How did we get to December, again? November seems to have been really rather fraught.

November seems to have been really rather fraught

November was awful. December is starting out with a stomach ache, and my mother put her back out while sleeping (according to second-hand reports).

OTOH, I saw November out with a Springsteen concert, so I woke up singing "Land of Hope and Dreams".

I met the XD of the senior facility yesterday, and she said that Mom was never going to be happy anywhere, but that they thought they were getting incremental improvement in her attitude over the week. Despite this, at 6:30 last night my dad called and told me they wanted to move back to the old place. I pointed out he'd given me the keys and it was going to be sold. And then my mother got on the phone and started swearing at me, so I hung up.

I'm down three pounds from before Thanksgiving.

It's really hard to support my dad when he keeps trying to undercut his own position!

Consuela, I hope the XD is right about seeing an improvement in your mom. Even though she still trying to leave, her attitude actually at the facility might be improving a little bit.

Has she started Haldol yet?

(I just typed Hordor instead of Haldol...)

Ugh, 'suela. That's the worst. In some ways, though, it allows your dad to not have to be the bad guy. He's the in-between, but is it possible he really doesn't want to move, but it's easier for you to be the bad guy (for him)?

is it possible he really doesn't want to move, but it's easier for you to be the bad guy (for him)?

Yes, but I don't think that's conscious: he's not that subtle or deceitful. It's just that he's old and frail and manipulable. He knows they need to stay but he doesn't know how to make it happen by himself.

Rather than deal with them directly this morning I'm going to go out to the old apartment and pack up their Christmas stuff to set up in the new place.

Didn't that just happen to you before?

Yep, that's what happened in the place I moved out of in August. Good times.

In ACTUAL good times, I just had a great trip to Target! I got presents for multiple people, stuff for stockings (I told my mom I would be the lead on stockings this year), and almost nothing for myself. Perfect!

Ugh. My cat just put his poopy butt on my bed. So I guess I'm doing laundry next. At least that works with my lack of interest in leaving the house.

I went to target too! I didn't do so well with the present to for me ratio, but at least I bought cat food.

They were out of all the fake Christmas trees I liked though, so I went online to see if they had any of them there, and now I am wondering about a black Christmas tree [link]

What do people think?

I think it's kind of cool, but would be best with some coordinated ornament situation, and that's just Not For Me.

I'm not doing laundry yet, and poor dumb Homer is curled up right on the poopy spots on my comforter. So gross, cat!

What do people think?

I think of Black Christmas.