Three years ago, I was getting ready to teach a social media class at my first “real job” post-graduate school at Virginia Commonwealth University when my sister called.
It was 3:30 PM.
I immediately sensed something was wrong.
Unfortunately I was right.
My wonderful, funny, patient, and kind father had passed away after a hard fight
against esophageal cancer.
And now here we are, three years later, and I’m thinking: damn, time flies by so fast.
Have you ever had one of those weeks where you just felt…I dunno, off?
Yeah, well I was having one of those weeks, and I finally realized it’s because we were approaching today.
The day I would never get see my dad laugh, or sing karaoke, or play poker for hours on Facebook ever again.
So what do I do? Well as per usual whenever I feel sad, I sing.
In addition, I suppose due mostly in part by my recent Hamilton/Lin Manuel-Miranda inspiration, I wrote a spoken word piece about my dad’s passing as well:
Lastly, as a final homage to my dad, my hubs and I made corned beef with potatoes, onion, and white rice, a common Bob Briones food staple and my personal version of comfort food:
I am very proud to say that despite my fumbling a bit to figure out how to get this simple meal all together, it tasted exactly how I remember it, and Derek even thought it was yummy.
So there you go. I taught, I graded, I did a bit of research…and then I pulled together a song, a poem, and some food. I think dad would have been pleased.