Friday, December 24, 2004

Stressed

Having a much better today than I did yesterday which had to be one of the most stressful days of recent memory. The weather was bad. It had just started snowing and pretty much didn 't let up until about an hour or so again. The roads have been just awful. A lot of cars in my apartment's parking lot were totally snowed in and couldn't get out unless they were shovelled out!

Yesterday I was to meet my mother at the grocery store at 12:30. At the last minute, Jim decided that he needed to go into work so he wanted me to drive him there before I met Mom. He thought that he would bring our laundry because he would have some time on our hands. Now from where Jim works to where I was to pick up my mother, the oneway drive is approx 45 mins on a good day. Yesterday was far from good. By the time he gets his proverbial s**t together, it is almost 11:30am so there would be no way that I could get him to work and then be on time for my mother. After some arguing with him, I finally got him to stay home with the laundry saying that I would be as fast as I could so that he would still have daylight left to finish the painting.

Had to pick up my daughter who was on an overnight at a friends. Grabbed her and got to the grocery store on time. Went back to my mother's who made us lunch and tea. My ex-husband had called that morning and asked me to bring my mother around with me when I dropped Sara off at his house. Now Sara's father and I have been divorced/separated almost 15 years and not once has he asked me to bring my Mom over so I figured that this was reasonably important. He sure remembered what she was like cause he said not to tell her til the last minute and kidnap her if I had to to get her there. Around the time that Sara and I were to leave, I dropped this on my Mom. She started freaking out saying that I should have told her hours ago that she could not possibly go now, blah, blah, blah. I said that Ted had never asked for a favour so could she just come with us. She kept saying no. I was pretty pissed at this so I kind of shot back that I would remember this the next time she asked me for a favour.

It eventually came out that she had committed to babysit my brother's three kids so his wife could go out on her own. My mother knows that this is a bit of a contentious issue with me because Drew has three kids under the age of six and Mom is just getting over pneumonia which had been pretty severe. Plus, they don't pick her up so she has to take two different buses to their house and then take a bus home in the dark. Problem is that the bus to her house stops running at around 6:30pm so the next closest bus to her house is about a half hour walk - in the dark no less. I guess that she was trying to avoid me finding out that this is what she was doing. Whatever. I said that I would drive her to their house if she would just come with me. Then she said that she would get there too early or something lame and the argument between my mother and I continued. I eventually got her to come with me and I know that she was glad that she did.

Ted had found an old picture of her taken in 1956 that he had framed for her. It was a lovely photo and it had been stuck between the pages of an old book for probably close to 20 years. Of course, she was still somewhat bitchy towards me. She took a shot about how lovely Ted's house was and why couldn't we get a place like this blah, blah, blah but as I said to her, if she ever bothered to come over to our place, maybe she wouldn't be so quick to take a shot. She has only been to our place twice in the fourteen months since we moved. Of course, she is at my brother's all the time. This came up because she was saying how Erica had done this and that and some more of this since they moved into the house back in September. I shot back that she sure is quick to run over to their house but never bothers to come to mine no matter how many invitations I extend. Christ, I even will go and pick her up. Whatever. Dropped her downtown after our visit so that she could go to babysit.

By the time I got home, the sun had pretty much set so Jim was in a bit of a mood but I did my best to ignore that then when I was running out the door to go to work, he decided that he needed some Diet Coke and wanted me to go grab it before I left. I did. When he was waiting for me he noticed that one of the headlights had burnt out so he was fiddling around with it trying to get it to work. The longer he messed around with it, the closer it got to my start time for work. We now have these access cards that we have to scan when we arrive and leave so the exact time we get there is recorded. No more pretending that we were here on time when we arrived five minutes late. Drat. Anyway, Jim had to drive because I was now too agitated and wouldn't have had time to park, etc and be to work on time.

On my dinner break I called Sara to see how things were going. She had been planning on doing her last minute shopping today but the $110 of babysitting money that she was to use towards presents had somehow vanished so she wanted me to drop some money off to her. I owed her $25 and I said that I would give her $50 for the cheque that her godmother had sent her for Christmas as it was dated for December 25th. I didn't have any money until Jim got his pay and I was unable to tell Sara exactly what time I could drop the money off to her. As it was, the weather was awful today so I don't know if I could have been able to get to her anyway. She got all upset with me which was pretty much the last thing that I needed at this point. I said to her that I would talk to her father and have him give her money from my next month's support and he could just deduct that amount come January 1st. Sara's selfish attitude last night pretty much sent me over the edge. I took a couple of verbal shots that I shouldn't have like she was expecting a lot considering she had spent all of her money when she was to save it for Christmas and that the presents that she got for her father and grandmother had been paid for by me so she wasn't even out of pocket for these. She then went on the "I am sorry that I am such a disappoint to you" rant that I just about jumped thru the phone at her. The conversation pretty much disintegrated from there. By the end of this call, I pretty much did not want to go back to work so I didn't. I have been fighting an awful sinus infection for near two weeks now anyway that I used this as my get out of jail card free. Called Jim and said for him to come and get me. Went home and watched a movie and then proceeded to spend today just chilling. To heck with last minute running around as that is what Christmas Eve is for anyway, right? Talked to Sara tonight and she apologized. As it was, none of her friends could even go shopping today so she didn't need the money. I am going to collect her tomorrow and she can come out shopping with me.

OK...wow...that was a lot of typing for me so I guess that I would have to say I am done for now.

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