Possumblog

Monday--Just what everyone wants to start off spring break...

...teen angst.

::sigh::

Monday was the designated day for the kids from church to meet up at the building and do some clean-up and some painting. Rebecca was all excited about going, but Oldest kept whining about it on Sunday. But, hey, whatever.

Then comes Monday, and she got progressively worse and worse as the time to go got closer, she began demonstrating all of the hatred and bitterness and, frankly, delusional idiocy, that makes living under the same roof with her something of a trial.

Sorry.

But what can you say about someone who is convinced everyone--every single person in the world--hates her with the same passion with which she hates everyone else? People go out of their way to try to be nice to her at church, but they also have the nerve to talk to other people, too--you know, normal social interaction.

Let me just say, I have learned that some people dislike not being the constant center of attention.

And dislike the idea that to have friends, you have to be friendly. And that if you mistreat other people, it really shouldn't be a big surprise when people don't want to be around you constantly.

Be that as it may, she and Rebecca were taken to the building where we arrived promptly at 9:00 a.m., and despite Oldest's crying and moaning and general ass-making-of-herself in the lobby, she was made to stay. Her (surprisingly, much more mature) younger sister was put in charge of her to make sure that she had someone who would talk to her and take care of her if anyone had the audacity to actually go off and try to get some work done rather than shower her with attention and adulation.

Of course, the entire time Oldest treated said sister like dirt, and from what I heard in the after-action report, pretty much did the same to everyone else, as well.

Around about 3 or so, Oldest called and demanded to be picked up, although Rebecca was still having fun painting and cleaning and being part of the group. Oldest had managed to do a few piddly things in between her bouts of running to the bathroom to hide in an effort to create a greater spectacle of herself. In the times that she wasn't avoiding work, she'd pretty much made it clear to anyone who she could find to talk from 9:01 that morning that she had been FORCED to be there and could not WAIT to go home.

I got there and she had that purse of hers strapped on and was clomping around ready to go, but Rebecca was still a bit pouty about having to quit. "Can I stay until we're done, and you can come back and get me?"

I really wasn't in the mood to take another trip across the county, and no one seemed to have a good handle on just how much longer all the painting was going to last. We were standing there discussing the alternatives when the mom of one of her friends (and, by extension, since we all know everyone, one of Oldest's friends) said she could stay and then go home with them afterwards. "But, you don't have pajamas, and your clothes are dirty, and..."

Said Mom, "Well, we'll find her something to sleep in, and I'll wash her stuff along with my girls'."

"Oooo, pleeeease, Daddy!? Please?"

How could I resist?

I kissed her goodbye and told her to be good, and turned around to see Oldest stalking off with her usual highly exaggerated foot stomping towards the door. ::sigh::

Got in the van, and she starts trying to yank the seat belt out of the roof pillar. Apparently, she'd been under the mistaken impression that if you complain all day about having to be around a certain group of people, and had acted like you hated the very ground they walked on, and told them all you could not wait to leave, and how you wished you were at home alone reading in your room, and all you could talk about was how smart you were and how stupid everyone else is, and HOW YOU COULD NOT WAIT TO LEAVE, and you constantly wondered why you had been forced to stay, and how you HATED it and wanted to LEAVE--well, gee, the mom of your friend might not be all that wrong to have let you GO ON HOME rather than subject you to further humiliation of having to be around people you hate.

Imagine.

In a very sharp exchange, Oldest was told that she couldn't have it both ways. You can't be hateful and expect people to fawn all over you. You can't say how much you want to leave because you hate it there, then have them beg you to stay.

As usual, common sense had no effect.

::sigh::

Monday was not a pleasant day.

EXCEPT!

Ever since I'd installed Windows XP, my HP Pavilion had been running like a rat in a glue trap. It had 64MB of RAM, but it obviously needed more--a LOT more. I'd shopped around for some in the past year, but I, being cheap, just couldn't see paying $80 for a 128 card, despite the mouth-breathing kid at the hole-in-the-wall computer store telling me that it was a good deal and I'd better buy it now before they were all gone. Seems the PC100/133 hardware was going the way of the dodo or something.

ANYway, Staples had an ad in the paper on the previous Sunday, so after the girls had been delivered that morning to the church building, Boy and Cat and I drove back to the Easy Button Store and picked up two 128MB cards for the princely sum of 40 bucks. Yep--20 dollars apiece. Pretty hard to beat that.

And BOY, what a difference 256MB makes over 64! I got home and after much tearing apart and dustbunny blowing out, I clicked the cards in and buttoned 'er back up, and it was startling how much faster it worked. Even AOL worked better, almost as fast as I'm used to at work!

BUT NOT TO BE OUTDONE--in yet ANOTHER technological leap forward, I actually went and took the plunge of ordering DSL through our local phone company! Goodbye, buggy whips! Goodbye, whale oil lamps!

I figure if it's the same price as dial-up, why not? The service starts tomorrow, but the modem and wires and all came some time during the week, so it's all ready except for the install and plugging in the Ethernet cable. WOO-HOO!

It better be good, or I'm gonna be awfully put out.

Posted by Terry Oglesby at March 27, 2006 09:27 AM