Phone rings. I'm expecting a call from a friend, so I answer cheerily. And on the other end of the phone is my second worst nightmare. My worst nightmare? My mother, calling me from beyond the grave. Second worst? My step-mother, her doppelganger. And yes, of course she had been drinking.
So we stumble through the conversation, while I make sure she isn't calling to tell me something important happened to someone. Turns out the theories of persecution and abandonment are running rampant and I'm in trouble because I'm "distant" and they don't think I want to hear from them. Know why that's so funny? Because they moved. A year ago. And never bothered to tell me. But I'm the one who needs to keep in better touch. Ha ha.
Ten minutes later, she calls again, to let me know that she's emailed me all their new information. Yay.
Day goes on, I calm myself down. Then the phone rings ... and there she freaking is AGAIN! This time she's really drunk and hard to understand. As I'm processing my shock and trying to figure out how best to get off the phone, my father comes in at their house and she hands the phone off to him. So we talk, awkwardly. He gets my daughter's name wrong twice. Claims to have sent me his new email address twice. (For the record, he either sent it to the wrong address, or something else went wrong, because I never got them.)
Here's the thing. Actually, there are two things. The first one is that I am DONE with drunk women. I did that. Many, many times. I will not do it again. He wants to know why we don't have a relationship? Because I will not be on the other end of another drunk's maudlin phone calls. I did that with his first wife, and he left me to deal with her on my own. She is, mercifully, gone now to where hopefully she is finally happy, and so am I. I have earned the right not to have to deal with that anymore.
More on the second thing in a bit. Bedtime for little boys is coming up fast!
1 comment:
You started your family from scratch, and have built a wonderful life (no Christmas movie pun intended). If your dad can't even get your daughter's name right, and moved without telling you, where does he get off complaining about you being distant!
Sorry about drunk stepmom "drunk dialing" you--it sounds like the worst way to spend the day.
I miss you--I am blogging again myself (scuba on mars) so we can keep in touch. But we should talk by phone too.
It's been silly hard operating with one hand. Plus it is so maddening to know that I'm letting the fracture heal only to stabilize the finger so they can do surgery on it that will screw it up much worse in the short term. Right now, I'm scheduled to do the surgery with an orthopedic oncologist on Jan 5, but I'm having a mini-panic fit because a different orthopedist and a hand therapist told me that having the surgery with anyone BUT a hand surgeon would be a huge mistake. So I don't know what to do--I really like the surgeon I'm scheduled with, but I'm worried about permanently messing up my left hand because he specializes in bone tumors and not hand surgery. Plus it's hard to meet people right now, because I know I'm going to be out of it for activities after the surgery for a good while . Bah humbug! (I'm whiny today)
Post a Comment