**Oh My...."Life" Lessons I've Learned This Week--SNARK ALERT**

[WritingIsMyReligion]

Well, they say that school vacation weeks are for relaxing, and I've done plenty of THAT, but I've also learned some "lessons" (warning: Snark is on high.)

For example:

• Once grandparents start reminiscing about "the old days," don't expect to be able to get a word in edgewise for at least ten minutes. You'll only get talked over. :eyes:
  
• Duke Ellington CDs that you listen to on your grandparents' stereo system have the strange ability to spark said periods of reminiscence.
  
• If you're a pantheist, listening to a Christian minister's wife---even a liberal Christian minister's wife--who talks on and on about good and evil can be interesting, to say the least.
  
• Grandparents do roll their eyes when their fourteen-year-old granddaughters knock the lettuce they've taken out of their fish sandwiches onto the floor at a restaurant. (:blush:)
  
• If you're writing, and people ask you what you're doing, answering, "I'm writing" will spark a multitude of questions that will really annoy you, not to mention distract you from what you're writing. (:grr::grr:)
  
• Similarly, if you're sprawled across three chairs listening to Miles Davis's Kind of Blue and tapping your fingers in time, and your nonmusical mother comes in and asks what you're doing, answering, "I'm listening!" will earn you strange looks and a roll of the eyes.
  
• Added On Edit, Upon Further Reflection: NEVER expect the nonmusical to understand that you can't truly understand jazz. You listen to it because it is wild, soulful, and extremely damn human; some people will never understand that.
  

Okay, I just had to get those out.

:grr:

WIMR

[miss_american_pie]

1. Being interrupted when writing is awful, isn't it?

Your grandparents sound sweet.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

2. They ARE very nice, really, but I just spent a WEEK with them.

I was beginning to get kooky there at the end. :crazy:

People who interrupt others in the middle of any creative process ought to be able to be punished by law. :grr:

[Ellen Forradalom]

3. There is no worse rudeness

than, upon learning someone is writing a novel, to ask, "What's it about?"

[WritingIsMyReligion]

4. That question drives me UP THE WALL.

Whether it is asked WHILE I am physically in the process of writing or no, it is annoying. I don't feel like explaining myself, particularly, especially to strangers or near-strangers.

:grr:

[Ellen Forradalom]

11. A work in progress is a living thing

It goes where it wants, leading you along--not the other way around. So how can you explain it?

[NV Whino]

5. Ah the thrills of being 14 going on 40

But listen to the GPs--there is good fodder for stories there.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

7. Certainly I do.

The "olden days" do intrigue me, especially---no surprise here--the jazz age.

:D :D

[ScreamingMeemie]

6. Awww. BUT, as a writer, grandparent remembrances can come in handy.

My grandfather barely spoke a word about his childhood until the year he died. I am now, in hindsight, glad that he finally gave me a glimpse into his life...struggling with polio, not being able to serve in WWII with his brothers, marrying my grandma, life on the farm...getting caught smoking behind the outhouse.

I feel for you WIMR...I frequently care for my grandmother and they can be a bit stuck in their ways, self obsessed and the whole gambit. :hug: :hug: :hug: :hug: :loveya: Bet you're ready for school now. ;)

[WritingIsMyReligion]

8. I do like hearing more about their lives.

Unfortunately, I always seem to hear the same things, repeated over and over again.....Also, my grandparents have the tendency to patronize me when it comes to certain things....and if there's one thing I can't stand, it is being patronized. :grr:

:D :D

Ready for school...HA....That's a good one. :P :P I hate school. It's terribly boring, and all the work we do is just "busy work," and not intellectually stimulating. If I MUST go to school, can I at least learn something new, and make it worth my while??

Arrrgh...

:D

:hug::hug::loveya:

WIMR

[ScreamingMeemie]

9. I remember that feeling, and believe it or not...at 35 it still happens

to me. My grandfather never thought of me as older than 17 in his life. ;)

I have to, as an aside, thank you for something. As a mom, I sometimes forget to see the things (such as patronizing grandparents) that can have a negative affect on my kids' wellbeing. Thank you for giving me a fresh view on it. My daughter is very much like yourself...mature, self assured, focused...and it happens every so often that her grandparents speak down to her. I don't think I step in to correct them as much as I should. Thanks to you, I will keep this in mind.

:loveya: I often forget, thanks to the wonders of not "seeing" people on message boards that you're not a thirty something. :hug: If anything, your parents should be immensely proud of you.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

10. Aww, thank you!

My parents.....I don't know WHAT they think of me. Sometimes it feels like they really do not understand me, but I've been told that feeling misunderstood is practically a duty of the teenaged. :D :P :D If so, then I deserve an award for fulfilling it well.

:hug::hug:

WIMR