Hi everybody,

Hope the holidays were decent for all. I got absolutely nothing I wanted, and the one thing I needed, I researched features, priced it at several stores, and told the party in question exactly where they could purchase it at the best price. And they still couldn't follow directions. I'm trying not to be bitter, spirit of the season, lucky I have people to give me things, blah blah blah, but GEEEEEZE -- I have this thing about not getting heard (it's basically the central theme of my life), and that just really pointed it up.

Anyway, here is the weird thing. My dad was in the Navy for 23 years. He was a fighter pilot in Korea and did 3 tours in Vietnam. He retired from the Navy when I was 3 and although he worked for an airline from then on, he never set foot in a cockpit again.

My mom brought my sister and I a poster she'd had made of a picture from my Dad's navy days. It is dated Sept. 12, 1965, which means I was 4 months and 27 days old. The picture is of my dad's plane malfunctioning on takeoff from the aircraft carrier. The plane is in a straight vertical line, plunging into the ocean. One guy was killed. My dad (copilot) and the pilot had to be rescued and helicoptered to a hospital in the Philippines.

My sister thinks this picture is great. My mother sees nothing wrong with it. I totally cannot understand why anyone would think I would like a picture of a day my father almost died, a day that would have meant I would have grown up without him. He died 5 years ago from cancer and I *STILL* am not over that -- aside from the whole adoption thing with my son, my dad's illness and death was the most traumatic event of my life. I still grieve for him, I still dream about him, etc.

Does anybody else think that's an appropriate picture to be giving your children? Or is my whole family just whacked and I'm the normal one?

Candy