r/FML • u/Bobba_fat • 1h ago
FML! Living with my old man. Somebody save me.
Long post. I don't know whether to laugh, cry, or just post this shit in FML. I'm losing my mind, and I gotta vent somewhere before somebody ends up dead in this MF. Seriously.
As I'm writing this, I'm side-eyeing the old fucking geezer. He knows damn well I'm staring at him out of the corner of my eye, too. Well, I don't care, old man. FUCK YOU!!!
I'm a nurse, and I recently took an assignment about 60 kilometers from home, roughly an hour's drive. My pops lives about 20 minutes from my new workplace, and since the assignment runs through February, he suggested:
"Son, why don't you stay here during the week and head home on weekends?"
And I'm thinking, you know what? That's actually not a bad idea. I'm a grown-ass man, soon to be a TOO-OLD grown-ass man, and maybe spending some quality time with the old man wouldn't be such a bad thing. Hang out, catch up, have one final hurrah together!
Well, today, my friends, is apparently his menopause day.
I get home from work, settle in, and turn on the TV to finish the movie I started yesterday but couldn't finish because it was supposedly "too loud."
A little while into the movie, he asks me to help him make pizza. I tell him I'm exhausted and just want to relax for a bit. Mind you, I'd already offered to pick up some KFC on my way home, but nooooooo. We couldn't possibly have that. We had to have his amazing homemade pizza.
Eventually, he finishes cooking and does what he's done my entire life: starts yelling for me from the kitchen.
Now, here's what I don't understand.
HOW THE FUCK CAN THIS MAN'S VOICE TRAVEL THROUGH THE KITCHEN, ACROSS TWO ROOMS, DOWN THE MAIN HALLWAY, AND INTO THE LIVING ROOM, YET STILL SOUND LIKE HE'S SCREAMING DIRECTLY INTO MY FUCKING EAR?
I swear, it's like Dolby Atmos surround sound, except the speakers are somehow positioned less than 30 centimeters from my eardrums.
"OUCH! I'M COMING, MAN! RELAX!"
So I make the two-kilometer pilgrimage to the kitchen, his voice still ringing in my ears.
Dinner is served.
Pizza.
Now, what the fuck is this?
All I wanted was some mushrooms and cheese on my pizza. That's it. Nothing complicated.
So why the hell is this shit SWEET?
"Great, isn't it? I really like the taste," he says.
"Yo, man, I'm not gonna lie. I'm not loving this, but whatever, it's edible."
I'm examining my slice, trying to figure out what I'm actually eating. There are mushrooms, some unidentifiable stringy things, and what appear to be tiny chopped-up pieces of... zucchini?
"Did you put... zucchini on my half of the pizza?"
"Just eat and stop complaining, son. When I was growing up, we never had it as good as you have it today."
Of course. The obligatory when I was growing up speech.
Anyway, I finish this bizarre sweet-and-sour, mashed-up excuse for a pizza, and he turns to me:
"Good, wasn't it, you buffoon? You have absolutely no taste buds whatsoever!"
I swear to God, I actually looked over my shoulder to see whether he was talking to somebody else.
Because this man's taste buds have been deteriorating for years. The older he gets, the more bizarre his cooking becomes. And lately, some of the combinations he's coming up with are downright disturbing.
I mean, SWEET PIZZA?
At this point, I swear, if he'd put pineapple on it, I would've considered that shit a victory.
BUT WAIT.
IT GETS BETTER.
Remember the zucchini I thought he'd put on my pizza?
Well, apparently, it wasn't zucchini.
"CUCUMBER, YOU SUCKER! That's what made it so delicious! Remember that little bowl of salad I had? With lettuce, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, and bean sprouts? Well, I chopped it all up and put it on the pizza so it wouldn't go to waste. AND IT WAS DELICIOUS!"
I just stood there.
"You put... an ENTIRE FUCKING SALAD... on a PIZZA? WHY?"
"Well, you buffoon, so I wouldn't have to throw it away! Why waste perfectly good food?"
"WHY DO I HAVE TO BE YOUR EXPERIMENTAL PET IN YOUR CULINARY ENDEAVORS, YOU OLD GEEZER?"
"Well, son, you're an idiot, and I just can't explain it to you."
"OK. Whatever."
And that's how that conversation ended.
(I knew I should've gone with KFC. I only have myself to blame. And NOW you understand why pineapple would've been a fucking victory here. :')
Anyway, I retreat to the living room to finish watching the movie I couldn't finish yesterday because, apparently, the tenants renting rooms in the house might hear it.
(As opposed to his fucking yodeling from Mount Everest in the kitchen, which somehow doesn't disturb a single soul?)
The movie is Notorious (2009), about the Notorious B.I.G.
Seven minutes in.
"Why are they talking so much? They're giving me a headache."
"Are you for real?"
I ignore him and keep watching.
He's sitting there with his laptop, playing chess, watching YouTube, and somehow keeping one eye on the TV. Every two or three minutes, he abandons whatever he's doing to ask me another question.
"Didn't he get shot?"
"Wasn't he the one who had a thing with Lil' Kim?"
"Wasn't he friends with the guy who killed him? What was his name again... Poof Daddy?"
"Didn't he have beef with Two Pack?"
