24 October 2002 - 11:43 a.m.

Someone (not me) took the liberty of deferring my student loans for me until 2007.

Um.... thanks?

Really, I'd be more grateful if I had any idea how this was possible, and who, exactly, decided to take charge of my financial fate for the next five years.

Is this just a little too "the call is coming from inside the house" for anyone else?

C'mon, I haven't been a short-kilted babysitter in like, six years!

I found this out talking to my mom this am. In a huge Karmic twist of fate, my parents are not coming for parents weekend.

My brother, still an angsty teen, is apparently wigging out about his SATs. My brother, whom I will call Chee, because that is my nickname for him, is about as smart as me with none of my ego. So he doesn't think he can get into college, period, even when his grades are only slightly less proficient than mine were when I got into CoMputer U., which just got ranked, like, 21st in the U.S. or something.

So the plan was that my Dad would stay home with him, even though my Dad is a closet overprotected headcase and really, really wanted to come see me. But my Mom, who is fucked up in her own right thanks to my lame-ass grandmother that I have spoken of so fondly in recent entries, has decided she feels giulty about leaving my brother at this time. Because, when my poor Mom had to take the SATs, her parents were out of town, and she has never forgotten that.

So, I suppose that my lukewarm reaction to my grandmother's offer to visit me is now coming back to bite me in the ass. Or, as I prefer to look at it, this has nothing to do with Karma, and my grandmother is managing to screw everyone over without even trying to.

But it's cool, because, really, I was not interested in any parents' weekend festivities, and would rather them come to visit with Chee in tow.

Dude, that sounded awful, like Chee is a basket of Easter eggs or something. I'm gonna try that again.

But it's cool, because, really, I was not interested in any parents' weekend festivities, and would rather get to spend time with my parents AND Chee some other weekend.

And! After further discussion with my Mom, it seems that, in not seeing my folks this weekend, I am making a worthy sacrifice to the costume gods. If they don't come to VA, (my parents, not the costume gods) this frees them up to attend the neighborhood Halloween block party, for which my Dad and two friends have promised to dress up like the guys from O Brother, Where Art Thou?. My Dad even went out and bought new strings for his banjo, so they plan to be all hardcore like that. Go, Dad!

So the really sad thing about this weekend is not that I don't get to see my parents in the 'Noke, but that I don't get to see that.

What I'm wearing:

What I'm reading:

What I'm doing after this: