grinninfoole: (Default)
It has been quite a while since I last posted. There's a lot on my mind, so I shall just throw stuff at the screen and see what sticks.

1) I'm annoyed with FA because I have been surcharged for an auto accident she was in in February. Now I am facing a significant increase in my insurance premium because of it. I'm very upset, not least because, even though we aren't friends anymore, she may have actively lied and said I was driving when I wasn't even in the car. I hope that this is not true, and that this is simply a mistake by the insurance company and/or the Merit Rating Board. I would like to think better of her.

EDIT: Happily,it is simply a bureaucratic mistake. As I wrote, we aren't friends anymore, but I'm pleased to validate FA's honorable behavior.

2) I have done little on my school work the past couple of weeks. I have had the time, but not the motivation. I find it difficult because, even though this is a project for which I pick the topic in a program in which I chose to be, it still feels somehow imposed upon me. I am not 'owning' this work, so I resist focusing my energies upon it. Which is rather distant prose, I notice. Basically, I don't feel like I'm doing this for me or for MY reasons, but for somene else's. It reminds me of my childhood experiences of grown-ups telling me that I wasn't living up to my potential, which always seemed to mean that I wasn't doing what they wanted me to do as well as they wanted me to do it. These feelings don't fit the facts of my current, adult sitaution, however. I chose to go back for the MA, and the point of the project on which I am stuck is to define for myself what I would like to do and start to do that, in my own way. It is as free of the imposed expectations of others as any situation I shall ever find in my adult life, short of sitting around doing nothing all day (which, as it happens, is how I have been wasting all too much of my time, recently).

3) I really appreciate Sydneycat. Not only is she helping me with some of my comps prep burden, she is also one of the few friends who has paid back money borrowed from me. (Also deserving praise in this respect are Millari and JR.)

4) Last Sunday we had the first session of what I hope shall be a long and fruitful new D&D game set on the Cloth. Lefty and Millari were the only ones who could actually make it, but we all had a good time (though having Lefty xp whore at me after stonewalling me so much in his game seemed irritatingly unfair.) Next time, a fuller PC roster and a bit of a mystery.

5) My brother turns 40 this weekend. It hurts me that he seems so unhappy in his life, though when I spoke with him on my last visit, I asked him if he was living the life he wanted to live, and he said 'pretty much'. I hope so. M suggested that what he really wanted for his birthday was more time with me, so I shall take her suggestion and offer him a vacation together. We last took one about 5 years ago in Montreal, which was pretty fun.

6) My mom seems to have finally physically recovered from her cancer surgeries, and the doctors have found no signs of metastasis or recurrence. She's still so tired all the time, and my dad's inability to deal with his own emotions seems to be exhausting. I wish I could do more to help.

7) Currently, far too much of my life is funded by my parents. This will change soon, and I am wondering what I will cut out. Clearly, a lot comics will have to go, but beyond that, I may well drop one or both of the therapies I do, because while I get a lot out of both, I don't want to do anything which I don't pay for myself. This will mean earning more money, of course, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

8) Millari really is wonderful.
grinninfoole: (Default)
I have been looking at the LJs of a few US soldiers posted in Iraq. I am very glad that I am not there. Ordinary life has left enough emotional scars for me, I'm glad I haven't had to shoot anyone. (or get shot, for that matter.) I am troubled by my sense that expressing a willingness to listen to someone's service stories will come across as ghoulish, though. I'd like to think I can genuinely empathize with any human experience, even if it's one I haven't shared.

I appreciate anew my mother for her strength of character in raising me. My father, her father, and some of her so-called friends all had very little respect for her opinions and feelings, and I am profoundly grateful that was able to cope with all of their bullshit without taking it out on me, or drinking too much, or popping pills. Now, however, I feel guilty for not doing more to make her life easier, but I honestly feel that the biggest stressor she faces is my Dad's white-knuckled grip on his emotional equilibrium. Everything and anything is a crisis, and he unthinkingly carries on as if his distress excuses him from considering how others feel, especially my mom. Every time I talk to her and she's having a bad day, it's because his tantrums have tired her out. I can't make him stop and I can't give her more self-confidence so she can tune him out, but I feel bad for not doing more.

I may well have an extension for my school work, after all. Go figure.

I still have not seen, but wish to see, Farenheit 9/11. I suspect, however, that the documentary folks should have been paying attention to, though, is the Hunting of the President. Yeah, it's about Clinton, but damn, people, most of those fuckers are right there with Bush, today.

Going away on a trip to England and France soon. I hope all goes well.

Looks like I won't get to go to Gencon, after all. A bummer, but I won't mind the extra writing time.

Feisty has really taken to sitting with me when I use the computer: crouching on the computer table, perching on the window sill, or sitting on the other chair. Sometimes, she meows at me. She's such a sweetie, I'll miss her while I'm away. Must make arrangements for her for those days. (Yet another reason to miss Filthyassistant.)

Speaking of FA, I had occasion to reflect upon our time together as roommates, and to consider what a lousy job of setting up personal boundaries I did. I can't recall the number of times she asked me simple questions like "when will you be home? Would you like me to make us dinner?" to which I couldn't give straight answers. In retrospect, I was a big pain to live with. I guess Feisty is even more charming than I had realized. :)

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