It's been a long, long time.....

Happy Black Friday! I will proudly say that I DID NOT participate in the insane door buster sales at any of the big box stores. After seeing the news stories today I know that I had the right idea. Shop online. Save time and aggravation. I'm all about the time management these days. "I ain't got time for that!" Life is too damned busy for that nonsense. :)

Well, where to start? I haven't touched this blog in a year and a half. Life has a way of getting in the way of writing about it, however, I am going to at least put an update, I can't promise regular postings. 

Baby boy is 4 1/2 years old, in VPK 5 days a week. He starts Kindergarten in the fall. Where did the time go? Didn't I just have a baby not that long ago? He is fiercely independent, smart and adorable. I love him and he is my heart!

Family wise, lots of stuff going on. My mom had to have open heart surgery in October, thank God she is ok. My sister is going through a divorce that is so acrimonious and horrible it's been terrible. She has lost her job and her home, and I fear she has lost her mind as well. This is what has consumed my attention and worry for the past year or so. I pray that everything works out and she gets back on her feet for every one's sake, especially the kids.

As for the "bad friend"- she is no longer in my life at all. A few months ago I noticed that she deleted me on FB. So long, sayonara, arrivederci, goodbye. I had pretty much had her on restricted status so she couldn't see my updates anyway, so I guess she just deleted me. Oh well. No biggie. She is in my past now, and I am surviving without her. I have more than enough drama in my family to keep me busy, no need for anything additional.

The job is still going well. I have it really good there, and I love it. I can only hope that things continue to be on the up and up there. Praise God!

And that's it for now! I hope to update a LITTLE more often than I have been. I'll try to be better. :)

Ciao!

Do I or don't I?

So today marks Shell's daughter's Sweet 16 birthday... of course, I should have expected that I would get a phone call today. Highly ironic that on HER daughter's birthday, she would take the time to finally call me back, isn't it?

This all came about because I put a Happy Birthday FB posting to the kid on her page. Shell also had a status stating that her daughter was turning 16 today.She used one of my wedding pics of her daughter (she was my flower girl) and cropped me out of the pic. Basically my comment was that I liked the original pic better with me in it. It kind of aggravated me that she cropped me out. She has SO many pics of all her friends on her page, but none of me and my son...but everyone else gets face time. I know, it's petty, but it still bothered me. To me, it seemed like yet another example of how unimportant I am in her life.

At any rate, this precipitated the obligatory phone call this morning inviting me to the "last minute" birthday bbq. She also made sure to mention that there was a Sweet 16 party in the works, but of course was not yet planned. Whatever. She has known about this for ages, why would she not plan this party ahead of time? WTF? Her very eloquent verbal invite also included the phrase "I understand if you don't want to come." Gee, you think? Do I really want to come to this little last minute soiree for your child? KNOWING that I was a last minute invite? Really? AND bring some sort of present too? No thanks, I'd rather have my wisdom teeth yanked from my head than attend this so called party. If she couldn't come to my boy's 1st party, then there's no way in hell would I have any interest in attending her girl's 16th. She didn't even bother to give him a gift. There's not a chance in hell that I will go to this party, or the one she hasn't planned yet. In my mind, it was a completely disingenuous and insincere invitation, done only to relieve her own guilt for being a crappy friend that can't be bothered to call me back once in a while. In her mind, as long as she extended the invitation, then the ball is in my court. If I refuse to go, she is off the hook once again. This is true, she will be off the hook in her mind, but not in mine.

I told Hubby about this and he said that I should call her back, "Be the bigger person." However, I am sick of being the bigger person. I have been that person for over 20 years. I am always the one who does the right thing and acquieces to her nonsense. This in turn enables her to wiggle her way into my good graces again, setting me up for yet another disappointment when she decides to not be bothered with me once something more titillating comes along; whether it is a new guy, a new friend, or an old friend she reconnected with, no matter, I always rank the lowest on the list. I am tired of being that person.

