Tatay's Little Girl

I have the fondest memories of my tatay when I was little.  I'm a certified daddy's girl! I got my happy-go-lucky attitude from him. He's equally awesome as my nanay and here's why:

- He taught me how to cheat. I know that was a bad thing and at the age of 3, I didn't know that that's considered cheating. I couldn't even remember if I used the cheat sheet he prepared for me but I do remember how he introduced it to me.  I was entering prep-school and had to pass the school's entrance exam first then one day my tatay called me in their room and sat me at the edge of their bed covered with their golden bedsheet.  He then handed me a folder and said, "Ayan ha, isinulat ko na sa paligid ng folder ang ABC.".  I'm good at remembering almost all of my childhood memories and this incident didn't slip.  I find it sweet though because it only shows that he really wants me to pass the exam.

- He taught me how to sing.  I know I started singing at a very young age but I only remember an incident when I was 6 yrs old. My tatay loves buying pirated minus-one cassette tapes and he too loves singing. I can't tell if he has a good quality singing voice because every time I hear him, his drunk. Anyway, one time he had his recorder ready and asked me to sing "Sayang na Sayang Lang" by Manilyn Reynes. I was a huge fan of Mani so I obliged and that was my first ever recording. He says I have a voice that's when I started to appreciate music.

- He taught me a lot of stuff especially in the kitchen. I love it when he makes sandwiches, he puts fresh vegetable in it and not just a typical sandwich spread like my nanay would prepare. I also learned from him how to cook rice, cook instant noodles with egg and calamansi, and how to make "kilawing dilis". He taught me to use the kang-kong stalk as a straw for the sinigang soup. I also learned from him to put hot coffee in your fried rice at breakfast and it does taste delish but sounds weird.

- He made me feel like I'm his favorite. Silly and conceited as it may be but really I feel that way when I was little. He would always let his barkada know that I can sing whenever they have drinking sessions at home. He lets me go with him inside the Naval Base on his bike and toured me in his work area (cranes and all that shipyard thingies). When he gets drunk and I'd ask him to give me money, he would give me some or if I ask him to go grocery shopping he'll agree and I get to choose what I want and he'll pay for them without asking (after that my nanay will get mad at him).

- He does care. I loved it when he carried me to bed.  Sometimes, I would even pretend that I fell asleep on the couch so he would carry me to my bed. When I was sick and couldn't walk myself to bed he'll carry me. Also one time, an ant when into my ear and I went ballistic over it, he puffed a smoke in my ear and the next thing I knew I could feel the ant crawling out of my ear. Then one time, he bathe me I think that was the first and last because he used the bathroom cleaner as a shampoo on my hair. I remembered that that was a Personal Collection bathroom cleaner and it smelled good but that ruined my hair... FOREVER!

- He's quiet when he's in his normal state but the opposite when drunk. So one New Year's eve in his normal state, he was preparing for work and he had this socks with no garters so what he would do was he'll put a rubber band to secure them. He has a lot of rubber bands and earlier that day I saw them and played with them and forgot where I left them. He was then looking for his rubber bands, he instinctively asked me first and I denied it then my nanay told him that she saw me playing with his rubber bands earlier. He got really mad and I think that was the first time I saw him fumigating with anger so I ran for my life and he was running behind me and shouting "San mo dinala ang goma ko!" and then he caught me and I got the spanking of my life. The rubber bands, by the way, was with my friend whom I played chinese garter with.

- He brings life to our meal time. He's funny and every dinner or lunchtime he would always joke around. It was fun but one time, we were talking about nothing over dinner I was saving my 2 slices of ripe mangoes for last. Funny thing, he lets me talk through out the whole meal, asking me questions as if distracting me. So, I'm done eating and ready for my mangoes and to my shock, they were gone and saw my tatay giggling with a yellow fiber stuck in his false teeth then I realized that I have been scammed.

This is it for now. I'll try to remember more fun memories with him.