I'm not gonna waste anybody's time introducing myself. It never seems to work- I start talking about my past and I get stuck there, and I never make it to talking about now. So I'm gonna talk about now. Henry (my cousin) is up here at my house and we're watching the tape of AFI's 100 best movies, picking out what ones to watch next. I went to Hollywood Video earlier today and rented all the ones on the list that I hadn't seen that were in the $0.99 section. --Jaws, M*A*S*H, and Vertigo. We already watched Jaws. How I managed to live 16 and a half years without seeing it is beyond me. I didn't think it was all that great, but I suppose at the time the effects didn't seem as impossibly corny as they did today.
Henry and I have the house to ourselves- my parents are staying out at the camper. They've been doing that a lot lately- staying out at the camper and leaving me here. They go out there to fight, I think. I mean, it's obvious my parents are having difficulties. That's always been obvious. I can't remember a time when they were routinely sleeping in the same bed. When I was little my mom always slept on the couch, and recently they've kind of officialized it- my dad has his own room downstairs now. A couple weeks ago I was babysitting and they decided to stay out at the camper, and they told me to call them when I got home. So I did. I called and I called and I called. Three hours after I finally got home, at 1:30 a.m., my mom finally answered. She said they'd been sitting out by the lake... and I could tell by my mom's voice that she'd been crying.
Today my dad actually admitted that they were "having difficulties" and said I should probably know just in case they don't work it out... or something like that. The strange thing is, none of this surprises me in the least and it doesn't even bother me, really. I mean, I'm leaving. I have two months left, and I won't be living here anymore. My parents splitting up would barely affect my day-to-day life then.... holidays, of course, are a different story... Christmas would be rough. But what amazes me the most is that my parents have made it this far. Like I said, they have separate bedrooms, they have different schedules, I mean my parents hardly ever even speak to each other unless it deals with coordinating schedules or who's gonna pick up the groceries. I don't think I could live like that. I'm not even sure my parents were in love when they got married. My mom was pregnant, and they couldn't have known each other for very long, because my parents met when my mom was still married to her second husband. I wish I knew more about that, but my mom never talks about her past- I didn't even know she was married before my dad until I was 12.
You know Mr and Mrs Robinson in The Graduate? That's my parents, exactly.