The Most Expensive Blog Post I Ever Made

My parents divorced in '77, I think it was (when I was 12), and after that my dad paid his $200 per month in child support. (Texas doesn't require alimony, just child support.)

My dad was violent during the marriage. And after the marriage, he kept showing up at our house, terrorizing ME at least with his after-midnight visits and phone-calls threatening suicide. (My mother was calm during all of this, but I'm sure she was terrorized, as well.)

Thankfully, he soon moved out of state, way up to South Dakota. Me and my younger brother went to visit him there for a week or so when I was 15. He was awful to me the whole time. Once I got home, I swore to my mother that I would never visit him again.

He came to my high-school graduation when I was 17: I was actually grateful for his presence, because my German mother wanted me to come home right after the graduation ceremony. (He had to explain to her that in the US, graduation was special and kids liked to GO OUT afterwards to celebrate.)

In the years after that, we had sporadic visits and communications. He'd come to Austin every now and then, we'd talk on the phone every now and then. (One memorable unpleasant conversation that we had when I was in San Francisco for grad school in the '90s, right after OJ Simpson had been found innocent: My father told me that Nicole Brown Simpson had been "bought and paid for." Oh---so that makes her murder OK, Daddy?)

We hadn't spoken for a few years when, a few years ago, he sent me a copy of a Certificate of Deposit for 50K that he'd put in my name. I sent him a thank-you note expressing gratitude, we exchanged Christmas cards that year, I sent him a birthday card the following January... Since then (maybe 3 years or more): Nothing.

I just heard via one grapevine or another that he was offended by a blog post that I'd written here. Who knows which one. (I've been writing about my life here for the past 17 years, and I've mentioned both my mother and father several times.) And so, apparently, the 50K CD is now no longer in my name. As he apparently put it: "That's the most expensive blog post that she ever made."

Ooooh! How financially threatening! Please. I'm not 20 years old, impressed by a 50K CD. As I expressed at the time, I was very grateful and appreciative of the generosity. Especially since my father had never made any other effort to try to help his two kids in any way. (Once I got to college and adulthood, I became aware that fathers helping their kids was a normal thing---not in my case. But so be it.) I was pleasantly surprised by the initial 50K gift, but I was also NOT shocked when said gift was taken away. Kind of par for his unstable course.

"The most expensive blog post that she ever made"---So I lost 50K? My honesty was worth every penny, asshole. Fuck you and your alleged $50,000.