In which Mangofarmer breaks big going-away-to-Grad Schoolville kind of news to a certain fatherish parental unit. 2003-07-28 - 9:11 p.m.
In her mid-afternoon, pre-talking to Dad phone call, my mom said, "Don't worry if he gets in one of those moods. Half the time he's just messing with your head."
Apparently the way to a man's heart is through his stomach, because my whole chili/cornbread/sliced cukes and 'maters dinner did wonders for his mood. Dad said, "Whoa! Maybe we can expect chili every Monday!"
I said, "Well, I dunno about that....
"I think I have my act together to go to Grad School in the fall. I found a furnished apartment with utilities, blah blah blah yadda yadda."
Et cetera.
I spoke really slowly and calmly. I reassured him that my mom said she would come up and get me.
It wasn't so bad. He seemed okay. He had that little half grin going on.
(Would my dad really be proud of me if I were to sit here in Craptown and work at Se@rs for the rest of my life?)
He went back upstairs.
He came down for dinner, with a spiel. Dad always has a spiel.
"You could have gone to a school in-state, blah blah blah! You could have gone to live with your mother this summer and got a residency classification down there!"
The spiel. Yes. These things, all the "messing with my head", usually turn what little spine I have naturally into jelly. But maybe, just maybe
*WARNING: grown up moment of realization coming up!*
that's just his way of saying he cares?
*END grown up moment*
I dunno. My mom says my dad and I have the exact same personality, in that, we don't talk. We're quiet, surly at times, reserved, whatever you want to call it. So, the channels of communication between us are slim.
(Have you ever seen what happens when you try to put to magnets of the same polar, um, type together? The push themselves apart. And they don't talk. Not that magnets talk anyway, but still. I wish I remembered the proper physics terms that would have made this little side parenthetical more believable.)
But, I think things. might. be. okay. My dad is going to miss me and I will miss him. It's just time for me to go far far away and GET THE FUCK TO GRADUATE SCHOOL, BITCHEZ!
WOO TO THE INFINITE HOO POWER!
I'm done now. Jeebus I've got a lot of crapola to accomplish. Maybe I'll go do something along those lines. Maybe I'll go watch "The Royal Tenenbaums" first.