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Christmas sucks, pt2: the sucking continues�
December 29, 2009
I ended up stuck on the phone for hours with various relatives last night�my SIL�s mother passed away yesterday morning. Although I am heartbroken for SIL, my niece and nephew , and her whole family, I really didn�t know the woman, and the few times I met her over the years, she was cold and distant to the point of rudeness. I also know that in the 32 years since my brother has known SIL, her mother has been in poor and steadily declining health, and that she was pretty much in the same state as Papa was when he died (also of pneumonia, also right after Christmas.), so this was as much of a blessing for her as death can be, I guess.
My other SIL has already taken the responsibility of sending flowers in the family�s name Not crazy about that, but she meant well, I guess. But she could have asked first. With her antipathy to telephoning (I can relate) and emailing (not so much), though I suppose she�d rather just go ahead and do it.
Anyway, the long convo was with my mother, who was very much in a gabby mood. I know it�s selfish of me to prefer Farmville and my supper to talking with Mom from 5:50 to 7:00 pm, but the important thing is that I did stay on the phone and let her blow off steam to me for seventy minutes. She obviously needed me, and what else am I going to do?
I forgot to mention, in yesterday�s rant, that my stupid, spoiled, selfish asshole of a brother has decided he wants to salvage the marriage he�s been trash-talking for the last two years. He�s decided he �can�t live without her�, and proclaimed just that to a relative right before Christmas; �If I can�t get her back, I�m going to kill myself!� Unfortunately, the relative he unloaded on happened to be his 16-year-old daughter. I ask again, world�just how selfish and narcissistic do you have to BE to pull that kind of garbage?! I have no use for either of them, but the four children they have brought into the world between them have a right to not get shit on for Christmas�and in the case of the youngest, his birthday.
I take such talk very seriously. Not the suicide talk in itself; I mean the spouting it off in front of children who love you. I admit, as a someone who clearly remembers what it was like to have a suicidal grandmother taking a lugubrious pleasure in informing me that she wouldn�t be around to see me grow up, I come to the situation with heavy baggage. But come on�is there anyone who would say it�s a good idea to unload like that on your teenager?!
Reading:"Ruth Fielding in the Red Cross, Or: Doing Her Best For Uncle Sam", Copyright 1918 (Ruth Fielding #13) As America enters The Great War, the chronicles of our heroine take a dark turn away from her adventures in mild mysteries, silent movies, college life, and the �Wild West�. Also reading: �Up In The Air�, by Walter Kirn. Meh.
Surfing:
Truth is stranger than fiction, and I�m no stranger to these truths.
Listening: Now that the holidays are over, and the weather is better, Spouse has (somewhat) released his control-freak stranglehold on my life and actually let me drive myself to work today. Oh, the joys of 40 minutes alone in my car, listening to NPR�
At Random: click here
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