exaggeration and tall tales galore

Sunday, May 27, 2007

the signs said stop; we went on whole-hearted, it ended bad, but i loved what we started

are my posts too goody2?

i always thought i was the cynical, pessimistic link in my family, but as i read my old posts yesterday, i thought 'wow. i can be quite the fluffy duracell bunny when not writing the sombre, moody posts'.

um,i may have complained of this before, but at that moment it just felt again like i'm not really quite that certain of my own personality.

If ie ever won this special contest that allowed me to run through a good record store, grabbing whatever CDs i could reach for free, i'd snatch up:
1.Greg Laswell- 'Through Toledo'
2.Fiona Apple - 'Extraodinary Machine'
3.The Kooks - Inside in/inside out'. *i actually bought this cd for luis, but when i came back again to the same store to get one for myself, it was sold out. shoot.
4.Snow Patrol -'Eyes Open'
5.Ray Charles - a greatest hits album or whatever
6.Billie Holiday - have always wanted to listen to her
7.Pete Yorn- 'musicforthemorningafter'
8.Louis XIV 'The best Little Secrets are Kept'
9.Arctic Monkeys - both albums
10.By this time my time would probably almost be up, so i'll just grab armloads of whatever cds that's nearest.

kakak,come home quick. it may not be obvious sometimes, but we do miss you, you know.

During tea just now, my parents were talking about figures and yearly estimations and stuff that i couldn't understand. my mom caught sight of my puzzled looked and explained they were talking about retirement funds, and launches into a lecture about how i should start saving early in order to have an adequate retirement fund when i'm 55.

'That's why a lot of people prefer to work for the government, so that they'll have a pension. like daddy ni, once he retires, he won't get a pension(just a lump sum given straight off)'. If you earn around RM3000 a month, by the time you're 55 you should have around RM700k in order to survive on a daily expense of around RM3500 a month'.

While i'm trying to juggle the process of taking in the information and at the same time thinking 'woh, mom's really got this down', dad chimes in that once he retires he'll turn really stingy and he and mom, in typical fashion starts jesting about how they'll cut back on electricity, save up rain water, and only flush when they do number 2,heh.

Then dad continues, 'when people retire, they have to depend on their children for income.' On cue, they both looked at me silmutaneously, and we laughed about it. but i've just realized something.

My parents have always seemed larger-than-life to me.i've just realized that they are growing old, and it's inevitable that as people grow old, they grow frail.i'm growing up, and soon they're going to rely on me to support them, financially, emotionally, physically. i know it's a natural part of life, and is bound to happen. but i look at myself and think 'i'm not ready to grow up and be responsible'. it bloody scares me that as i grow up i'm going to have to stop leaning on my parents for support, and instead, have them lean on me and trust me with taking care of them. i'm not ready. i'm 19, but at this moment, i still see myself as a kid. i don't want to think about my parents getting old. not yet.

so for now, i'll just join mom and laugh about how my dad is psyched over his new tv and satellite dish. it looks like a kuali sitting out there on the lawn, but it's cool,yo. we can watch channels from france, taiwan, singapore, etc. never mind the fact we can't speak any of their languages. it's the visuals that count.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

i feel the same way too...i can see tat my parents r getting odler now but i stil consider myself as a kid n not able 2 take up such big n heavy responsibility 2 take care of them...anyway...i think we wil noe by the time where v hav 2 take up the responsibility ...hehehe...

:-) Jessica...

A said...

princess jessica!aiya, i think ur ready to be a grown-up, but u have to stop going to red-box, ok?! haha,just kidding. no worries, i think ur right, we'll noe when we're ready to take responsibility. part of natural instinct, i guess :)

the curious cat said...

i miss home...
can u be the responsible one in the family? i don't want to grow up yet either.
we take turns lah kay?? :))

aman23 said...

actually, the biggest wonder about growing up that I always have is, "can I give myself and my parents (now parent though lol) the same standard of living that they gave me when I was younger?"

until now, I still shudder at the thought of it.

Anonymous said...

HAHA!!! KUali on your lawn!! YAye!! Can watch foreign channels with it!!! WAAh i wanna watch too!!

A said...

kakak: mom n dad said that when dad retired,they would leave it up to u and me to raise jijim while they went off and live on an island somewhere where dad would be able to fish everyday :p

aman:i shudder too.
*shudder* haha. itulah, kene belajar rajin2 because belajar rajin2 usually equals good job which usually equals good pay. or at least, that's how i've been taught how the process goes.

syefik:ha,don't play2 u noe. it's freaking big jugakla dish die, as compared to an astro one. come, come over and watch chinese/spanish/french soaps with me :p

mostlyepiphanies said...

Huge satalite dish?Foreign tv programs and telecasts?

Me likey.Hehe

I can't imagine not having my parents.I just can't.Am I in a denial-slash-avoidance-ignorance state?Well the prospect of being an adult scares me.yikes

A said...

denial/avoidance/ignorance? we're all in thise phase, i think. well, at least a large portion of our generation. gah. tibe2 i long for lollipops and akazukin cha cha again. the comforts of childhood!

Anonymous said...

aku sudah tiba!- kata-kata tarzan dlm tarzan version melayu voiced by aznil nawawi.

hey,i dunno. i think i'm the eldest and therefore its abit too early to talk about pensions and all.

the only kuali i have is kuali atas dapur and kuali that annoyingly change the Tv pitch black with the small yellow square on it when it rains.