Shift

[bloodyrosemccoy]

I’d just like to point out that, even though they hurt my feelings, my parents are still pretty cool. Dad felt so bad that I was unhappy that he took me to a bookstore yesterday and chatted the whole way.* Today he came home and announced that things were going to change around here: we will all revise our paradigms so that we’re not working as parents and children, but as adults who recognize each other’s goals and work to help each other. This will become like an artists’ institution or co-op, where we all contribute and help each other.

I think what he’s trying to say is he’s sorry he hurt my feelings and he knows I wanna be a writer.

My dad is actually a pretty sweet guy if you know how to interpret him properly.

Also, he’s planning on implementing this with 妹, who is, without qualms or backward glances, leaving UC Santa Cruz at the semester. The little sister is, to put it very mildly, not pleased with what she’s found there so far. This weekend marked yet another stupid drunken orgy party in her apartment, one of way too many, and she is not putting up with this horse shit any longer.** She is going to wait out the semester and come home to go to school at the U of Utah. I told her she can consider this her term abroad. “No kidding,” was her reply.

So the family dynamic will shift again, and we’ll all keep going. And I’ve got a dad shifting into manic and my Batman-watching partner back. This is gonna be kinda fun, actually.


*Dad chattering is an event on par with Jim Lehrer getting sniffly (which he did on Election Night): this does not happen.

**Warning: Entry is a rant brimful of curses that may make you weep. And it doesn’t even mention the later incident that night when one of her friends, who was not drunk, braved the party only to sustain a large superficial head wound that had妹 wondering if she was going to have to staple a bitch.

Comments

[bean-bunny.livejournal.com]

Wow. I thought I was the only one who hated drunken orgies in college.

[chairman-wow.livejournal.com]

D: Your poor sister. The worst I had to content with was people being loud in the corridor at 4 in the morning during exam time. Good thing she's coming home.

A while ago, my mum told me that it didn't feel like she had a daughter anymore when I was around, which confused me for a second, but then she continued "it's more like having an adult best friend to talk to." which was one of the nicest things ever. Conclusion: parents treating you like an adult is win.

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we had a few noisy drunks sometimes, but that was about it. This is hardcore.

Yea, we're still working on the whole family dynamic. But we're getting there!

[flutterbychild.livejournal.com]

Some drunkenness is okay, but they seem to take it way too far!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a little bit of weekend drunkenness is fine, but destroying someone's apartment every week seems a little much. :P

[cjtremlett.livejournal.com]

It'll be hard for your folks to get out of the habit of treating you like kids, but they'll learn. It sounds like the blowout/meltdown of a couple of days ago has made for some really positive changes!

And good gods, it's a good thing your sister is leaving. That is just ludicrous!

[kittikattie.livejournal.com]

That sounds like some hot mess.

[nobleplatypus]

Your family is awesome.

Also, dang... people are having really rough first semesters. Your sister isn't the only one packing it in.

[neintales.livejournal.com]

Hurrah for cool parents and siblings!

I have been driven insane at every college and university I have gone to by the way a majority of students seem to feel they MUST go on absolute drunken binges. I just have never seen the point.

Batman-watching though, now that is FUN!

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

There was an interesting article a while back in the NY Times about the way drunkenness is a lot more influenced by culture than people think--drunk behavior varies based on cultural expectations. And our culture sends a lot of mixed messages that are hard to ignore--that you're somehow supposed to do tons of drunken binges in college (especially on spring break) and that's allowed, because then you get it out of the way. There is an implication that something's wrong with you or that you're uptight or repressed if you don't.

Batman-watching is even more fun with my sister. We were systematically going through TAS before she left, and we tend to do commentaries as we watch--there is a whole body of inside jokes while attached to it now (how Batman believes in justice but not fairies, how many people actually die even though technically no one is supposed to in cartoons, how one of his lamest villains is Worst Ninja Ever Man, and, of course, Operation Garbage Barge: The Great Epic Batman/Everyone Ship. Thanks to one line in the show we have decided to find as much innuendo as we can ...).

Actually, this is true of pretty much everything we watch now. We would make great MST3kers.

[neintales.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched TAS in forever. I did recently watch the Gotham Knight DVD, which has the Japanese animation houses and directors doing 6 interlocking bat-stories. It was pretty good.

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Interesting points-- yeah, a part of me still wishes I'd gotten incredibly drunk at some point just so I didn't waste my youth being boring and adult.... how much sense does that make? Besides, I'm sure I'd hate it.

[gwalla.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear your 'rents are trying to make up.

I feel sorry for your sister. UC Santa Cruz has a reputation as a party school, which sounds like it was absolutely the wrong fit for her. It's good that she's recognized it soon enough to transfer, instead of suffering in silence and letting academics slip due to misery.

Not all of us in California are egocentric slacker assbites! But yeah Santa Cruz is pretty much booze, bongs, & Boardwalk.