| My Family and Made-up Threats |
| Members of my family have the bizarre habit of going to obscene lengths to seem tough. Maily this is "achieved" by making broken threats. My dad tries to threaten me with stuff somtimes, but he forgets that I als o have a temper and I might be even more stubborn than him. Here's an example of his stubborness... When we got a new car ten or so years ago, my dad was putting a stereo into it. He wanted to do it right but he didn't have one of the components that he needed. He stopped working on it for a day or two. My mom apparently started to complain about it because she needs a radio when she drives. So my dad told her that a radio can't be put in that car. He made up some lame reason, and swore to never put a radio in it. He told me this once, about three years ago because I asked why the car didn't have a radio. I think that I'm the only person he's told this to. And I know that the refusal would still hold even if we used the car still. As for my stubborness... I don't know if I have somthing quite as cool as never telling sombody somthing like that and suffering equally because I want it too. But I have gone years without talking to people... years beyond remembering why I don't like them. And I didn't apply to schools that I wish I had, just out of spite for my parents. Anyway, the point is that we're both ridiculously stubborn at times. If after one of our fights I leave (as in move out) there is no way that my father and I will ever talk again.... ever. My Grandma (my Dad's mother) makes threats, only they make no sense. She has a system where she takes whatever I say to her -- even if it isn't smart-alecky-- and she adds "I'll give you..." before it. Her: Where are you going to school next year? Me: I'm not sure. Her: I'll give you not sure! Me: What? Her: I'll give you what!! Me: What the hell are you talking about you crazy old woman?? Her: I'll give you crazy old woman! Then there's my mom. She gives threats not by making sense, but by saying her "threat" in a mean voice. This is an exchange which unlike the preceding, actually happened: Mom: Pick your stuff up off the kitchen floor. Me: No. Mom: I don't want your shit on my floor!! Me: Then maybe you shouldn't have thrown it off my chair onto the floor. Mom: I didn't... BUT I MIGHT! That was one of those moments where I started to ask my mom why if she didn't want my stuff on the floor, would she throw it there. And how the hell was she going to throw stuff that was already on the floor ... on the floor? But I looked at her and I could tell that she meant her made-up threat and who was I to defy that kind of adherence to insanity? |