In the words of Holden Caulfield, "never tell anybody anything". While I completely grasp the irony of announcing this on an internet diary, I guess I don't mean "anybody" so much as I mean "shitheads" and by that I mean "my parents".
For one reason or another, I have never been able to tell my parents anything that is actually important in my life unless pressed. Had Nathan not actually been standing behind me at the time, my parents would never have been told I was engaged. This is mostly because as soon as they are told a thing, they want to get involved.
If I were to say, in passing, one day that I might want a new pair of shoes, this single comment would result in a flurry of activity. I would be presented with hundreds of options to end up with shoes: I would be taken shoe shopping, I would be presented with pairs of shoes that just happened to be a quarter at the Goodwill and had never been worn, shoe adverts would be pushed into my hands, I would be informed of shoe sales, every conversation would turn to footwear.
This would be great if they were a little more in tune with my wants and desires, but this is not the case. If, running with the metaphor, I want a pair of plain, regular, normal shoes (I wear Converse generally, though in the past I have had Jack Purcell's and Keds), I will be shown things like loafers and hiking shoes, or dress shoes. This will have nothing to do with what I actually want or prefer, but it's what they come up with.
If, on the other hand, I profess a desire to do something, I get badgered about it and given advice I don't want until I have no desire to have anything more to do with the project.
In this same way, my brother developed an interest in bicycles, lost it a month later but was forced to feign an interest for, well, the last four years because my parents got involved. Same goes for bowling and his art kick several years back. So I'm not the only one.
However, clothing styles are the worst. I have been told for ages that I should not wear purple, I do not look good in 95% of the clothes worn by people, and am given copious amounts of clothing advice that I simply do not want.
When my mother asked me if I would show her the things I was looking at in terms of a wedding dress, I added that I did not want any comments. I did not want to hear anything about how this was a bad decision because it's causing me enough problems as it is. I got an e-mail back today informing me that esentially I was being unnecessarily haughty and there is no reason to reject advice especially since I don't wear dress clothes reguarly in the first place.
It's great to be informed at age 21 that you have no concept of how to dress yourself. Even if I don't, I don't want to know about it because I don't care! I am attempting not to let this get to me, but damned if it's working.
Miss Annie is coming to pick me up in a bit and we are going to Karaoke night. There are supposed to be loads of theatre people there, so it ought to be fun. Get my mind of this, anyway.