Life, Camera - Action!

Life, Camera - Action!

The squeals of joy had finally stopped, to the relief of my sorely abused eardrums, although green flash-afterimages continued to drift randomly through my field of vision.  Of all the (hopefully) 'In' items I could have selected for Dana's thirteenth birthday, I had apparently hit upon The Number One choice of young teens everywhere - a digital camera.  Remembering my own reaction to receiving a Brownie Instamatic - and the amount of money I'd spent buying film and then having it developed every month - I suppose the unbridled exuberance currently filling the living room shouldn't have come as such a surprise.  A final neck-cracking hug, accompanied by a flurry of the Daddy's-little-girl kisses that kept me going, and Dana was out the door in search of subjects.  The camera had cost a lot more than her first pacifier, but the result was the same: my baby was happy, and I was content.

After restoring order to the living room, I grabbed the laundry basket and went downstairs.  It was the work of but a few minutes to sort my clothes and start loading; I didn't do Dana's anymore. "That's my underwear, Daddy!  You can't look at that stuff!" she had shrieked one Saturday afternoon.  A short lesson on whites versus colors had followed, and that had been that.  From then on, the only time I ever saw any of her "unmentionables" was in the checkout line.  Just wait until she hits the next stage, I mused; you'll be in separate lines at the supermarket - me and the groceries in one, and her, a feminine hygiene product and some cash in another.  I sat down, picked up the latest teen magazine - without which I wouldn’t have a clue - and started reading.

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