He meets the Rest of the Family

It's been a long time since I had anything really blogworthy in my life [you know, the kind that doesn't leave me liable to legal action by govt bodies] and finally here's one!

My Aussie grandma goes back to Australia this Thurs so b4 she left, she had one grand cookout at my uncle's house, inviting all the close relatives on her side of the family. And of course, the DF was invited.

I think the first time he met my grandma, while she was drinking her 2nd mug of Tiger, still didn't adequately prepare him for the shock that was my mother's side of the family. For one, dinner was already well underway when we arrived, which also meant that my grandma and uncle were quite comfortably high by that time.

Much to his chagrin, because for one, my grandma couldn't get his name right, and ended up calling the shortened version of it. [imagine calling him by the first syllable of his name and you get what I mean.] It made him sound like his was some, I dunno, redneck cowboy or something.
He was also eyebrow-raisingly shocked at the familiar terms on which my backside cousin spoke to him [IJTPs, you know which cousin I'm talking about] and the way the cans of Carlsberg were passed around so freely from uncle to niece to nephew and back to another uncle. All of legal age of course.

He found himself in a most uncomfortable position when my already rather drunk uncle found out that he hadn't touched a drop of beer, a sacrilegious action in his books, and then found out that he was a teetotaller. Horrors of horrors!!! He was just like my other holier than thou uncle who didn't drink, didn't smoke, and never socialized. [kwakwakwa]

And then my grandma managed something that a rare number of people, not even ME had ever managed to make him do before. Between her and my uncle, they managed to get a can of beer into HIS hands, and with much cajoling, ["C'mon then, I'm flying off soon anyway, one sip for me and that's all!"] he was actually going to drink the beer!!!

Ok, so he was only going to take one sip of it, but anyway, I saved him from it by drinking gulps of it everytime they weren't looking, so the can was noticeably lighter much later. :p

I do think my grandma liked him though. She patted his hand while talking to him, slapped his lap, and in one photo, even put her arms around him and pressed her cheek to his! I must show you guys the photo that my dad took of it, because his face in that photo was HILARIOUS!!! [do i have a rival here?]

Of course, it was also possible that my grandma was more than slightly drunk... hahahaha......

Overall though, I think his eyes really opened WIDE at how 'liberal' my family was. [his word, by the way] And comparing his family and mine, I think I agree. Mine is certainly more siao during family gatherings.

Especially when the beer is flowing. :p

Lemme clarify something. In an earlier post, I left a link that was highlighted 'Not to be read by strict Christians' or something like that.

The link would have brought you to the website of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which, the website proclaims, is responsible for all creation on earth. [ah, nebbe read right? Now regret...]

Is this real? OF COURSE NOT LAH.

The FSM is really a tongue-in-cheek response to schools that teach the Creationist theory as part of legitimate science. The author of the website argues that if schools can disguise religion as science this way, then they should also teach his version of Creation, ie that a Flying Spaghetti Monster is responsible for creating all of us.

Of course, if you're now a fervent believer, by all means, subscribe to that church............ I ain't stopping you. :p

I should really be typing out LPs before I meet him, but instead I've got KOL open in one tab and Blogger in another.

*Sigh* Procrastination is such a big problem with me.......

This is not just because of my job, btw. I've been suffering from this affliction since days of yore in school, where I would gleefully postpone studying in order to read my comics or books or whatever.

Obviously this is not a trait that serves me well in my career. Where I'm trying to convince little ones NOT to follow in my footsteps. -_-!!!!!

After 2 weeks of school and helping out in a major education fair, I'm just of NO mood to care about the Future of our Leaders/Followers/Winners/Potential Dropouts.

Yenn and I were talking last night about our careers and the dangers of Occupational Hazards. [So maybe you wanna skip reading this blog entry if you're reading it. Heh.]

That day, I got up early to go down to help out at the education fair, and I was especially grumpy about it, because there was nothing for me to do except stand outside the class during the 2 hour presentation, followed by help them pack the stuff back to school, and by the time we ended and gotten back to school, it was so drastically late I had to call up and cancel tuition. [Which I would have much preffered to have gone for]

Then someone wanted to talk to the other new teachs about performance appraisals, so we talked. And we talked so late I had no way of going to my Jap class on time. T_T Which made it the 1st time in this year that I skipped Jap class and also something I would have much preferred to have gone for.

The whole shittiness of the job, I will comment on in another blog............

Anyway the end result was that I was tired, my feet were sore, and I was moody about having missed my entire Saturday for something I would not have voluntarily gone for.

here's the hidden Occupational Hazard that you don't usually hear about. OH: Your job seeps into your life.

I have lain awake in my bed at night, trying on one hand to sleep, while ideas for LPs and classroom mgt raced through my head.

I have listened to music on the radio and wondered how to incorporate it into my classroom.

I have spent time daydreaming about how to discipline the kids in the class in a more effective way.

And this is just after 2 freakin' weeks on the job!!!!! What happens after 3?????

Which in a way explains the procrastination and the gaming of Yenn and I. There are times where you just need to sweep everything out of your head. To wipe out the persistent stain of bad memory and kleenex the whole thing. Yenn Maples. I KOL and lindy. And on days like this where my tuition has been suddenly cancelled and I suddenly have free time on my hands, I just don't feel like doing work.

I feel like just enjoying what I have left of the Sunday. And then meet him and enjoy the rest of the weekend together, before I come home and deal with the LPs.

Granted that this job is a vocation, but stretch a person too far and eventually they all start dropping like flies.