Panic at Whaley Central

When anything exciting/tragic happens amongst the Whaley Clan, what follows next is two days of calling, texting, and reiterating what everyone already knows among five separate phones.

Tuesday night at work, I got bored and checked my phone to find a text from Mom: Maura is about to pierce her lip and I'm on a bus home from Dallas. STOP HER!

Next text from Mom: Too late.

Goody. My seventeen year old sister, who has to go back to high school next fall, has taken it upon herself to let a friend pierce her lip (a "summer piercing," if you will) with what might not have been a clean needle, and if taken out, will reveal a gaping hole in her face. Awesome.

So after taking my confusion and frustration out on my poor mother, of course I have to text Maura's friends to get the scoop, and then text older sister to fill her in on the situation.

Alyssa: Wait. What?

Day two, I am giddy with anticipation to call Dad up and hear his side of the story. How will he react to this? What clever sort of punishment will he come up with for our younger sister's nonchalant behavior? When I can't get ahold of him at his taxidermy shop, I call Alyssa to hear the story. Alyssa tells me...

Dad said, "Well, it's your lip!"

WHAAAATTTT!!!??? Where was the blood shed? Where was the anger from Dad and the fear that should have been Maura's? Where was the Dad that I grew up with? If Alyssa or I would have come home with a stud in our lip, Dad would have surely been so angry, he would have not been able to speak; getting so enraged with fury he would have stumbled over his words, standing in the middle of the room, stumbling physically as well, hands gesturing fervently, saliva and bits of snuff flying, and once he found the words, would only take breaks from the speech to retrieve his spit-cup and get a breath of regroup in order to continue the reaming.

Alyssa and I both concluded that this new Dad and his reaction was a disappointment. But while Dad's new approach is a let down to Alyss and I, he does have a point. It's Maura's own stupid lip and she can do with it whatever she wants. Dad might have become a little lax over the twenty-seven years of child rearing, but he's still got it.

Here's to Dads everywhere for putting up with seventeen year olds and their what-have-yous.