My father is usually an extremely defiant person. I’m sure many people think of him as stubborn or selfish; however, these are actually not negative traits of my father. They are, in fact, somewhat hilarious ones. See my dad is a pretty sarcastic, I-don’t-care-about-what-anyone-thinks type of person, and this is probably a trait of my father that my mother is not too fond of, which is just a small and simple reason as to why my parents have divorced each other. They are opposites.

Now, I love my mom to death. She is my best friend. But sometimes when my dad openly defies her, I can’t help but laugh at it.

One Friday night, my dad came over to my mom’s house to pick me up and go out to dinner. Two of my friends, Alexis and Josh, were at my house with me. My friends love my dad’s sarcasm and carefree personality, but sometimes I think it’s a bit too much. And on this particular night, he definitely overdid it. Anyway, let me get back to the story. As my faher entered the foyer to my home, he and my mom respectfully greeted each other.

“John if you’re going to come in please take off your shoes, I just had the carpets cleaned on Wednesday, and I do not want dirty shoes on them,” mom requested, as she disappeared into the kitchen.

Being the sarcastic and defiant person that my dad is, he immediately jumped onto the freshly cleaned carpet, with his muddy shoes. He shot Alexis, Josh, and me a devious grin, and the three of us chuckled at his playful joke. Then, all of a sudden, my dad began to dance across the living room carpet, singing aloud in a truly melodious voice.

“I’m dancing on the carpet…with my shoes on! La-la-la-la-la. My shoes are dirty and they’re dirtying the freshly cleaned carpet. La-la-la-la-la,” my dad buzzed about the living room, making an absolute fool of himself.

Josh and Alexis burst into laughter. Alexis collapsed onto the floor, not being able to contain her amusement. You could see her eyes squinted shut, with her mouth wide open, and her stomach was to the point of pain as a result of the amount on laughing she was doing. Josh was just as amused as she.
Seeing as his performance was profoundly enjoyed, my dad, of course, began to continue his one-man show. Dancing and singing, he glided across the carpet in his Cole Haan, black leather loafers. As I watched the dark rubber soles of the shoes slide through the stitching in the carpet I could only think of the pure shock on my mother’s face, if she were to walk in on this disaster. I also quickly became quite embarrassed. How could I not be? I mean, my father was singing and dancing across the carpet in my living room. I kept wondering if part of my friend’s laughter was directed towards me. Were they laughing at me because of the embarrassing show my dad was putting on?
“Dad, just stop. Seriously. Dad, come on!” I walked over to him trying to restrain his dance moves.
But it was no use. He broke through my grip and continued his routine, this time, even louder and more obnoxious. As you can see, this is a classic example of my dad’s selfish, sarcastic personality. He knew it was bothering me, so he continued to embarrass me!
After a while I started to chuckle slightly. It was kind of funny, I suppose; I thought about what little harm he was causing; his shoes weren’t actually dirty; they weren’t making any marks on the carpet, and all he was doing was simply messing around. This soon reassured me, and made me begin to laugh along with Alexis and Josh.
Meanwhile, my friends were still keeling over in laughter. At this point, they both were literally rolling on the floor, not being able to catch their breath. It was as if my dad’s dance routine would never end. But, it was not getting old either. The lyrics to the little song he sang were repetitive, and simple, but they seemed to be even more hilarious by twelfth time they were sung.
“I’m dancing on the carpet…my shoes are so, so dirty. La-la-la. Your mother would not like me daaancing on the carpet, but I am!” the singing was relentless.
However, at this point, I was keeling over in laughter myself. I knew Alexis and Josh were not, even for a second, laughing at me. It was just simply so hilarious to see my dad acting like a complete dork. The three of us laughed until we cried, and when my dad finally let up, he joined us in laughter.
This should not have been an embarrassing experience for me, but in the beginning that’s what I perceived it to be. When I lightened up, and began to laugh along with everyone else, and I realized just how funny, and not embarrassing, my dad, as well as his singing and dancing, could be.