So as I sit here typing this, I am trying to decide whether I should do one of the following:

1) Return the phone call, and politely decline the "invitation."
2) Don't bother to call back and let her wonder if I ever got the message.
3) Text her back declining the invitation.
4) Call her and then decide to go.

Obviously #4 is out of the question- I don't think that it would be a good idea as it would just enable her to wiggle into my good graces that I don't want her to wiggle into anymore.
#1 is the most civilized option- not sure if I am feeling civilized today.
#2 is the most uncivilized option- not even I am that rude (although she is.)
#3 is the most impersonal option- I am leaning towards this as I have no interest in actually speaking to her.

So right now I have to make a decision how to respond, as the ball is now in my court.... we shall see!

That's it and that's all for now.....

And The Rant Continues...

It recently occurred to me that I hadn't blogged in 2 months.... I have been so busy that I have had no time to get on here, as a result this entry will be a tossed salad of sorts...a little of updates on the baby, a little bit of job update and of course, a "bad friend" update. My blog would NOT be complete without a rant about my so called friends. I wonder if any of you are as sick of hearing about it as I am... I hate that I have to whine about it, but I have no other outlet for my feelings and if you have kept up with me this long then I would suppose you have an interest in what happened. So here goes:

Baby Update:
My baby boy is 14 1/2 months old. He started walking on 2/27/10 while we were at my sister's house in Orlando for my nephew's birthday. He just all of a sudden started walking... I was so excited that I applauded and he got scared and fell down... lol! Within a week he was walking all over the place and now almost 2 months later he is running and is really quick, I can barely keep up with him! Now you know why I have no time to get on here to blog... ;) He is 31.5 in tall and 24.2 lbs as of his last appointment with the GI Dr. We are finally weaning him off the Prevacid for the reflux that he had since he was an infant. He will probably have his last dose on Sunday or Monday and that should be it. God willing he will not need to go back on it again. We are taking him to see a Pediatric Cardiologist on Tuesday- the GI Dr noticed a strange heart rhythm on 2 different occasions when he checked him so he recommended it get checked out. It's likely some sort of heart murmur, that is something that is predominant on my Mom's side of the family...My Mom, brother and I all have murmurs. I have faith that this will only be a precautionary appointment and will be nothing serious. Keep praying for a good and positive result.

Baby boy was a great eater up until the past 2 weeks or so. He went from eating anything I gave him to being extremely fussy. He often refuses even things that are his favorites like fresh bananas and his cereal and fruit. About the only foods that I can guarantee he'll eat are Goldfish crackers, YoBaby yogurt and Gerber snacks (Puffs and Little Crunchers.) Oh, and cookies. The kid has a sweet tooth... it was inevitable...once he had his birthday cake and got a taste for sugar, that was it... I knew it then!

On to the next update- Job:
I still love the job. My boss has given over a few more responsibilities to manage. I am ordering display modules and working on a special project for one of the sales guys. We recently endured an office remodel and I now have brand new carpeting in my office. Thankfully, they didn't end up stripping down the wallpaper in my office. I think they ran out of time. I don't think that I could have dealt with the chemical smell and then the paint smell. Now that there is new carpet down, it's unlikely that they will do anything with the wallpaper. That's fine with me, I like the office just the way it is. I still have some idiots to deal with there...I need to do a separate blog post about the individual characters I work with. My boss and I have given a bunch of them nicknames so we can openly talk about them without anyone knowing what we are talking about. It's all very "Code Name, the Cleaner".. lol. I get a kick out of it.

