We saw my dad for the first time since being diagnosed with lung cancer and undergoing several rounds of chemotherapy.  He has been through a rough time and lost quite a bit of weight.  Although he feels he looks pretty bad, I think he has an interesting look.  Mean and lean and gaunt, even, yet somehow thoughtful.  We go though life in all its glory and usually it shows.  Is that such a terrible thing?  As long as we are spared pain and suffering, and even if we are not, who cares if we show our age and experience?  People in our society spend so much time psychoanalyzing the meaning of it all and, in my opinion, it keeps a vicious cycle alive.  How about thinking about it in terms of people simply being at the mercy of the human body, and that we all need help now and again as said body breaks down and/or ages?  Isn’t it really as simple as that?  The truth of it is people fear the psychological and social implications of serious illness, and certainly the medical establishment, more than illness itself.  How terrible.  Here then are a couple pix of my dad, who posed in good fun with his oxygen tube for this website. 

They’ve come a long way with senior high school pix since 1979.  There are endless poses with various props – my goodness.  All digital these days, too.

They send contact sheets out with seemingly endless poses from which you select your favorites.

I believe we selected three nice ones.

Senior prom tonight, and look out!

Matthew Valencia and Jon Hampton-McKean are heading out in style to the Stanford Court Hotel in San Francisco, California,  for Albany High School’s 2006 Senior Prom.

There will be international food stations and dancing.

My senior prom was in the gym of my high school.  Clearly things have changed.

Getting these two ready was a challenge since they wanted to look JUST SO.

Berry seems to have a built-in antenna that draws him directly to people who are going to a special event and cannot afford to have his hair all over them.  The more you need him away, the more suspicious he becomes and the more tenacious.  Throughout the late afternoon there were cries of, “Berry, get away from me!” and “Berry keeps trying to rub his neck on my tux!”

When they left, Steven, my mom and I had a nice dinner and watched a movie.

Matt and Jon rolled in about 3 a.m. – having  taken the night owl bus to the East Bay from the Transbay Terminal – with stories of the grand food and class that pervaded the affair.

Ah, to be young men about town in the magic that is late-night Nob Hill and Union Square!