such immaturity.

"the story in whose misleadingly calm shallows you're standing right now is not a tragedy. how do i know? because a tragedy is the tale of a person who holds the seeds of his own destruction within him. this is entirely contrary to my situation - everyone else holds the seeds of my destruction within them. this story is therefore not a tragedy, for technical reasons."
-Things my Girlfriend and I have Argued About - Mil Millington-

this is, pretty much, the story of my life.

i sometimes find it so pathetic that i can, on occasion, lapse into utter adolescent frivolity.

today was such a day.

after a rather gruelling day at work, i decided that i would just leave the entire, growing pile of marking that i have to do, and go for a completely relaxing, "play" day at our dearly beloved orchard road. of course, the "playing" also implied the necessity of "spending money", which unfortunately threw my scheme of saving three thousand dollars for my backpacking trip out the window. so now, i can probably save... two thousand, nine hundred and ninety. hmm.

i found out something interesting today. hee hee. but that's another story for another time.

anyhow, i had a pretty good day.. spent my hard-earned money on unnecessary things, ate too much ice-cream for my own good, spent time with a couple of colleagues, and met ginarella pearl for dinner.

and then my day descended into an adolescent nightmare.

well, all of us know what the teenage years are like. we are hopelessly dependent on our parents-- for money, for food, for transport. EVERYTHING. well, i surmised that had changed once i started working. after all, i'm saving for my own tour, i'm buying clothes out of my own pocket, i tithe using my own income.. i USUALLY go home on my own. today, unfortunately, was the exception to the rule.

in a moment of utter idiocy and a horrible lack of foresight, i decided to take the mrt to ang mo kio mrt station and get picked up by my mother. imagine this. i am standing completely still, at the exact same place my mother picks me up from all the time [at least in jc], looking blindly out into the oncoming traffic waiting patiently for her arrival. ten minutes pass. i do not see her car. finally, about fifteen minutes since she told me she was coming towards the mrt, her car appears. she drives ALL THE WAY PAST ME, stops at the taxi stand, and i, of course, turn around and run after her car, most cleverly evading the traffic that threatens to run me over.

when i get into the car, relieved at having kept my limbs and life intact, i get yelled at.

"WHERE WERE YOU?!"

i look up, stunned.

"huh? i was waiting here."

"DID YOU NOT SEE ME GET STOPPED BY THE POLICE?!"

"huh?"

"NEXT TIME I'LL NEVER FETCH YOU AGAIN! YOU ALWAYS DO THIS! NEVER WAIT WHERE YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO! I WISH I HAD JUST TOLD YOU TO COME HOME ON YOUR OWN, BUT I WAS JUST BEING KIND."

"huh? what?"

this last "huh? what?" of course, is accompanied by a rise in volume and an incredulous look.

"YOU ARE A SELFISH, UNGRATEFUL GIRL!"

"what the...? mother, why are you screaming at me?! i was just STANDING THERE."

"i didn't see you." take heed that this "see" is in italics because she intoned it in an altogether unparental, condescending tone of voice.

"i didn't see you either!"

"that's your fault! you weren't looking out for me?"

my eyes goggle and i stare blankly at her, unable to digest her utter lack of logic.

"mom, that could also mean you weren't looking out for me, because you didn't see me?"

"just shut up!"

"don't say that to me!"

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP."

i then proceed to sit in silence, stewing in my fury, unable to understand how she could possibly be so unreasonable.

and so, there's the story of a good day gone sour, courtesy of my mother.

the end.