So….okay….yesterday afternoon at 4:05 I got a call here at work from my Mom.“Stanley is at the Safeway in Silverdale and he’s locked himself out of the car!”
My first reaction was to laugh and say, so what does that have to do with ME?, but I refrained from being as cold as I really am, and said,
“Well, there’s really nothing I can do, as I am at work. I guess he could call a locksmith but that would cost a pretty penny. Do you have extra car keys?” Mom said yes, she did.
“Okay, then. Try to get a ride with somebody so you can meet Stanley there and unlock the car.” Mom agreed that sounded like a plan so we left it at that.
I got home about 5:30 and told this story to my Mate, who offered that my brother had called 10 minutes before I got home, back at Mom’s, after calling a locksmith.
“Mom isn’t home! Do you know where she is?!"
I just laughed. I have begun to develop another attitude toward The Artists, my Mom and my Brother who lives with her. Mom is back driving her car again after 6 months in a plaster cast, wheelchair, cane and then orthotic, for the broken ankle….which means I don’t have to grocery shop for Them anymore! Hallelujah! Hence, the New Attitude. I want a break from Caretaking. (Must be kind of how Fossil Guy feels about the Caretaking of Grandson, although I think when he’s doing it for Allie, it’s lots more delightful than when I’m caretaking The Artists.)
My new attitude is “Let them eat crap!” I don’t mean literally let them eat dog shit or ca-ca, I mean let them eat the frozen TV dinners and the frozen pizza and the frozen chicken pieces and the potato chips and the huge blocks of cheese and the canned ravioli and the cookies and the Chex Mix and the ice cream and the Brach’s Candy I’ve been buying per their grocery lists. Let them take the OTC sleep aids and Metamucil to help them sleep and shit after eating all that crap. It was hard for me to fill the basket with the high fat low nutrient foods they've asked me to buy for them, but my Mate told me I had to, it was Mom’s money, so I did. But now I don’t have to see it! Hurray! Let them eat crap, I say! And let The Artists get out of the little mess of the keys locked in the car and then enjoy the story of how it all went down. I’ll have a little respite for awhile, until the next crisis comes along, but for now I’ll enjoy the heck out of myself!
Okay….so now you know the real awful me. I hope you don’t stop reading my blog because of it.