I'm trying to watch the damn movie while answering this endless stream of questions, and I'm genuinely starting to wonder how the hell my pops remembers all this stuff.
He never even liked rap music.
But I guess after all these years, some of my interests must've rubbed off on him. LOL.
Seven minutes later.
"Yeah, but why are they cursing so much?"
OH. MY. GOD.
This man complaining about profanity is like Hitler denying he ever gave a Nazi salute at a Nazi convention.
THE AUDACITY.
My father swears like there's no tomorrow. He swears like nobody on Earth can hear him, like the walls are soundproof, and like even GOD HIMSELF has somehow lost the ability to hear his voice.
But NOW?
NOW WE HAVE A PROBLEM WITH CURSING?
Another seven minutes go by.
"It's too loud. The neighbors are going to complain about all that noise and rap music. Please turn it down."
Mind you, the volume is already so low that I can barely make out what anyone in the movie is saying.
Then he looks at the TV.
"YOU HAVE THE VOLUME ON 23?????????"
TWENTY-THREE.
Yesterday, this same man was watching a political debate with the volume on FUCKING 88.
EIGHTY-EIGHT!
(IYKYK.)
But apparently, when I watch something, volume 23 is a public disturbance.
LIKE WHAT?
GIVE ME A FUCKING BREAK, OLD MAN!
So I'm sitting there in my chair, trying to watch the movie, with my feet resting on the footrest in front of me.
A FOOTREST.
You know, one of those things SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR RESTING YOUR FUCKING FEET.
He looks over.
"Don't leave your feet up there for too long."
I turn to him.
"Why the hell not? It's literally made for resting your feet."
And this motherfucker, without a hint of irony, replies:
"It's for guests."
...
SMHHHHHHHHHHHH.
I SWEAR TO YOU.
I CANNOT MAKE THIS SHIT UP!!!
At this point, I've had enough.
I get up, pause the movie, and, while huffing, puffing, and internally fuming with the calm dignity of a man on the verge of committing a felony, inform this Mussolini-Hitler-inspired dictator that I'm going to take a shower.
"Man, I need a shower. You cannot be fucking serious, old man."
So off I go.
And while I'm standing under the hot water, my mind starts wandering.
I start thinking about the rough year I've had. My herniated discs. The back pain. The fact that every single time I start a new job, my back decides it's time to completely fall apart.
I was actually talking to my mom about this the other day, and I swear to God, I think I'm ALLERGIC TO NEW JOBS.
I'm serious.
For the past four or five years, practically every time I've started a new assignment, my discs have flared up so badly I could barely walk. I've had to take heavy-duty morphine just to get through the pain.
And since I'm a traveling nurse/consultant, I change assignments every three to six months.
You see the problem here?
My back apparently has a fucking employment allergy.
So there I am, standing in the shower, thinking about how much weight I've gained over the past few years because I haven't been able to train like I used to.
How I went from being this chiseled, athletic guy to a big dude with MAN BOOBS.
Actual. Fucking. Man boobs.
And the worst part?
My ex-girlfriend, whom I'm now getting back together with, actually told me she LOVES it.
She said, and I swear I'm not making this up:
"I love how smooth and sexy you are now. You're like a 16-year-old girl developing breasts, getting ready for her first milking session."
YES.
SHE ACTUALLY SAID THAT.
And she STILL loves me.
Only God knows why.
So I'm standing there, staring at the shower wall, having what can only be described as an existential crisis.
And I start asking myself...
WHEN?
WHEN THE FUCK DID THIS HAPPEN?
WHEN DID I GO FROM LOOKING LIKE A YOUNG ENRIQUE IGLESIAS TO SOME BIZARRE COMBINATION OF BOY GEORGE AND RUPAUL?
WHEN DID MY LIFE BECOME ME, A GROWN-ASS MAN, LIVING WITH MY FATHER DURING THE WEEK AND MILKING MY TITS ON THE FUCKING WEEKENDS?
WHY?
WHY, GOD?
WHYYYYYYYYY?
...
Anyway.
I'm out of the shower now.
And guess what?
Apparently, "we" are watching YouTube.
And by "we," I mean HE is watching YouTube, and I am being FORCED to participate.
It's some girl walking around his old neighborhoods back in the motherland, somewhere in the fucking Middle East, acting silly and narrating her little stroll through the streets.
And he keeps trying to get me to watch.
"Look at this street!"
"Do you see where she's walking?"
"Come here, look at this!"
"Look! Look at this place!"
Old man, PLEASE.
I am BEGGING you.
I just want seven fucking minutes of peace.
FML.
And FUCK THE OLD GEEZER.
I mean, he's my pops. I love the man. Of course I do.
And the whole reason I agreed to stay here was because I thought it'd be nice to spend some extra time together while I still can.
But GOOD GOD.
Even as I'm sitting here writing this, he's interrupted me at least four times to make me watch that fucking girl wandering around the streets of his old neighborhood.
And that's when it hits me.
From 16:00, when I get home from work, until 22:00, when I finally go to bed, this man has something to say, something to complain about, something to show me, or something to ask me.
CONSTANTLY.
EVERY FUCKING SEVEN MINUTES.
The pizza.
The movie.
The volume.
The cursing.
The footrest.
The YouTube videos.
The endless questions.
And tomorrow?
I get to do it all over again.
FML.
RANT OUT!