of the oven or one of the previous owners did. Either way, my dad and his silly nose could smell it the moment she fired it up for dinner most nights. 3 or 4 times a week, at least, my dad would yell down to my mom "Is something burning?" "It smells like something's burning." or "Hey hun, did you burn something?". You'd think after a year or two of this, he'd realize that Mom wasn't much for oven-cleaning. (the rest of the house was pretty spic 'n span) Every day, my mom had the same response. "It's just something on the burner!" I guess technically, it wasn't on the burner. It was the bottom of the oven. But it's easier to say than "I burned something, but it was a while ago, and nothing is burning now don't worry about it!" The show would go on so often it became pretty hilarious to the rest of the family. We'd start pre-emptivly yelling "Just something on the burner!" before he could ask. Or we'd wait to see how long it would take for Dad to panic about the burning smell.
This went on for a least the little over 4 years that I was living in the house. Multiple times a week, without fail. Sometimes when I visit - I get to hear it again.
I love my dad to a million little tiny pieces, but he's not much of a talker and like I said, he plays a lot of video games and works a lot. It was fun to have this interaction with him. No matter how busy he was, or how exhausted, or how many episodes of Babylon 5 he had dvr'd, I got this little moment with Dad.
She made dinner just about every night.
When we moved into this new place, either my mom made something messy that spilled to the bottom of the oven or one of the previous owners did. Either way, my dad and his silly nose could smell it the moment she fired it up for dinner most nights. 3 or 4 times a week, at least, my dad would yell down to my mom "Is something burning?" "It smells like something's burning." or "Hey hun, did you burn something?". You'd think after a year or two of this, he'd realize that Mom wasn't much for oven-cleaning. (the rest of the house was pretty spic 'n span) Every day, my mom had the same response. "It's just something on the burner!" I guess technically, it wasn't on the burner. It was the bottom of the oven. But it's easier to say than "I burned something, but it was a while ago, and nothing is burning now don't worry about it!" The show would go on so often it became pretty hilarious to the rest of the family. We'd start pre-emptivly yelling "Just something on the burner!" before he could ask. Or we'd wait to see how long it would take for Dad to panic about the burning smell.
This went on for a least the little over 4 years that I was living in the house. Multiple times a week, without fail. Sometimes when I visit - I get to hear it again.
I love my dad to a million little tiny pieces, but he's not much of a talker and like I said, he plays a lot of video games and works a lot. It was fun to have this interaction with him. No matter how busy he was, or how exhausted, or how many episodes of Babylon 5 he had dvr'd, I got this little moment with Dad.
It was a metaphor for his life...always something on the burner. Work, painting the house, mowing the lawn, trimming the trees, planning finances to send me to two over-priced colleges. (My brother, that bastard of a genius, got a full ride) And my mom...had something on the burner 5 nights a week for us two kids and Dad. Making the family work. Here I am, trying to make this little blog work...always something on the burner.
2 comments:
that was actually sort of touching, casey. who knew you have a heart after all?!!1!
blogging is the new texting. when are julie and yusef gonna join???
yusef has a blog(spot)! it was for his calendar project, which he never updated after april 2007. bummer.
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