My father, Don Elias, turns 61 today. Wow! Sixty-One (3 years shy of that Beatles song) That’s insane, I’ve been telling people my dad is young, that “he’s like 50 something. I think like early 50s.” Not anymore. Our old man is 61 and as he told me over the phone today, “ya voy en la bajada.” Luckily for him, my siblings and I have done a pretty amazing job with giving him and my mother some beautiful grandchildren to pump some youth back into them. I can’t wait until the day comes that I can hand him over my son and say “Here you go dad, I want you to meet my son.” I know it will be just one of the many pleasures Lissette and I will enjoy, sharing our little one with family.

Gifts in the form of shirts and socks are no more for my dad. I stopped doing that a few years ago and even though it can mostly be attributed to me being lazy, I always manage to send him something special. Below is what I sent him: a card with words that only he and I know what they mean and then the latest ultrasound picture of my son. If you’re having trouble figuring it out, it’s basically a picture of his face and he’s looking right at you. Pretty neat huh? The frame I made out of a used cardboard vinyl box. I’m crafty.

Stuff like that up there gets me emotional these days and then my brother goes on and blogs about THIS just this morning? Nombre…How lucky am I? Very much so, I say. Usually thinking about all these things and how they make me feel to be so fortunate to be where I am right now in regards to family, is the best way to stroll right into my birthday tomorrow. I’ll be by the phone tomorrow, waiting for my dad to call me and see how he liked his gift.

Happy Birthday, Dad! Can’t wait to share Father’s Day next year with all the Cornejo men!

In honor of Father’s Day I’m not going to write this long post as I normally would do. My dad is definitely worth the time of me blogging endlessly about all the great memories I have of him as a kid and the ones I continue to experience as an adult. Instead I’m posting this video from a family party in 1989 (I was 6 years old here and wearing a ‘USA’ shirt, fuck yeah). They say a picture is worth a thousand words so this video is definitely worth a million. Check out my dad’s awesome dancing skills (he’s the one in the middle without the beer can in hand). So inspiring that I cut into the scene with moves of my own. I love the silly laugh of mine at the end. Enjoy.

Much Love For El Don.

I just dropped my old man off at the airport. Talk about an event. I missed out on a few “events” for work to drop him off and I could have missed a Nike Kobe 6 shoes giveaway and I would regret none of it. There are things my dad does that will always happen and that I wouldn’t change for the world.

1) He explains to me that departure is “para los que se van. Y arrival es ya cuando regresan.”

2) He’ll always want to fill out and attach 2-3 of those airline address tags to each of his bags but will never have time to do so. “Puta, no les puse. Nimodo.”

3) He’ll be extremely stoked that he weighed his bags properly and kept each bag at under 50lbs. He’ll have a silly grin like he just got away with something or maybe it’s him stoked on the fact that he calculated all his belongings perfectly in under 50 lb piles in two different bags.

4) He’ll offer to pay for parking and he knows it won’t be more than $5 bucks but he’ll still hand me $40-50 and he won’t take no for an answer and as cool as you try to play it off while you walk away, no matter how old you are you’ll always think, “Sweet! My dad just gave me $40 bucks!”

5) Watching him out in the world doing things on his own, I’ll stare at him and think, “Damn, I love that man!”

Here he is talking to his grandson, Nicholas, before he entered Gate 22 on his way to El Salvador.

Have a safe trip, Pop. I’ll see you at “Arrivals” cause that’ll mean you’re coming back.