Last Saturday, me an' me da went to watch Alegria, the newest Circe du Soleil performance to hit town. The previous one being Saltimbanco(I prefer that one though) but Alegria's pretty darned good also. Hangin' out with the 'old folks' is cool sometimes but, I dunno about you guys, they have the potential to get on your nerves too no matter how much you appreciate their company. Maybe it's the food he ate, or maybe it's just in the air but my dad was in such a good mood that day and I totally didn't get it! It was a freakin' hot Saturday afternoon and I was sweating like a pig in my casuals. Parking wasn't a breeze either, the underground car park of parco was full and we had to line up for like eons and switch off the aircon for a while cuz the car was heating up too much. It was my suzy oven baker nightmare with me being the muffin and baked alive!!! My da was melting like a snowcone in June but why in Sam's Hill was he making that proclaimation with such teenaged perkiness? It strung a nerve with me...y'know..it was like the time when you feel absolutely lousy to be in a sorry situation and there's this damned annoying cheerleader sitting next to you singing songs about being happy. Ugh!

After lining up to get into the parking space and hunting around for a space once we were in, going round and round the joint like some morbid Disney kiddie ride, we found one, got out of the car and started our journey to the big top(the affectinate name given to the circus settlement). By the time, I was half exhausted and was far from being cheerful. My da couldn't keep his mouth still...he kept being enthusiastic about everything, about the eateries we walked pass, about the traffic, about the people and I just walked beside him silently, not having the strength to humour him. I felt too old for that shit. And he actually had a sort of subtle skip to his steps. And I was like, what de hell??

Finally, we reached the big top and I happily devoured my seat, the air conditioning cooled me and the clowns that interacted with the crowd sorta cracked me up a little. During the intermission, my da made his way to the commode and I stubbornly refused to leave my seat, greedily consuming it's comfort. When he returned, he had two bottles of orange juice and he handed me one. I was grateful and happily sipped on it, I asked him,"How much did the orange juice cost?"
"4 dollars," replied my dad.
"4 bucks????" was my incredulous reply.
"Yeap, 4 dollars."
"Wait a second, for a bottle or in total?"
"For one bottle, 8 dollars in all. You wanna know how much a can of pepsi costs? 5 bucks!"
At the moment I shrieked in outrage and simmered down to a nonchalantly annoyed comment,"Things are expensive here under the big top." I felt so sorry for all the boyfriends present whose girlfriends were happily sipping on their pepsi.

At the end of the show my da and I looked around the memoribilia section and I fancied a tee shirt. 30 bucks, ladies and gents. Even a Mago tee cost less. But my da didn't bat an eyelid as he paid the cashier. With the sweat gone, orange juice to quench my thirst and having been entertained, I started feeling a little better. The things that have to be done to appease the spoilt princess. =P On the way back to car, I started to develop a-skip-in-the-walk of my own. I linked an arm around my dad's and he instinctly put his hand in his pocket making the position more comfy and that meant a lot to me. He didn't shun that affectionate gesture like he usually does being quite the distant dad who has difficulties most of the time to express his emotions. We get along well, don't get me wrong but there's always a certain conversational level that we can always meet on and he never usually does things like pat me on the head or even hug me. So that made me glad.

I thanked him for a lot that day. Thanks da, for:
1) taking me to Alegria
2) for the tee-shirt
3) for the hellish parking
4) for the orange and that goes for 4 dollars a pop. (after which I broke into another tirade much to his amusement.)
All this I could say without a problem.

Thanks da, for:
1) showing me that being happy and feeling good is a choice even if you're put in completely lousy and humid circumstances(with bad parking!).
2) being patient with my petulance
3) being the hero when i need you the most to be one.(the orange juice really rescued me from the verge of parched ruin!!)
All this I haven't found the courage as yet to tell him though I'm working on it. But till then, I hope that thru the simple gesture of the linking of arms, I managed to convey this...and much more.