Monday, January 07, 2008
Adventures in Gung-Gung Land:

Dad left yesterday.

This trip was his best one ever. He wasn't gripped by mania, and he wasn't totally depressed. He was on an even keel: warm, silly, talkative. He was generous with his time and money, and excellent with the kids.

He kept telling them all these crazy things, that he was from "Gung-Gung Land" or Rhodesia. He told them all the funny things they did in those places, like eat berries all day or live in trees like the monkeys.

He gave the kids stickers and let them put stickers on his face. When it was time to go out, I'd gently remind him about the stickers. "I don't care," he'd shrug, and off we would go. Gung-Gung in his pink, jeweled beret with stickers on his face.

He took himself off all his meds, and is eating a very healthful diet ("The way the 7th Day Adventists eat," he informed me). He's exercising a lot. At every free moment, he was working with his resistance bands, or marching in place, or doing yoga. Now I'll bet you might be thinking, "I dunno - sounds pretty manic to me." And maybe for a normal person, his behavior would be. But knowing how batty Dad can really get, he was downright tame.

On the last day of his trip, he was heading off on a cruise to the Bahamas. He wore a sailor hat, and one of his navy-issued button downs. Underneath was a shirt that read, "I'm smiling because I have no idea what's going on."

!!!

We'll miss him.



Love, Maven @ 7:52 AM

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