Long Day

I left at 8:45 this morning for church. From church I went straight to work with my lunch in hand. Cataloged for two hours, worked the Sunday reference desk for three hours, stayed after and worked on monthly stats, went to the Dollar Store for snacks and drinks and then to the grocery store for a chicken-salad sandwich for me, and then headed back to church for the youth group meeting. I was home by 8:20, I think.

Meanwhile, Beast went to the hospital to check on his dad, came home and worked outside for a few hours, came to the youth group meeting, left early to go back to the hospital one last time, and came home.

There were two voicemails on our home phone today from a friend of my sister Jean's. While Jean and Reg were here visiting last week, Friend drove in from her home about 90 minutes away and spent the day with them. She called one more time before they left. She's an odd woman, but whenever Jean is in the area, they get together and chat, and I guess she has visited them at their home too. Whatever. Circumstances being what they have been, I don't think she's done more than meet Beast once. He barely knows her, and certainly would neither recognize her name nor her face if he came across them.

The first call this morning was clocked in at 8:56. She wants to know what's going on with Jean. (She is in the hospital in Colorado near Marie because she wasn't breathing well: they discovered pneumonia, anemia, and a general inability to suck in enough oxygen at 8,000 feet above sea level.) "Now!" is all over Friend's voice in the message. She called back at 2:39 this afternoon and left another "CALL ME!!" message. I didn't notice when I got home that we had voicemail--we rarely have anything interesting on it, so I usually don't bother to look. Beast found the second message when he came home at 9:10, which reminded him to tell me about the first one.

I do not call people after 9 p.m. except in pretty dire circumstances. So she'll wait.

However, she has now become Class A Bitch in my book. Dude, you ARE NOT A FAMILY MEMBER. F**k the f**kety-f**k OFF! And do not...do NOT tell me what to do. Reg has Skype; Friend has Skype. They worked that all out last week. If he (or Jean) wanted her to know the details, he'd've Skyped her. Or she could Skype him and ask for details.

I hate being a go-between. HATE. IT. I did this when Ellen died with everyone in my family for about a year and then pulled the plug. You got something to say, say it to the person who needs to hear it. You got a question to ask someone, ask them. Not me. I'm out of this. And so...yeah, I'll call Friend and tell her nothing and that I will be away from ALL PHONE CONTACT EXCEPT EMERGENCIES for the rest of the week. I will do that. Tomorrow.

Oh, wait: her voicemail isn't set up on her cell so I can't leave a message.

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Any patience I might have had for humankind earlier today has evaporated. And I think I'm getting sick. Which is all because other people infected me. STUPID PEOPLE!