Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine, Mine...

Pixar has some very creative brains. The seagulls from Finding Nemo and their "Mine" thing was awesome. Not so awesome is my mom's version of it. Yes, I am still smarting over her eating my sundae from Friendly's that I really was looking forward to eating eventually. Most lately, she found a bag of pop corn and asked if it was for her. Sigh. Grr. Poo! It was in fact for her, but I was trying to parcel it out. If I give her the whole bag, she eats the whole bag. Partly because she forgets that she has eaten any, partly because, well, she does enjoy eating. Still. Which is a good thing. Just not the whole, sort of, gluttonous thing.

Olivia D'abo...sigh...

I don't know that I am going to make it until I get a break in April. Really. Mom is just being incredibly selfish and greedy and it is really, really frustrating. Tonight, we got some bad winter weather. Slush falling from the sky. Our power lines didn't like it, so out went the lights. I was at the Smith - called mom - didn't get an answer, so I drove home. Sure enough, our lights were out. I got mom a candle, used a flashlight to get her to and from the bathroom and then decided that she would be ok while I went and got Chinese food for dinner. Chinese food had been my plan all along but with the power out, cooking wouldn't have been all that easy or fun. Did I mention the dishes are piled really high and deep in the sink? Anyway, when I got out everything was all snarly and icky. Police and fire had closed off the strip mall. Luckily the Chinese place, Ling Ling was still open with power! Hao! I got a good pile of food - I wish they would give us containers that didn't have separated sections. Whatever. Then I decided to head to the Smith so that I could clean up the seminar I missed and help Nate through his second attempt at projection. Eventually I made it back home - where we were still without power. Candles for everyone!

Now came an unpleasant, for me, part of the evening. I really, really don't enjoy hearing my mom eat. Watching is even worse. Sigh. I sat with her in her candlelit bedroom while she snuffled through her food. It is cute how she discovers stuff - is this salmon? What is this, a shrimp? I guess I didn't get any green beans. Oh, here's one! And then the sounds of mastication. Joy and rapture! I endured it as long as I could and then headed off to my room for a lie down. Not much else to do with no power on. Just as I was closing my eyes, the power came back. Yippee!

So where do the selfish and greedy things come in? After dinner, I gave her a bowl of popcorn (from the Smith) and an apple treat from the Chinese restaurant. I come back to check a little later and her show is over. She looks at me and says "what else is there for me to nibble." Seriously. Not a thank you for the food she has been given. Not abashedly. Just "What else is there for me to nibble." I mean, come on, you had dinner, you had a snack, you fed yourself ice cream. I have brought you food, snacks, out on your shows for you and what do I hear. "What else is there for me to nibble." I am glad I have some self control otherwise I might have really exploded. As it was, I told her that there wasn't anything else just now and she would just have to go to bed. During the time it took her to stand up and head upstairs, I had gotten her fresh cold water and taken her up a fiber bar. Sigh.

All in all, it isn't really a big deal. I have it really easy. I need to chill out and let it all slide off. And the new mom does say she loves me a lot - used to be a surprise to hear it, now she says it five or more times a day. And she seems grateful, most of the time, for my efforts (or anyone's efforts) on her behalf. When she isn't wishing she were dead. That's always a joyful part of the day. Anyway...looks like I have the weekend off from the Smith. Trying to keep my hours down because we don't have a lot of money coming in. I look forward to the day that movies are consistently making money for the Smith. Ok, I would settle for routinely making money...