A Dad's Apology

The way my dad apologized for deciding to do the laundry this morning was pretty darn adorable. 

Today was our car pool day, and with Thai primary and secondary schools now on holidays, we get to relish in a few more minutes of sleep or time to do other stuff in the morning. Dad and I are both the time-to-do-other-stuff kind of people though. Me, I chose to make myself a richer breakfast this morning and get a little bit more of my assignments done with the extra half an hour. My dad, he decided to gamble with doing the laundry, which I'm afraid takes more than 30 minutes. 

At 7:30, when we were supposed to leave (for me to be able to make the 9 am class that gives "points" to punctual students), I wondered why dad wasn't already drill-sergeanting me out the door. Then it was 7:35. Still no panic. Something was up. And something truly was: the washing machine. 

I realized I had never heard the churning sound of clothes in the whirlpool on a regular morning such as today's. Intrigued, I walked to the back of the house where the silver and blue creature with the name tag "Electrolux" dwells. And there was my dad, hands on his hips, eyeing the washing machine like I do the water boiler when I need my coffee. 

"YOU'RE DOING LAUNDRY?!" My disbelief escaped me before I realized how unnecessarily rude I was being. He was driving me to university, after all. 

"Almost done," Dad replied, quiet with guilt.

"Oh, okay." I left in shame and went to do something trivial. I hate making my dad, of all people, feel bad like that. But I am like my dad - as you will soon see - and I have strange ways of displaying my remorse.

My second episode of guilt occurred at 7:50 when Dad started the car engine and 30 Seconds to Mars blasted from the speakers at a rebellious volume. Whoops. I forgot to turn it down when I parked the car in the garage last night. But to my surprise, not only did I not receive a lecture about the importance of concentration when driving, HE DIDN'T TURN IT DOWN, or turn on the radio!

We made it all the way to the middle of the expressway before he finally turned it down and then gave in to his need to listen to the morning news. It was as if my dad was saying,

 "I'm sorry for doing the laundry this morning, here's 30 minutes of 30 Seconds to Mars at the volume you like."

Know what? 

I'll take it!