Sugar-Free Popsicles

My dad was born on December 17th. From what I know (my mom told me all this) he was really smart, but just didn't like the idea of societal norms chaining him to a certain system, or a certain job. So he finished high school and didn't go to college. He seemed to live life at the moment. He hang around with his terrible friends, they were nice, just not a good influence. They would smoke and make irrational decisions to drive to Arizona and ride on quads. Like I said bad influence.

He could never hold down a relationship. He just wasn't a relationship guy. But he always seemed to be in one. Like I can list at least 16 names that my dad has been with since he and my mother divorced but I won't.

My dad and mom married (my mom told me it was an irrational decision on her half). My mom wanted kids and she wanted them now, so she went to a party. Had my dad hold her shoes and she went to go dance with someone else. Then she came back to him and said let's get married. And so they did. Very romantic I know.

They got married and went on a honeymoon in jamaica. Because my dad thought everyone looked like bob Marley (side note, he is obsessed with Bob Marley, he even has a tattoo of him). My mom said he was disappointed. My dad has two tattoos, one is like something scribbled out, and my sister thinks it is my mom's name. Then the other one is bob, Marley.

He had been trying to get a tattoo of my sister and me, but we said that was really creepy and asked him that he please not do that. So he didn't.

When we were in kindergarten, my dad was always the cool dad. He would pick us up and drop us off and he would lift all the kids on his arms. Everyone loved our dad. I did too.

I could tell he was never meant for the father figure role. He was still smoking and riding on quads and motorcycles. That's how he busted his knee open and now there is a metal rod there. My mom banned him from riding a motorcycle, and I haven't seen him ride one since.

No idea how it happened, but I know why it happened. My dad didn't like the fact my mom was making him quit the things he loved so he could be an actual father.

So after seven years of marriage (my sister and i were also seven). They got divorced. I was really confused and also going to the bathroom at the time of the divorce. My dad said he was going to get a sandwich and then he left and never came back. He did, but only for the weekend.

Well, he had lost custody of my sister and me (we are twins, so after us, they were done having kids) because he did not have a stable house nor did he have a stable job.

We went to private school, and we modeled, so our kraft macaroni and cheese commercial was paying the expensive tuition for at least 5 years.

At first, the rule was Sunday from 12-1 pm, and it was a supervised visit. Then as the years went by it changed to the weekend. And it stayed like that for a while. But then he forgot about us at the mall. It was 9 pm and neither of our parents wanted to pick us up from a friend's party, and apparently, that was our fault? But anyway we stopped seeing him and then covid 19 hit. I would text him and make sure he was doing well and whatnot.

As the month went on, my mom told me that my dad had gotten really sick and had lost a lot of weight.

He had diabetes, I remember him telling my sister and me that with his girlfriend by his side. I love that girlfriend a lot, she took care of my dad. Because he wouldn't take care of himself. He couldn't get vaccinated because that would kill him. So he had to be careful.

We saw him recently and it looks like he gaining the pounds back which is good. My dad was once a cool bad boy. He smoked a lot, couldn't keep a girlfriend, and hated scotia norms. Was now sitting on a blow-up mattress in our living room eating sugar-free popsicles while watching someone hunt alligators.

Well, that’s the story of my dad. He sometimes drops off Jamba juice when he is on the way to san Diego, which is very thoughtful of him, he just always makes sure our mom isn't home. She says she doesn't care, but he thinks so. (Side note, there are good sugar-free popsicles out there, but he loves the really nasty ones and I watched him eat 30 in the span of 10 minutes).