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"Hang up your clothes." "Eat less." "Take those pipes out of your ears and listen to me." (They're really earphones in my ears, not "pipes", but that's the English equivalent of the Urdu word my mother uses for them.)
Sound familiar? All parents speak the same code, though parenting doesn't come with an instruction manual.
Apparently, I'm too young to get a stiff back (though I do get it--very often) and too old for the leg massages I reportedly used to get when I was a child (I don't remember them--at ALL).
"Did you sleep well?" "Go to sleep early." "You need eight hours of sleep." My father gets a kick out of being on night duty, which is my way of saying that he likes to be the sleep police. Another favourite question is, "How's the weather today?" A worse variation is, "What's the temperature today?" Do you think I keep track of the temperature? That's middle-aged talk. (I'd say "old people talk", but I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings.) If it's cold, I put on some extra layers. If it's warm, I stay hydrated. If it's somewhere in the middle, I play with layered clothing that can be switched around according to the situation.
I hate to say this, but when I arrive at work, the place is being cleaned; when I leave work, it's being cleaned; when I arrive at home, it's being cleaned! Sure, I'm grateful that we have help around the house to keep it clean, but seriously, it's like I begin and wrap up my day with near misses from sweeping brooms.
I also hate to say this other thing, and that is, everyone is asking for money. You can't raise your eyes and look into someone's face without them asking you for something or other. Maybe I've just been interacting with people who ask for financial help more often than usual nowadays. Still, being asked is better than being demanded from. And no, I don't hate to say this part: I hate it when beggars tap on the car windows at traffic lights. That's going too far. And the reason I don't hate to say this is because most of them are professional beggars.
Anyway. What's the picture of your mind right now?
