Am I Sick 2014-04-30

[Dave]

I kinda read it as "I told you not to go into your sister's things" ...

... but then it would have been "get into", not "go into"? I dunno. (Not native over here ...)

I think you've got it right. "Go into" is used more to refer to a place, while "get into" is a colloquial expression for "pry into" or "snoop into" (or, in general, "access in an inappropriate way" e.g. "the raccoons got into the garbage again.")

It's not a hard and fast distinction - different regional dialects vary. So, what Kath said could be referring either to a room, or to Atsali's personal belongings, but the former is a more common usage.

[zachariah]

How has no one ever had The Talk with this girl, even when she was an orphan?!

Only girl friends and it appears that she didn't have many. The person in charge of the orphanage was male and I doubt he would have been comfortable trying to explain the facts of life to teenage, or younger, girls. Most men are embaressed to discuss it with their daughters and let mom do it.

Daughters are gods revenge on fathers. After all they know how they were when younger and fear their daughters meeting someone just like them.

[scantrontb]

How has no one ever had The Talk with this girl, even when she was an orphan?!

Only girl friends and it appears that she didn't have many. The person in charge of the orphanage was male and I doubt he would have been comfortable trying to explain the facts of life to teenage, or younger, girls. Most men are embarrassed to discuss it with their daughters and let mom do it.

Daughters are gods revenge on fathers. After all they know how they were when younger and fear their daughters meeting someone just like them.

i'll agree with the lack of girl friends in the orphanage, and that Mr. Meadows probably hasn't had that particular talk with Atsali yet as: a) she had not yet hit puberty under his care, therefore it would have been too soon, and b) she is no longer under his care... therefore it's too late for him, or whomever in the orphanage it would have been delegated to, to be giving that talk... be that as it may... i think she's well aware of what is "supposed to be" happening in the generic "sure i know what 'sex' is" vs reality of what it entails, as a teenager, but because she's a teenager that has "just" gone thru puberty, and it hasn't yet caught up to her mentally yet, she isn't prepared for the "actuality" of it happening, that's why she's so surprised about it... I'm pretty sure that she has enough knowledge of the subject to be wary about it, otherwise how else would she know that she doesn't want her Siren side to be let out, and of her hopes that she took after her dads side of the genetic lottery? the only snag in this theory is that the hormones involved throw out the brain in favor of the dream... as seen by the fact she hasn't twigged to her wingboner happening right as she was dreaming about the boy (not sure if she was really asleep at that point, so it might not have been a true dream, whatever)... hopefully she'll get it out of her system in order to actually get some sleep, then when her mom get's to talk to her tomorrow, this'll come up and Kath will have another giggle, and help her get it sorted out... though the rule-of-funny seems against this, at least not until a few days in school have passed...

[Catawampus]

I'm just hoping that in the few years remaining before Atsali goes off to college, Castella matures enough to be able to deal with her leaving to live in the dorm.

If Atsali goes to a local college, she might not even move out.

I think they already have separate bedrooms - Kath chastises Castela "I told you not to go into your sister's...(room?)" (probably intended to follow with "when she's not there").

I got the impression that they both shared a room at first, but that after Atsali's stung-by-a-bee incident the living situations changed. Hence Atsali referring to "her room" and Katherine's "not to go into your sister's-".

How has no one ever had The Talk with this girl, even when she was an orphan?!

She's obviously been scared and ashamed of her siren heritage. If she knows that sex has a lot to do with sirens, then she might have been actively avoiding learning much about it. Kind of a, "if I don't know about it, then it can't affect me" mindset. And since she was still in her early teens before being adopted, the people at the orphanage might have not pressed the issue yet. Apparently she had some sort of talk with her mother, but what all it involved and how much got through to Atsali is uncertain. Besides, there's a considerable difference between hearing about something and experiencing it yourself.

I've kind of wondered how this sort of thing was approached. Personally, I learned about the technical and some of the social details by reading medical textbooks many years before I was even physically able to put any of that information to use, but I'm pretty sure that that isn't how most parents try to let their kids learn about such things. I've only ever seen parents in this sort of situation with their kids on television or the like, which I know is a rather doubtful reflection of how things really go. Seeing as how society's approach to children and sex is to pretend to the former that the latter doesn't even exist, I just don't see how they can go from "there is no such thing as this s-e-x word" to "see, here's how it works and what you need to do". How do they even decide when their children need to learn? I'd imagine that most kids end up having to learn in their own rather haphazard way, which might not be the best way to go about such things. . .