Bedtimes

So as I mentioned in my last post, I've traded my own family with a new one as a small step before setting out on my own. Except... the mother here is a little more mother than my own, and I feel slightly less independant than when I was with my own parents. Nothing that's a big deal, just... well, it's not so much that I'm not ALLOWED to stay up after midnight to watch TV, just that I feel a lot of pressure not to.

Whereas my own parents (although my dad would occasionally declare "bedtime" at anywhere between 8:30pm to 3:00am for no reason other than that he wanted to hog the TV - and I'd usually ignore him), my parents normally left me alone when it came to regulating my own bedtime.

Part of the reason, I think, is that I've taken a nap during the day on a couple of days, and Eel's assumed that that's because I didn't get enough sleep at night, but it's more that I walk everywhere, and it's summer, and the sun of the heat makes me sleepy, and when I've walked for a couple of hours out in the hot sun, when I get back to the house, I feel like taking a nap. It's nothing to do with how much sleep I got the night before.

Anyway, I am a guest and going to bed before midnight isn't that big of a deal, (and I have my computer set up in my room anyway so...) but I just think it's ironic that, in a baby-step of stepping out on my own, I feel slightly more regulated than I did when I lived with my parents.

What Are You Looking At?

Well, I've officially moved out of my parents' house... into another family's house! I've traded my family for a different one. For the time being. It's only temporary but it gives me a bit more time to find a more permanent place.

In case anyone was wondering what happened to the houses I mentioned in a previous post, I was almost going to move in to one of the houses when I just got a bad feeling about it. I didn't like the way the landlord was doing business, and so I kind of bailed at the last minute. A couple of times I wondered if it was the right thing to do, considering how cheap the rent was, but... well, there was a reason the rent was cheap, and I think I am a fairly good judge of character. But some family friends have offered to lend out their room for me for a couple of months, which gives me a bit more time to find a new place.

My mum probably would have moved out by now, too.

The family is a lovely one. Eel, the mother, has been lovely and welcoming. I haven't seen as much of Bike, the dad, since I moved in, today being the first day I've seen him at home. (He may have been around yesterday but I was out until late then.) Then there are the daughters, Cubby (who is finishing her first year of Uni) and Jet (who is nearing the end of year nine.) Then there is Millie, the dog, who has decided that she is my new best friend.

One thing I'm sad about, though, is that there's only one week left of TAFE, and what's worse, I don't plan on going back next year. I'm going to miss it sooo much! I'll miss the people there, the teachers, the classes, probably even the buildings... it's such a cool place to be. I recently got an email from a friend of mine who used to do the course and now is studying something else at Box Hill, and she said that while at Holmesglen everyone talked to each other and knew each other, and she felt welcomed and made friends, but at Box Hill she said there's no social equity, that it's all organised into cliques, and that she just hasn't been able get to know anybody. And I have felt that I've always been able to talk to people at TAFE, I have made some wonderful friends who I still am in contact with even though some of them are no longer doing the course, as well as those people who I probably won't stay in contact with but who have been a pleasure to know and have always been willing to hang out or chat. It is the latter that I'm going to miss, (as the former I can always make plans to see each other and visit each other.) It's those people who you like and get along with, but haven't quite gotten to know each other well enough to make plans outside of TAFE. This is what facebook is good for, I imagine, as I would still be able to stay in contact with many of them, but it's still not the same.

Yesterday was the booklaunch for our class to launch our book, "What Are You Looking At?" for Small Press Publishing, and we had John Safran (who contributed to the foreword) launch the book for us. The booklaunch was at Borders. Anyway, the teacher had given me a tray of sushi to offer to people, which I was doing when I saw John Safran arrive. I just happened to be the first to notice him arrive and so I approached him and offered him some sushi. He said, "Oh no! I just had that exact same thing downstairs. If only I had known!"

Anyway, they did the speeches and the launch and I went around getting my copy of the book autographed by the various authors in it, as well as John Safran. He writes on my book (in large, capital letters)

HELLO GREEN THANK YOU FOR OFFERING ME SUSHI. I WOULD HAVE HAD SOME BUT I'D JUST HAD SOME DOWNSTAIRS. (signed John Safran).

Afterwards some of us went to the city to celebrate at a pub, and it was fun. I didn't get back to my (new) home until just after midnight.