See You Later, Alligator... or not.

Just had my last day of TAFE and I can't help but feel sad about it. There may be some people I saw today that I may never see again, and it's like, a part of me wants to make some epic goodbye to these people I've known for a year, for some of them more, but my relationship with most of them isn't really sufficient enough for anything more than a regular "goodbye" to be appropriate, maybe a wave or a handshake at most. And I leave with a feeling that I haven't expressed myself to these people who have shared a stage or part of a stage of my life with me. Maybe I've gotten too attached to these people, many of whom are merely friendly aquaintances at best.

Truth is, many of them I will see again. Tomorrow, in fact, with the Awards Night. And who knows? Maybe I'll bump into them every now and then, but I can't really guarantee which ones I will see again and which ones I won't. Also, facebook makes it almost seem like goodbyes aren't as significant anymore because I might still be able to follow them on facebook and keep tabs on them, which is a bit of a double-sided coin. On one hand, it means that goodbye doesn't necessarily mean so long, but on the other hand, the goodbyes seem almost lessened, less significant, and I like my goodbyes, at least my "I won't see you later" goodbyes to be at least somewhat meaningful.

Speaking of "I won't see you later", that is one of my pet peeves, the term "See you later". Having said that, it's a term I use all the time myself. And I don't really mind it when I know I will see them later. But it's like, end of class, I go up to my teacher to say goodbye. I'm about to say, "I'll see you later" as I usually do at the end of class when suddenly it hits me that although it's possible that sometime in the future we may cross paths, it's not guaranteed and I may not, in fact, see him later. So I say, "Goodbye," instead. And, "And I might not see you later, this is my last year." And I tell him I appreciate his teachingness and all that stuff, and he says thanks and that he appreciates that and blah blah blah and then as I leave, he says, "See you later, Green."

And I'm thinking, NO, JUST SAY GOODBYE! WHAT IF I DON'T SEE YOU LATER? THEN IT MEANS THAT YOU'VE JUST LIED TO ME!!

In any case, I saw him again about two minutes later when I was with my friend who went to re-enroll next year and he was doing the re-enrollments so he hadn't in fact lied to me that time at all. Except that he said, "See you later," again when I left again. Humph.

I've occasionally fancied that on my death bed, my last words would be "See you later."

Anyway, there's the awards night tomorrow night and I'm going to say goodbye to some of the people who aren't necessarily my friends but who I am fond of. Some of the people will be going into the city to this pub afterwards and I'll go with them, so I can spend more time with these people who are only barely my friends before our association is doomed to the shallowness of facebook-following.

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.