I was in the
UK, finishing up my
finals for
AI. The weird thing about this final was that it was taking place sort of in a house, and the problems were literally
hands-on, with no seeming connection to AI. This didn't bother me. So we got to the last problem and I was doing pretty well when the teacher told us to go back to our rooms and she would give the instructions for the last problem. We did, and she started telling us the instructions as we closed to the door to our rooms, so I couldn't hear her very well (poor planning on her part... she shouldn't have wasted so much time between questions and given us the instructions while we could all hear her). In any case, I thought that I would be alright, because I decided that I could probably figure out what to do just by looking at the type of problem it was. I started on it pretty confidently, but realized that I couldn't figure it out.
At the end of the time period I realized that I would fail that section, but that didn't bother me because it was time to meet my parents who had come to the UK for winter break. So I meet them outside and we get on one of the buses to go somewhere.1 My parents and I get seperated to different sides of the bus, and just before the bus starts moving, my dad realizes that its the wrong bus and gets off with my mom. I try, but there's too many people so I can't get off. Typical, I think. So I see my parents out through the back window and it takes them a second to realize that I'm not there. I'll just get off at the next stop, I think, and meet them in two seconds.
The problem is that the next stop is a bit of aways away and down a hill, so it would take at least 10-15 min to get back to where we were. At this point I'm starting to get a bit annoyed with my father that he did something like that right at the last minute that is now making me walk for 15 minutes. So I finally get off the bus and cross over to the other side, and now my parents are there, waiting for me. I thought that this was very nice, walking all the way down to meet me, but I'm still annoyed with my father.
Another bus comes going the opposite direction, and my mom and I are just about to get on, when I see my father shaking his head in annoyance, like "Why are you trying to get on? This isn't our bus!" At this point I lose it and start yelling at him. I tell him that I'm not annoyed that he got off at the last instant on the other bus, because that was when he discovered his mistake. Fine. I'm pissed off because he was just standing there waiting for me and my mom to make a mistake and then criticize us about it. He could have said something *before* we tried to get on, rather than getting annoyed that we went on a bus we shouldn't have.
We then get into a full blown argument and he starts to say something to me and then decides to say "No, I'm not going to say it" and I yell back "Yeah, save it up till it really hurts, then hit me with it. Yeah, save it up." He then says "You know, we came all the way over here, and carried everything that you asked us to, even those pictures of your... your... girlfriend2 I guess it is, and now look at where we are." He then gestures at my mom, who is now almost crying because of our argument. "What a wonderful Mother's Day, hmm?"
At that point my heart breaks because I hadn't remembered that it was Mother's Day, plus the fact that I'm making my mother cry (not to mention that they carried all of my stuff for me and I was being disrespectful). All of my being wanted to tell my mom that it would be alright, that I was sorry, so I began singing this rock song that I realize is a cross between St. Robinson in His Cadillac Dream and a Phil Collins song.
The main part was as follows:
Are you there, son?
Are you there, son?
Yes, mum,
Yes, mum,
I'm he're!!!
I'm down at her feet, crying and singing with all of my being and this is when I woke up, crying.
As I lay there in bed, I realized that the part that sounded like Phil Collins had the same melody as one of his actual songs, No Son of Mine, and the "Are you there, son" matched up with the line "You're no son, you're no son... (of mine)".
1Reflecting on it now, I realize that the buses were going in the wrong direction, (i.e. the US way). Guess that even though the UK driving standard is second nature to me now, I still think of buses as going to the right, after so many years of taking them.
2My parents don't know about her yet, and will actually be taking some not so subtle pictures with them when they come visit me. Here's hoping they don't get curious.