(no subject)
Apr. 7th, 2011 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jianantonicI found a fan in my parents' garage, and I'm so pleased, but also annoyed with myself for not thinking of this solution sooner. Seriously, I've spent a serious chunk of the last four months hanging around here in unbearable heat, and not once did I think of getting a fan. I used to think of myself as smart.
I bought a couple more plane tickets today, and I'll be home in Portland for an entire month...for the first time ever, I think. I fly back on the 22nd and I don't fly out until the 22nd of May. Then I'm gone for most of June...but, details. Still trying to decide if I want to bother to come back for my high school reunion or not. I kind of want to, and I could use that trip to catch up with my therapist and go to my favorite yoga classes some more, but is it really worth another flight out here and time away from home when I'm so in love with home right now? I'm kinda leaning against it. I'll be back here pre-Falcon Ridge anyway, because a lot of my camping stuff is here and it's easier to do that trip with a car than to fly in...though I suppose I can't really count on having one of my parents' cars for that. My dad has been really grouchy about my use of the HHR lately, which I guess is fine, it's his car and I do use it a lot, but I'd be happy to take the truck, too. He doesn't like that, though, because his only memory of me driving the truck is from when I was 15 and driving for the FIRST TIME EVER (that he knew of, heh) and I took a corner too fast. It didn't even skid, but it freaked him out and he's been convinced since that moment that I can't handle the truck. Never mind that I've driven it many hundreds of miles since then. Anyway, my folks are weird about their cars.
I bought a couple more plane tickets today, and I'll be home in Portland for an entire month...for the first time ever, I think. I fly back on the 22nd and I don't fly out until the 22nd of May. Then I'm gone for most of June...but, details. Still trying to decide if I want to bother to come back for my high school reunion or not. I kind of want to, and I could use that trip to catch up with my therapist and go to my favorite yoga classes some more, but is it really worth another flight out here and time away from home when I'm so in love with home right now? I'm kinda leaning against it. I'll be back here pre-Falcon Ridge anyway, because a lot of my camping stuff is here and it's easier to do that trip with a car than to fly in...though I suppose I can't really count on having one of my parents' cars for that. My dad has been really grouchy about my use of the HHR lately, which I guess is fine, it's his car and I do use it a lot, but I'd be happy to take the truck, too. He doesn't like that, though, because his only memory of me driving the truck is from when I was 15 and driving for the FIRST TIME EVER (that he knew of, heh) and I took a corner too fast. It didn't even skid, but it freaked him out and he's been convinced since that moment that I can't handle the truck. Never mind that I've driven it many hundreds of miles since then. Anyway, my folks are weird about their cars.
I was thinking today about how my parents are really stingy in some ways -- and some of them good. I used to catch hell for leaving lights on when I left a room, and I still catch hell for trying to turn on the A/C. The extra seven dollars a month in electric bills that my childhood fear of the dark cost them was a huge sore spot. And today my mother insisted on washing my laundry with hers to save money on the water bill. Someone else wants to do my laundry? Not gonna argue with that. So, good for them, they want to conserve energy and water and save money. But...between the two of them, they own three gas-guzzling cars. They go out to eat at least once a day. They live in a 3600-square-foot house by themselves. Hey, some effort is better than none...but seriously? It's really comical the way they care about one lightbulb burning when the real issue is that they live a lifestyle of too many lightbulbs. My parents have money and can afford to live however they want -- but they can also afford to lighten up about a tick of the thermostat. Oh well. Their house, their rules. I guess I'm down with that.
I went for a run around the neighborhood on this glorious afternoon. I made it longer/farther than I expected I could, but I have to be honest, I was afraid my 70-year-old dad would pass me. And he was walking. He didn't, though :) He did heckle me every time I passed him -- the neighborhood is a very hilly 2/3-mile loop, so we crossed paths a bunch of times in the half hour that I was out. It was kinda fun to be out there exercising togetherish. Dad was always a runner, but his cardiologist told him no more running after his 2002 heart surgery, so now he's a walking fiend. I definitely ran harder because my dad was out there. I do like being here. There's some parent-child bullshit that always exists when you spend time as an adult back in your childhood home, but I'm handling it much better than before I had prozac and therapy to guide me, and I really feel like being here is good for me. In the small- to medium-sized doses that I give myself. My parents are generally cool people. They have their quirks, and it's their quirks that make good stories, so I'm sure I've painted a pretty loony pictures of them both, but hey, we're Massies. We're all loony. And I'm pretty fucking lucky to have the family I've got. And a fan blowing full blast straight at my face. I'm able to love my parents a lot more now that I have that fan.
