Rebel Girl, chapter 1
August 29th, Monday
My mother has decided that I may have some "unresolved anger and/or sadness" due to the fact that both she and my father were touring much of my early life, and the fact that it's been years since they split up, incidentally due to the fact that my mother wanted my father to be at home more with me, so she's decided to give me this journal. Ironically, a little after they split up, my mother went on tour with her band, Bikini Kill, in Europe. It's been years since my parents split, years since my father remarried a suspiscious woman with dreadlocks, years since the Riot Grrl movement ended, years since he coincidentally ran into my mother in Berkeley, and about a year since most of their relationship was released in the form of a rock opera by my father. And you know what?
A) Most of the songs about him have gone to #1
B) Most of the songs about my mother aren't even released as b-sides on singles
C) Most people think he is referring to "please call me Adie, sweetie," (who I am forced to spend summers with when I visit my father) in the songs about my mother, mainly because no one has even heard of her.
Yes, I am forced to spend summers with my father's new wife (who, I guess, isn't so new, because he married her, like, eight years ago), who, though she is named Adrienne, insists," Please call me Adie, sweetie." I'm not even kidding. She called me sweetie. So maybe I might have called her that if she hadn't called me "sweetie." And if it weren't for that song "80" which directly references her, so people know who she is. The songs about my mother do not directly reference her, and the ones that do, do not use her current name, or do not even use a name. Not only does Adrienne insist me calling her "Adie," she also speaks to me in an incredibly cautious tone, as if I am some sort of murderer who is going to whip out a gun and shoot her at any moment, or like I am an incredibly stupid person, which I am not. One can only presume that she talks to me like this because:
A) My mother has led a very exciting and daring life, taking me along for most of the ride.
B) My mother has some very... Interesting friends including but not exclusive to JD, one of her newest bandmates in her latest band (Le Tigre), who you might think is a guy if you didn't know her too well.
C) I represent a time and place in my father's life that she was not a part of.
D) I am one of the few aspects of my life that she cannot control.
E) In fact, unlike her own sons, she can't really control me at all.
F) Despite all she tries to do to keep me at bay, my father still loves me to death and names my rebellious spirit and my never-been-cut reddish-blondish-brownish hair as some of my best qualities (others include singing, songwriting, and guitar skills, but that's another story), and, because of this, he makes sure I am invited to all of the important events, though I can rarely attendon account of my mother wanting me to have a normal life. (yeah, define "normal")
G) She's probably still mad about the fact that he thanked me before her in his Grammy acceptance speech.
H) I have a much better sense of style than she does. I mean dreads? Ew! (ok, this probably isn't one of the many real reasons she hates me, but you never know. )
I) I have refused to call her Adie; my mother calls her "that whore your father married" or "that bitch your father married" and neither of those would be great to say to her face, or really anywhere in public.
J) I've been allowed many freedoms in my life that she can't really imagine having in her childhood, and she thinks it'll make me, like, a serial killer or something, just because I've been allowed to do almost whatever I want.
That's basically it. Although, this summer I didn't have to go, mainly due to the fact that my father was on tour with his band, Green Day. I was more than happy to be at home, even though I didn't do too much except summer drama, goign to the movies, hanging out with my friends, and the occasional Gilmore Girls marathon. However, not spending the summer there means that I will ahve to spend Christmas in Berkeley, which I am not totally looking forward to. Adie makes a big deal about Christmas, and she's kinda religious, and I'm atheist/agnostic. Which is probably yet another reason why she's weird around me. I'm a rebellious, radically feminist atheist girl who plays guitar. Come to think of it, so's my mother. Which may contribute to the fact that she really hates us both. My mother and I are just strongly against worshipping a guy, and believing that a guy created everything, and that we're all just puppets of a guy. Which is totally impossible, because then he never would have made my mother publish Bikini Kill, start a band of the same name, or spraypaint "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit" on Kurt Cobain's wall. But that's another story. Anyway, school starts tomorrow, better get to sleep!
