CELEBRATIONS | Today, my Dad turns 80. He made it. There have been many times over the past twenty years when I was sure he wouldn’t, but here we are, against all odds. I texted him as much in the morning and he replied, “Thanks Jen. I am celebrating by going to the hospital for dialysis. ;)”

He included the winky emoticon. The guy’s pretty on the ball for an octogenarian. It’s miraculous. IFKYK.

If our text exchange sounds brief or insufficient to mark the occasion, that’s only because I just spent the last five days in Toronto for the actual celebrations.

We did a big family lunch on the 10th, which also happened to be my nephew’s 17th birthday. (Thanks James!) Then followed that up with another huge family dinner, ostensibly for Canadian Thanksgiving, but with steaks. (Thanks Mom!) I stayed at my sister’s place. (Thanks Amanda!) And boarded the cat, my sweet baby Beans for the first time. (Thanks Mariia!). We hung out. It was a Selk thing. Again, IYKYK.

Lots of other things happened during the trip. I met my niece’s boyfriend, which was surreal, because how dare she have a boyfriend when she is only three years old?! JK. She is 19. Good lord. (Thanks Kat!) We walked around and breathed that Toronto air, forever tinged with the slight scent of garbage. We took a cab ride with a herky-jerky driver smothered in cologne that made us all want to barf. (No thanks!) My youngest nephew talked to Nathan endlessly about baseball stats and told us a hilarious story of being banned from a gas station for life for trying to buy contraband. He’s 12 and like 4 feet tall. (Thanks Ryan!) On the way back, I forgot my keys and my brother-in-law had to make an emergency run to the airport to get them to me before our flight home. (Thanks Kieran!)

All-in-all it was a pretty good trip.

In truth, all that aside, my main focus was my own present to my Dad — a documentary-ish movie that I had been working on for the better part of a year.

Not actively, mind you, but I did start the project last year around this time, and it has indeed taken this long to finish. I barely made it. Especially with Poetry Weekend happening right before we left, and also because god-love-em, but people are absolutely terrible about following directions, following through, and, um, following generally. (I have a half-baked theory that this is because everybody prefers to lead. Not sure. Like I say, it’s half-baked.)

Anyway, the movie. It really was a lot of work because I wanted it to be something more than the usual birthday video people do. You know the sort I mean — a parade of snaps or short clips, set to music chosen by some AI demon that lives in your phone. I didn’t want that. I wanted something else. So I had to make that something else.

And making things, which is my job, is a lot of work! I take it very seriously. Perhaps too seriously. That is just who I am.

Didn’t have a lot of help because some of my extended family (you know, the usual suspects) don’t like me. Some ignored my requests to participate entirely (rude, lol). It was tricky. But luckily, so many people think my Dad is the coolest, it all worked out, regardless. How embarrassing for them, though!

I finished it, and I am happy with it, he liked it, we did a family screening and it went over well and … now it’s done. My Dad is 80. He’s seen the movie. He made it. I made it. We made it. I’m still processing.

There’s always that foggy time that descends after a big artsy project wraps up and I believe I am in the midst of that, but I shall soon recover and then it’s on to the next. That’s an artsy fartsy life for ya.

Anyway, if you want to see the movie (and I doubt you do, but who knows) I am going to post it below. It will not be available on my You Tube page directly or publicly, but if you have this link, you can see it. (This site doesn’t get enough traffic to make me concerned about it. The reach is so small, I think our privacy is safe.)

In truth, I’m quite proud of this little mini-doc. I barely got it done. The last days were a fever dream, down to the wire, but you know what? Doesn’t matter. Met the deadline. Did the thing. That’s all that matters.

As I say near the end of the film: You’re a good Dad. I love ya. And one more thing: Thanks for not saying peace-out to life on this planet just yet.