Well it Sure is Monday

I heard on the way in this morning that poor sweet Mercy passed away last night, her little heart gave out after all that she has been through. Such a sad story, bless her poor little heart. 10 short months of life and to suffer the way that she did... at least she got to know in her final days that there are some good and caring people in this world. There is an $11,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the monster(s) that did that to her. I wish I would win the lottery so I could multiply that by a lot.

The kid and I had a busy day yesterday - we met some friends at Six Flags, then went home for a bit so I could take a shower then went to a long-overdue family birthday dinner, for 4 of us that had not had a birthday dinner yet since November, then we went bowling. It was a fun, busy day.

I am fast determining that the kid's Mama is possibly more psychotic than I already knew. I had not talked to her myself lately, but she has been filling the kid's head with ideas of spending the whole summer up in Oklahoma with her, and going to school up there, etc., which is not about to happen and I don't appreciate her springing things like that on the kid without talking to me. There's just no way any of that is going to happen. She has moved twice in the last month, the first time saying she had to move very suddenly but was getting her own place within a week, she still has no car, and I never know what her job situation really is. She got a new cell phone for a week or two then somehow went back to her original one. It's all very unsettled and... strange.

So she called yesterday as I was getting out of the shower. The kid was watching cartoons and brought me my cell phone as I was toweling off, and said it had been ringing, though it was no longer ringing. I glanced at it, saw that it was Mama, and went on and hurried to get ready so we wouldn't be late(r) for dinner, figuring we'd call her back later. At the restaurant, my Mom hands me her cell phone to listen to a message that Mama left for her right after she called my phone. She was crying, hysterical, saying she just had the shittiest day of her life and all she wanted was to talk to her daughter etc etc.

So then I listened to the message she left on my phone. I give you, verbatim, not as hysterical as her message on my Mom's phone, but upset and through tears:

"I guess it's just a waste of my time trying to talk to my daughter. I don't know what I did to piss you off, or what I've done to not piss you off or what I could do different, but all I wanted to do is talk to my daughter. I've had the horriblest day of my life and all I wanted to do was hear her voice and you can't even call me back. I pray for you and I pray for her and I guess I'll see you when I see you, I don't know what else to say. Please tell her how much I love her and I miss her. Please. Bye"

Now, bear in mind that that was the first time she called yesterday, and she had talked to the kid a few minutes the day before, Saturday morning, and told the kid she would call her back but then never did. Thus the ball had been in her court to call, though had we not been so very busy all day yesterday then the kid likely would have asked to call her at some point and we would have. I have never refused to call Mama when the kid asks to.

We ended up getting home from the bowling alley past the kid's bedtime, though I really wouldn't have wanted to call Mama back even if it hadn't been so late, because I didn't know if her mood/demeanor had changed and I certainly didn't want to expose the kid to that kind of hysteria. I told the kid that Mama called but that we would try to call her back this morning. I actually figured she would be at work, but that the kid could leave Mama a nice voice mail and then we'd try to call again after work/school.

As it turned out, Mama answered, and did not go to work today. So the kid and she chatted a few minutes then she asked to talk to me. I got on the phone and asked her how she was doing, explained our busy day yesterday and asked if everything was all right. She quite cheerfully told me that everything was great, no mention at all of yesterday's horribleness, said she was enjoying living in her very own 2-bedroom house, she has a room for the kid all fixed up, she has changed jobs and is making more money, in fact has 2 jobs, 1 being part time in a bar, and that she had to take the day off to get her water bill changed over to her name.

Um, can't you take care of that with like, a phone call? And taking the day off from a new job?

What I'd like to know is how Mama can suddenly afford her very own 2-bedroom house when just a few weeks ago she was telling me she was looking for a second job to try to get a finance company (aka basically a loan shark) off of her back, while living with some guy and presumably sharing bills. I'm particularly interested in how this sudden awesome house relates to her desire to have the kid there full time ASAP...

I'm looking into it.