My mother has decided that I may have some "unresolved anger and/or sadness" due to the fact that both she and my father were touring much of my early life, and the fact that it's been years since they split up, incidentally due to the fact that my mother wanted my father to be at home more with me, so she's decided to give me this journal. Ironically, a little after they split up, my mother went on tour with her band, Bikini Kill, in Europe. It's been years since my parents split, years since my father remarried a suspiscious woman with dreadlocks, years since the Riot Grrl movement ended, years since he coincidentally ran into my mother in Berkeley, and about a year since most of their relationship was released in the form of a rock opera by my father. And you know what?
A) Most of the songs about him have gone to #1
B) Most of the songs about my mother aren't even released as b-sides on singles
C) Most people think he is referring to "please call me Adie, sweetie," (who I am forced to spend summers with when I visit my father) in the songs about my mother, mainly because no one has even heard of her.
Yes, I am forced to spend summers with my father's new wife (who, I guess, isn't so new, because he married her, like, eight years ago), who, though she is named Adrienne, insists," Please call me Adie, sweetie." I'm not even kidding. She called me sweetie. So maybe I might have called her that if she hadn't called me "sweetie." And if it weren't for that song "80" which directly references her, so people know who she is. The songs about my mother do not directly reference her, and the ones that do, do not use her current name, or do not even use a name. Not only does Adrienne insist me calling her "Adie," she also speaks to me in an incredibly cautious tone, as if I am some sort of murderer who is going to whip out a gun and shoot her at any moment, or like I am an incredibly stupid person, which I am not. One can only presume that she talks to me like this because:
A) My mother has led a very exciting and daring life, taking me along for most of the ride.
B) My mother has some very... Interesting friends including but not exclusive to JD, one of her newest bandmates in her latest band (Le Tigre), who you might think is a guy if you didn't know her too well.
C) I represent a time and place in my father's life that she was not a part of.
D) I am one of the few aspects of my life that she cannot control.
E) In fact, unlike her own sons, she can't really control me at all.
F) Despite all she tries to do to keep me at bay, my father still loves me to death and names my rebellious spirit and my never-been-cut reddish-blondish-brownish hair as some of my best qualities (others include singing, songwriting, and guitar skills, but that's another story), and, because of this, he makes sure I am invited to all of the important events, though I can rarely attendon account of my mother wanting me to have a normal life. (yeah, define "normal")
G) She's probably still mad about the fact that he thanked me before her in his Grammy acceptance speech.
H) I have a much better sense of style than she does. I mean dreads? Ew! (ok, this probably isn't one of the many real reasons she hates me, but you never know. )
I) I have refused to call her Adie; my mother calls her "that whore your father married" or "that bitch your father married" and neither of those would be great to say to her face, or really anywhere in public.
J) I've been allowed many freedoms in my life that she can't really imagine having in her childhood, and she thinks it'll make me, like, a serial killer or something, just because I've been allowed to do almost whatever I want.
That's basically it. Although, this summer I didn't have to go, mainly due to the fact that my father was on tour with his band, Green Day. I was more than happy to be at home, even though I didn't do too much except summer drama, goign to the movies, hanging out with my friends, and the occasional Gilmore Girls marathon. However, not spending the summer there means that I will ahve to spend Christmas in Berkeley, which I am not totally looking forward to. Adie makes a big deal about Christmas, and she's kinda religious, and I'm atheist/agnostic. Which is probably yet another reason why she's weird around me. I'm a rebellious, radically feminist atheist girl who plays guitar. Come to think of it, so's my mother. Which may contribute to the fact that she really hates us both. My mother and I are just strongly against worshipping a guy, and believing that a guy created everything, and that we're all just puppets of a guy. Which is totally impossible, because then he never would have made my mother publish Bikini Kill, start a band of the same name, or spraypaint "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit" on Kurt Cobain's wall. But that's another story. Anyway, school starts tomorrow, better get to sleep!
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