Yesterday my dad turned 59. I called him around 6:30 last night to wish him a happy birthday, and we talked for about 15 minutes before I told him I had to head out to a screening of Sin City. When I got home later that night, there was a message from my dad from 8:45 asking me to call him when I got in. It led to this conversation:
Dad: Hello?
Me: Hey Dad. What's up?
Dad: Not much. What've you been up to?
Me: Just got back from my screening.
Dad: Oh, what'd you see?
Me: Sin City.
Dad: What's that?
Me: Do you not remember we had this conversation like 4 hours ago?
Dad: (pause) I know... but refresh my memory.
Senility couldn't have come on this quickly, could it? After a couple more minutes of idle chatter, I told him I had to go and quickly called my sister to discuss his awkward behavior. She told me she had a similar conversation with both my parents an hour earlier, and between our two calls, we realized that my parents were wasted. Not only that, but my sister fears that her call interrupted them "hooking up," as she says... apparently my mom kept giggling and saying how "relaxed" my dad is, and that my dad said he wants to have this birthday every year. If he's trying to cram in all the living he can do before he hits the big 6-0, I guess he's off to a good start. But it's an image my sister and I will have trouble getting out of our minds for quite some time.