Day 267: A trip down memory lane

Today the name of the game is finding old photos of my dad to use in a video for his birthday.

The hope is to gather pictures from his childhood through today and chronical his life with comments from family members mixed in between.

Although all I have right now is photos, and we'll have to get the comments last minute.

Looking through all the photos was a trip down memory lane.

Most of the pictures were from the last 15 to 20 years, which seems like a long time but in reality it all seems like yesterday.

Mixed in with them were plenty of school pictures, and some of my worst hair days ever.

As I went through them picture by picture looking for photos that epitomise my father's spirit, I couldn't help but slow down and analyze my various hair styles, and glasses choices. What was I thinking?

I know you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover, and I know the 80's were a long, long time ago, but there were really no excuses for my style... or lack of it.

I wonder why anyone beyond the geek patrol would have been friends with me? How did I ever make it on the cheerleading team? I must have been really good, or really cool.. maybe a little bit of both, because I had friends across the board.

As I flipped through the photos, my biggest concern was with my hair... yikes!

Even late into my 20's there were some challenging hair times. The grow out from the Wynonna Rider super short cut, to the crazy curly giant hair that went out to my shoulders in my college sorority pictures.

I also took the time to check out my physique, to try to connect the dots with what I'm seeing now. I don't know why I thought looking at myself 25 yeas ago would give me any insight into where I am now, but I did it nonetheless.

The good news is I feel like I'm in my prime, and I look better than I ever have (minus the body... nothing holds a candle to a 16 year old metabolism), although I suspect I probably thought that 10 years ago too... and I may think it again in another 10 years.

I managed to focus on the job at hand and gather quite a few pictures of my dad for the video.

Then it was off to the airport to end my short stint at home. Who knew it would be such a trip down memory lane? Sometimes the unexpected is the best treat of all.