It sort of got to the point where three of my friends' parents knew about me getting enlisted before I'd even got around to telling my own, so today was the day to finally get down to business.
I was trying to leave it a little later because I didn't want to bear all the nitty gritty parental stuff for any longer than necessary. How wrong I was to assume there would be a big deal about getting in! I did think that neither of them took my news of training and applying seriously, because they might not have believed I could make it this far, but still... they were both sort of underwhelmed.
I caught up with my dad first, in an attempt to fill in the last details of my security clearance forms over a bowl of pho. He seemed more concerned about whether he had to state his relationship to/with my mum, told me that she would probably know the dates of things better than he did, and could remember about as well as I did about when exactly I went overseas. Not that a five-year-old could possibly come home as any great risk to national security, hey? I'm not sure whether I can get away with telling ASIO that even if my dad wanted to be a terrorist, he didn't have such a good memory for things he'd done a handful of years ago, so where's the threat there exactly?
We chatted briefly about where I was going to do my training, and mentioned how my brother might have applied for ADFA or something similar back in the day. I got the general vibe that dad was more into why my bro wasn't working full time doing something related to his degree, and whether I'd be able to clean and organise the house in time for departure, than the fact I might not be seeing him for a while. Or you know, regardless of my brother's possible attempts at getting into the ADF, I actually made it all the way in (forms pending)!
Later on in the afternoon I swung by mum's place, to see if my bro could get a bike light working, and in search of slightly more dramatic effect than I'd experienced so far. After getting the usual long time no see tirade, I was asked why I didn't come by for Mother's Day. Apart from being a terrible daughter for such an atrocity, I explained that I'd been fired from my penultimate job because they found out I was getting enlisted and wanted to replace me anyway. So I had to find another job quickly, and jumped right into it as soon as I could, which happened to be two days after I'd applied for it. What was the job? Working at a Spanish donuts joint for a few weeks, no big deal, just some cash to pull me through.
Mum pointed out that my stomach was sticking out of my clothes a little, wasn't I cold? I brought up the fact that my top was long enough, it's my favourite jeans getting saggy and baggy that result in accidental fleshage... yes, I knew that it would only take a minor alteration to make them fit correctly again, but I was going to throw them out before enlistment anyway. She asked why I had anything to do with donuts, pointed out that if I didn't get back into computers, I wouldn't have enough experience to get 'another computer job'. I repeated that I only needed a job for a short time, not a foot in the door for another failed IT career. I really have no idea whether she understands that I'm not just having an extended break from my degree or my office peon days, I am actually not going back there at all.
I played with the kittens for a few minutes, listened to mum report on which ones were getting fattest, and tried to find out where my bro was at. Couldn't get a hold of him, so I said I had somewhere else to be, and had to ride off. Ride off, did I say? Well, I was there trying to get a bike light happening. I ride bikes? Well, I'm trying to, but using a friend's bike in the meantime. I haven't ridden bikes in ages, and I'm attempting a ride at night? Yes, mum. Was she really that concerned about me getting smacked off a bike because I'm riding without a front light, as opposed to joining the Air Force? Apparently so, but I think that regardless of the statistics comparing bicycle deaths and injuries to RAAF casualties, the one person I expected a complete bombshell effect on had very little to give.
I'm glad that I'm old enough to not worry about getting parental approval to do the things I really want to do.
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