She Only Studied Lightly, Occasionally All Year Long.
"And so he told me he got you know 490 points!, although I didn't actually ask,! so then he asked me and I told him and he said don't you mean 353!!! and I said no! I mean 535, and he said O....o" The Beautiful One smirked blandly then. And why would she not? The Leaving Certificate points required for her chosen course; in the bag, the carefully conveyed impression of doing only occasional actual study, intact!
I think of my stern statements during the year, when she assured me she was chained to the small wooden desk in her bedroom while all her friends like the lilies of the field neither read nor wrote, that this was horseshit ! That they were at it beavers!. Despite her supercilious stare, I am guessing that was what she wanted me t say. Its a tightrope, parenting, my friends, a high wire act to carry buzzing teenagers to the far shores of self determination. Don't look down.
But then again, it is she who does the high wire walk. You have no life without the imprimatur, inclusion of your friends. You will have no life without the CAO College points the ancients yammer on about. . You absolutely know you will be extraordinary in the world when you find your own people, come to you own thing. You mostly shove your jarring sense of incompetence on the back burner, where it bubbles and burbles away, while you absolutely break your back in doing all the stuff expected by all parties.as best you can.
To Sink.
The soundtrack of your life , the shaky flaky judgements of your peers, the constant instructions,, warning,s of your elders. You just can't see the time when you will function in the world. Every instruction has the sub text that you could never do this on your own. And anyway down here its predictable, warm, well worn. So hard to leap. to rip aside the apron strings, to sink or swim. To sink.
Aquamarine, Silver and Bloody. Dream Girls
And so to the Debutante's Dance, the Lovely Girls Parade,, take your pick. She dances upstairs to her room trailed by the giddy girlfriend, slips into the aquamarine dress, the silver sandals, slathers on a cursory coat of slap, pins up escaping locks from the up do bought and paid for, and only that paid for, she won't let any stranger touch her face, and rapidly descends, to her boyfriend's muttered "Wow" at her careless flighty greeting, he standing in the hall, shoves flowers at myself , "for you." bemused and dazzled at her casual disposal of the corsage he gave. She stands still ,barely, for the photographs, but oh she can't recall where she dropped her sweet corsage, and gone lightly climbing into the car, with bleeding heels, a blister burst, laughing, serene, unconcerned as I chase the car with lint and plaster.
I close her bedroom window in the silent house, pick up two bottles of vodka mixer, discarded with the "well done!" cards, a hoodie, her battered trainers on the floor, breathe in the smell of cigarettes,, perfume, residue of hysteria, expectation.
I ask her how it went next day. She said it was savage. Just that. savage
.
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
In the calm after that storm, I am on the last lap of Eimear McBride's A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. (2014). Serendipity. A slow burner for me. Like burning matter falling melting on your skin to simmer in to the bone. Don't warm to books that are pre labelled "A Masterpiece!." But, my..how it burns. I can only read the book when I'm feeling robust. By now I know the story, know the way the stream of imperious consciousness sucks you in until you're just another worm on a hook with the heroine. Yep, a Masterpiece.
Actors
The Beautiful Girl and I take time out of time to go together to the movie Boyhood. Serendipitous again. I don't tell her of the three hours running time. She might not come. Don't know where the time goes. . So? I ask her after, cautiously, both of us blinking under the unsettling electric light in the foyer. "Yeah. Loved it. Cool, the actor growing up and going to college, Yeah. The mum, she kinda reminded me, like of you, the way she, you know, she did, yeah, she really did. Yeah." O..
"And so he told me he got you know 490 points!, although I didn't actually ask,! so then he asked me and I told him and he said don't you mean 353!!! and I said no! I mean 535, and he said O....o" The Beautiful One smirked blandly then. And why would she not? The Leaving Certificate points required for her chosen course; in the bag, the carefully conveyed impression of doing only occasional actual study, intact!
I think of my stern statements during the year, when she assured me she was chained to the small wooden desk in her bedroom while all her friends like the lilies of the field neither read nor wrote, that this was horseshit ! That they were at it beavers!. Despite her supercilious stare, I am guessing that was what she wanted me t say. Its a tightrope, parenting, my friends, a high wire act to carry buzzing teenagers to the far shores of self determination. Don't look down.
But then again, it is she who does the high wire walk. You have no life without the imprimatur, inclusion of your friends. You will have no life without the CAO College points the ancients yammer on about. . You absolutely know you will be extraordinary in the world when you find your own people, come to you own thing. You mostly shove your jarring sense of incompetence on the back burner, where it bubbles and burbles away, while you absolutely break your back in doing all the stuff expected by all parties.as best you can.
To Sink.
The soundtrack of your life , the shaky flaky judgements of your peers, the constant instructions,, warning,s of your elders. You just can't see the time when you will function in the world. Every instruction has the sub text that you could never do this on your own. And anyway down here its predictable, warm, well worn. So hard to leap. to rip aside the apron strings, to sink or swim. To sink.
Aquamarine, Silver and Bloody. Dream Girls
And so to the Debutante's Dance, the Lovely Girls Parade,, take your pick. She dances upstairs to her room trailed by the giddy girlfriend, slips into the aquamarine dress, the silver sandals, slathers on a cursory coat of slap, pins up escaping locks from the up do bought and paid for, and only that paid for, she won't let any stranger touch her face, and rapidly descends, to her boyfriend's muttered "Wow" at her careless flighty greeting, he standing in the hall, shoves flowers at myself , "for you." bemused and dazzled at her casual disposal of the corsage he gave. She stands still ,barely, for the photographs, but oh she can't recall where she dropped her sweet corsage, and gone lightly climbing into the car, with bleeding heels, a blister burst, laughing, serene, unconcerned as I chase the car with lint and plaster.
I close her bedroom window in the silent house, pick up two bottles of vodka mixer, discarded with the "well done!" cards, a hoodie, her battered trainers on the floor, breathe in the smell of cigarettes,, perfume, residue of hysteria, expectation.
I ask her how it went next day. She said it was savage. Just that. savage
.
Tiger, Tiger Burning Bright
In the calm after that storm, I am on the last lap of Eimear McBride's A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing. (2014). Serendipity. A slow burner for me. Like burning matter falling melting on your skin to simmer in to the bone. Don't warm to books that are pre labelled "A Masterpiece!." But, my..how it burns. I can only read the book when I'm feeling robust. By now I know the story, know the way the stream of imperious consciousness sucks you in until you're just another worm on a hook with the heroine. Yep, a Masterpiece.
Actors
The Beautiful Girl and I take time out of time to go together to the movie Boyhood. Serendipitous again. I don't tell her of the three hours running time. She might not come. Don't know where the time goes. . So? I ask her after, cautiously, both of us blinking under the unsettling electric light in the foyer. "Yeah. Loved it. Cool, the actor growing up and going to college, Yeah. The mum, she kinda reminded me, like of you, the way she, you know, she did, yeah, she really did. Yeah." O..
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