My youngest's birthday was yesterday.  It was boring, as my husband and I are still sick (we don't have covid, but it sure feels like it considering it's been over a week now and how bad we feel).  Which made me feel so guilty.  But my son had fun with his brother and their friends.  It was quite hilarious to hear a bunch of dudes singing Happy Birthday to my son all together, without any prompting from anyone LOL  It's been so long since he's had a group of friends to spend his birthday with.  I am so happy they found these guys (the last bunch--who were my oldest's friends that my youngest sometimes hung out with--were freaking awful and I hope they all get arrested at some point in their lives--and they will, no doubt).  These new group of guys (and a girl) are very cool and all have a lot in common.  And unlike the last group, they aren't toxic and evil (one of those little shits from the old group called my father-in-law and pretended to be my oldest son and said he was in the hospital and dying after a car accident!).  

My youngest son has severe social anxiety and these guys have been my oldest son's friends for about a year (or possibly more) and after them all prodding my youngest for, well, mostly the entire time, he finally relented and started doing stuff with them.  And now they're all friends and he even hangs out with them alone, without his brother.  I think that's so cool and I could not be happier.  And I am so happy he had fun with them on his birthday!  It made me feel good to know that us being sick didn't ruin it for him.

My mother, on the other hand, has been hyper and demanding and bringing up shit I thought we had curbed her of, but I guess not.  And yes, she did bring up the fact that she didn't get any scratch tickets on my son's birthday, just like I predicted she would, and it was right in front of my son as he was opening his card with the tickets in it (and he did win $25, making a $5 profit, though!).  How more selfish can you get? 

First of all, she's been babbling again lately.  Which if fine.  It's been raining here for a FREAKING WEEK and she's not been able to play outside, which she normally does daily.  So she's bored, and annoying.  But man, do I enjoy the silence when she's busy doing something other than talking to me.  Because talking to me doesn't mean just "talking" to me.  It means badgering me about dumb things as well as coming up with lots of various silly ideas.  

She even asked to have her own Echo Dot (she asked for an Alexa, as that's what she thinks they're called).  I didn't say no, but she can't even work her own TV anymore.  How on earth would she figure that out?  Alexa about 80% of the time doesn't listen to me.  So, if the same happened to my mom, she'd be at my door giving me it back to get rid of (because the minute something doesn't work, she gets angry at it and throws it away).  Also, she has a CD player right on her nightstand and has her BFF bring over CDs to listen to.  Does she listen to them?  Nope.  She doesn't like music.  So why does she need or want an Echo Dot?  Sigh. 

Then, like I said, she asked why she didn't get any scratch lottery tickets for my son's birthday.  I, again, didn't answer her.  Oh wait, never mind, yes I did.  I said "I wonder why that is?"  She kept feigning ignorance in a silly way, showing me she KNOWS why she's not allowed to have lottery tickets anymore (as she used the cash from her last ones to go behind my back and ask her BFF to buy pet supplies for her that she's not allowed to have).  I just ignored her after that and walked away.

Then she badgered me about my husband being sick, pretending she was worried about him, which she wasn't (as she never actually worries about anyone) and kept getting on my case about him seeing a doctor, which he already had.  She had already asked him twice to go to the doctor, and then came and bothered me about it.  My husband told her he already had went, but whatever is stuck in her fucking hearing sockets caused her to either not hear him or not believe him, and she then came and bothered me about it.  When I told her he already went, she kept asking what doctor, where it was it at, what day did he go, etc.  What the fuck?  A) noneyabusiness and b) whydoyoufucking care?  Know what?  I was sick all week too, but did she say ONE WORD about that?  Nope.  Only about him.  Showing me, once again, that he matters more to her than I do.  Like I care LOL  The only reasons it bothers me are that a) it's fake and b) it makes him horribly uncomfortable because we know it's all fake concern.  

Then today, after standing at my door and screaming my name a bunch of times and then badgering me about cigarettes, and god knows what else, she asked me to do the dishes.  Not me to do them, her.  She asked if SHE could do the dishes.  

What the holy goddamned hell is going on here? 

If you're new to my blog, know that I stopped allowing my mother to do the dishes over a year ago due a myriad of reasons.  Here they are:

1. She doesn't clean them right.  They are always filthy when she's done.  Some I swear she puts back in the cabinet dirty without washing them at all.  And when I'd bring that up, she'd act all sneaky about it, like smiling and saying "Oh, really?"  You know she did it on purpose to make us mad.
2. One time, she pulled the fucking dirty dish cleaners (I used luffa at the time) OUT OF THE GARBAGE to use on the dishes.  She denies it, but nobody else did it, so I know it was her (nobody else did the dishes at the time, and nobody else would ever in a million years yank them out of the garbage to use).  How fucking sick is that???  I shudder just thinking about how dirty our dishes must have been whenever she cleaned them!!  Oh, she always wants to clean my stove, too and I found out she was using the SAME BRUSH on it as she uses to clean her toilet!!!!  WHAT THE FUCK??!   Yuck yuck yuck yuck!!
3. If I give in and let her do them one time (which makes me giggle, as read #1 and #2 as to why that would never EVER happen), she will then think she can do them every single day from now until forever.  That's how my mom is: give an inch and she won't just take a mile, she'll take the entire fucking world.  
4. And lastly, but not leastly (and definitely most importantly) she acts like an irate lunatic when she does the dishes.  Or really when she does anything.  Like cook holiday dinners or cook any meals or clean rooms or vacuum or really anything at all.  She will yell and scream and blame and use the act of whatever she is doing to bash, accuse, and abuse everyone around her, but mostly my oldest son.  See, my oldest son is her scapegoat in the this house.  I used to be public enemy #1 to her, and my son was #2, but now she can't be mean to me to my face anymore, so she uses my son for this.  Who ignores her.  But she's been better with that, too.  BUT, if I give her back an ounce of power?  Sigh.  We all better watch out because all this rage she's been holding in for the past year (a year ago she had a breakdown and physically assaulted me) will come out and she will let it all loose.  So no, she's never doing my dishes, making us a meal, baking holiday cookies/bars, cleaning areas that are not hers, or having any kind of power over us, whatsoever, ever, ever, EVER AGAIN.  You'd think dishes would be a safe activity for someone to do.  But not my mother.  It's just another excuse to gain control over us.