And Finally- what you have been waiting for- The "Bad Friend" Update:
Where do I start? I guess I'll start with where I left off... I was left hanging as to what happened with Shell's daughter and the hospital. Well, apparently the "rash" she had was a symptom of an illness that is blood born- I can't recall the name of it right now, but basically, she developed this condition asa result of having Mono earlier in the school year. It attacked her white blood cell count and her # was so low that she was admitted to the hospital. She was in for 5 days, during which time no one- not even her parents- answered the telephone so that I could be clued in to what happened. Long story short, the girl is ok. I'm glad she is ok, but I still take exception to the fact that I wasn't told about the situation, I was left hanging. And the fact that one of her OTHER friends was told about it, and was with her at the hospital during this whole ordeal. My point was..even if she herself couldn't make the call, couldn't she have had her friend at least call a couple of people, especially since her phone was ringing off the hook? The whole thing seems too fishy. I hate to be cold, but I am really thinking that the whole ordeal was exaggerated so that she had an out for the party. And this is why... a couple of weeks ago, Hubby and I were down in her neck of the woods (she lives 45 min away) on an errand so I called her to see if she would meet up with us, or if we could stop by. I called on the way (both home and cell) and NO answer (of course!) I called again after we left the store we were at- NO answer. Finally I got pissed off and told hubby..."We are only 2 minutes from her house...let's drive by and see if her car is there." Sure enough, her NEW car (yes, the one with no money somehow got money to put down on a car- the married bf perhaps?) Seeing that she was home really made me mad...so I text messaged her "I like your new car- silver is a nice color." Wouldn't you know it? She called me RIGHT back! She KNEW she was found out! Then I got a song and dance about how her phone was upstairs and she never heard it ring, etc. And she HAPPENED to go up there and saw the text. I said...what about the house phone? I called a couple of times... her answer? "No one ever answers that phone." NICE. Seriously what is wrong with her? So anyway. she tells us to come over, and we arrive there. It's the first time I have had baby boy at her house. Her mom had never met him, so she was excited to see him, etc. While we were there, which was about an hour and a half or so- her cell phone kept beeping with tons of text messages from some guy that she said was a "friend from NY." SO her excuse that she never got my messages is just that- an excuse. She always has that phone on her, she just chooses not to respond to any of my calls or text messages (or facebook messages, instant messages or emails.) Another piece of proof that makes me belive that her daughter's ordeal was exaggerated: she had no birthday gift for the baby. If this entire thing was true, and she had really intended to come to the party, then shouldn't she have had his gift waiting for him for when she saw him? I gave her an opportunity to make good on her promise to "bring him his gift", but there was NO GIFT. That means that she never intended to come, or to give the gift. Again I must reiterate that it's not the gift itself that bothers me..it's the intent (or lack, thereof) that bothers me.

If I were her I'd be mortified that I'd been caught in the lie...but she just ignored the fact, as is her usual custom. Since that day she called me once- she clued me in that her best friend from NY (the one she has ALWAYS blown me off for) was coming to town for a week... I knew that I wouldn't hear from her...and it's been 2 weeks since then and I STILL haven't heard from her. I am really tired of all the lies and the nonsense. Be my friend or not..but don't pretend to be what you are not. Get me?


So as of right now, this situation is still unfolding, and I don't have a resolution yet. Maybe, someday I will. I have had many conversations with myself the past couple of weeks on this topic- and the conclusion that I have come to is that I need to make a break- a clean break. Much like when you break a bone, and it needs a cast on it to heal before you can use it again. I need to put a cast on this friendship and wait to see how well the bone heals before I can use it again. I will not call, text, email or instant message her, I will not facebook comment any of her posts or pay any attention to her at all. I deserve a friend that values me enough to share things going on in her life, and to be supportive when things are going on in mine. When things got tough for me, she ran. When things were tough for her- I was there. I am the better friend of the 2 of us, and it's completely her loss to not have me in her life. Her 40th birthday is coming up in June. I originally thought about organizing some sort of party or dinner for her to celebrate it- but now that will not happen. Let her other friends do it for her. Its not likely I'd be included anyway. And when her daughter has her Sweet 16 party this coming September, she can count me out. I'm not going ot participate in it. I don't rank high enough in her life to be involved in the day to day goings on, so she doesn't need a gift or any support from me. Period.

That's it and that's all!!