Cul-de-Sac Sociale

Important

For some reason, I think I've learned to appareciate my parents quirks a little more from visiting them instead of living with them. I always get a small kick out of my Dad's pidgen-accented short & sweet life advice. Like when I was nearly on the verge of being laid off a couple years ago, I'd go visit them to vent, blow off frustrations, seek comfort, try to rid depression, and do free laundry. By Sunday night the weekend had ended and it was time for me to head back to Seattle. My mom would send me off with a shopping bag or two full of house stuff and goodies ("Oye Len, take this!"). My dad would just send me home with three-worded tidbits of advice: "Ellen, watch your back" or "Ellen, be careful. And watch your back." In J.Talbo speak, watch your back doesn't mean don't trust anyone. It means: don't consume yourself with the politics of everyone else's bullshit. At the end of the day, look out for you. Look out for number one. Survive. Survive for you. Cope.

The thing about my Dad that I'm not even sure my sisters understand is that underneath the pidgen accent and his seemingly over-simple responses to everything, is a wealth of insight that goes beyond just his life experiences. He's a really philosophical dude. It's almost like his mind works pretty similar to St. Thomas Aquinas. But his explanations for things aren't complicated or wordy, he just says shit and it makes sense in a way that requires few words.

So this past weekend, I went home and visited them during the week. Aside from my Mom's usual joy from having "her hijita home," I know she was a little dissapointed that she couldn't send me off with more stuff. On top of the two cinnamon rolls she made and a roll of paper towels, in classic Mom style she sent me home with a can of Spam. She knows I love Spam. Since my Dad pretty much enjoys spending his time backing up/upgrading/restoring computer drives (it's like IT activities are a hobby for him), he recently cleaned my computer registry and noticed all my files, work junk, and media files among identifying other laptop issues. So he installed Windows 7 on my computer, made me a system restore disk ("for when you get really bad viruses Ellen") and sent me home with an external hard drive. But his advice was the best part of the package they sent me off with. The conversation kinda went like this:

My Dad: "Yeah Ellen, I noticed you have a lot of files. Eating up your RAM. I put new RAM and Windows 7. Your computer gonna run fast now."

Ellen: "Really?! Wow! Thanks Dad! You didn't have to do all that. Thank you!"

My Dad: "Here too, take this external hard drive. You need a better storage. For your important files. You're an important person, you do important things."

Thanks Dad.

posted by Westcoaster @ 11:24 AM