At 16 I told my mom that if she didn't back off I would leave and go get a ride down on the highway from a trucker. I added that she need not worry that I couldn't take care of myself, I knew exactly what I'd have to do to get money.

yeah, nice kid I was.

around the same time I cowered away from my father as he leaned in yelling at me and covered my face. He had never hit me like that, but of course, it crushed him that I acted like I thought he would. Just what I wanted.

Teenagers are amazing shits.

Kat,if you see this, you might want to miss Grey's Anatomy tonight.

amych, thanks for the info on the dogs--I'm going to talk with sis this weekend and get the full details on why they were able to get $250 per puppy. If it was a paper scam, I'll tell her to go ahead and get Ergo spayed.

Ah, yes, the teenage tsuris. I wasn't prone to it (I didn't get to really aggravate my parents until my 30s--call me a late bloomer!), but my sister was the queen of hissy fits throughout her high-school years. I remember once watching her and Mom standing nose to nose and screaming at each other when she was about 16, and for her retort to something Mom said, she sputtered a bit, and then blurted, "I'll tell Dad!" Well, our parents had been divorced for a few years by this time, and I knew perfectly well she'd never involve Dad in an argument between her and Mom. So, I asked her later where the hell that statement had come from. She said, "It was either that, or 'Fuck you!', so I went with the one that wouldn't get me smacked across the face." I agreed it was a wise choice. About ten years ago, the three of us were chatting about sis's turbulent teens, and I brought this incident up. Sis had forgotten about it, and Mom cracked up laughing when she heard the full story.

Oh, I was the easy kid. My brother really put them through the wringer. The battles that were fought, words said with that one...well, it was truly ugly. All sides were provoking, though mom was the least of them. My brother really sees the only provocation mom provided was not being enough of a hardass. He and dad more than made up for that.

I'm just really glad they all survived it and grew back together. Those years were bad, but we're over it now. Except to marvel at it and discuss the personality traits it revealed.

sara, I've gathered that GA is a madison intensive episode, and where there is madison, there is neonatal woes. So I dunno.

For the year I was 13, I stopped talking to my mom entirely.

I hate freecyclers. They are whineyhead babypants.

What are freecyclers?

You've guessed correctly. Kicks in about 28 minutes in. Other stuff involved after that, but yeah. Depending on how you can deal. Screw the needy freecyclers!

I stopped talking to dad at 14. Lasted a few weeks. He turned up the tv volume on me in the middle of a debate. He'll still try to out-talk me, but he hasn't shut me out since. Tries maybe sometimes, but we're both more stubborn now.

freecyclers is a mailing list that hooks up people with stuff to give away with people who want or need stuff.

Like I'm trying to give away two bags of maternity clothes. the woman who said she would pick it up at 7, emailed me an hour ago to say that she google mapped me and she thought I was in Burbank. But my new place (which is like 8 miles from Burbank, which is nothing in LA) is too far and would cost too much in gas. But she could make it on the weekend.

Excuse me? WTF?

Sigh.

Most of the horrible things I did as a kid to my parents were to try and set my father against my mother to distract them from me. I didn't try it more than two or three times, but I had a very good success rate. I have no idea if they worked out what I was doing, but even though it seemed like I'd gotten off clean it wasn't something I wanted to do often since the wrath that would come down upon me busted would far outweigh anything I was trying to avoid.

I'm home from goddamned kettlebell with a shoulder that feels like iron and a head that's pounding.

Thoroughly not excited by life right now.