Adding insult to injury

As if stealing my ebay auction from me wasn't bad enough (I admit it, I'm not angry only because I won a similar auction for just a few dollars more), yesterday afternoon my mother had the nerve to ask me for money to help her pay for the printer. Right. As if we're really rolling in the dough. She quickly forgot that despite having several grand in our account and a bit more in our hands last Friday, it quickly dwindled, between bills, oh, and some more bills. You see, when you pay off everything that is currently owed and THEN SOME, you're kind of left with not a lot. And to top it off one of my brothers is once again living with us -- has been for almost two weeks now, and could be here for up to
six
more weeks) -- and of course it's the one that eats like a fucking horse. Seriously, if he isn't babysat every single minute, he'll easily eat three and four bowls of cereal for breakfast, that and more for lunch, and huge helpings at dinner. And in between he'll buzz through snacks like a chainsaw through a piece of wood. If all that isn't bad enough, he's wasteful about certain things, and a pig when it comes to eating -- leaving trails of milk and juice and tea and soda and crumbs everywhere he goes. Alyssa is a neater eater than him! And you know, with two toddlers and housework and work and wanting just a bit of time for myself, I seriously don't have the time or ability to babysit the kitchen every single minute, especially when the little bastard sneaks in there when I have my back turned or I'm busy and in another part of the house. I'm very tempted to buy a lock for the fridge and keep all of the goodies hidden in our bedroom. Yes, he is
that
bad.

This is also the same kid that enjoys embellishing the truth -- at the very least -- and making up outrageous fabrications and stories. I have also found out, from both my mother and my brother himself, that he is waking up later at night (by later at night I mean well past midnight, and his bedtime is by 8pm) and in addition to coming out and using the bathroom nearest to the bedroom he is staying in and getting a drink, he is eavesdropping on Dan and I. Well, when you are a married couple with two toddlers and a husband that works primarily second shift schedules, you will almost always find yourself having sex later at night, when everyone else is asleep! Anyway, my brother is coming down the hall to our bedroom and listening in on us, and then reporting his "findings" back to my mom, and probably whoever else will listen. And knowing him, "My sister and Dan are having sex in their bedroom" is probably twisted around so that we're doing all sorts of fucking acrobatics in the living room, or better yet in the same room with him. My brother is real good for making up crazy shit like that. That's exactly why he's living with us right now, by the way.
Well, I'm sorry, but Dan and I I are NOT putting our sex life on hold for a twelve year old twerp who wants to sneak around late at night and report what he hears to others in hopes of getting attention. Fuck that. I told my mom AND the caseworker AND his therapists that if it comes right down to it, he can find the front door and leave. Sex is normal, and is a normal part of my life. So unless he wants to sit in foster care until the arrangements for a residential facility are finalized, he can keep to where he should be at night - in bed, unless he has to use the bathroom - and stop sneaking around in front of my bedroom door. Dan and I do our best to keep things quiet, including keeping our door shut and locked, and running the washer, dryer and furnace at the same time to add some white noise to the house. The other night we conceded to using the bathroom, and took a hot shower and had sex there. You'd think that with the washer, dryer, furnace AND behind behind a closed door with the noise of a shower that he wouldn't hear a peep. And I know he wouldn't - if he were in his bedroom sleeping or staring at the ceiling, instead of sneaking to where we're at in the house and listening. The fact that he is evidently still hearing us and repeating things to my mom is enough proof that he isn't staying where he should be. Ugh. God give me strength to deal with this...

Anyway. I'm not helping my mom with paying for her printer. I can't. I'm not touching our bank account to pay for my printer, and I'm sure as hell not touching it to pay for her printer. I'm using my earnings from writing work and paid blogging and advertisements to pay for my printer. Most of that money will be coming into my PayPal account between tomorrow and Friday morning. As soon as I have the total needed (somewhere around $230), I'll be paying the seller for my printer, and that's that.

My mother has issues with being impulsive and compulsive. I think that's my husband's number one pet peeve about my mother (see his comment on my last entry?). A great example is the printer! I first started talking about the printer months ago, and was really lusting after it a few days after Christmas. I lamented to my mom that there was no way in hell I was shelling out $500 for a printer, so I was going to forget about it. It was last week when I decided to check on ebay for the hell of it, and told my mom that I found one on there that, at the time, had only two bids and was at $140, with less than four hours to go (by the way, SHE was the one who drove the price up to $200, because she kept bidding against me. Ergh.). Then all of a sudden SHE had to have one. And of course when SHE won the auction, she made it out to my grandfather and to me and to Dan that SHE was the one who wanted one all along, long before I did. Right. That's why she never even heard of the printer until I told her about it in December.

This has happened before, many times. Farthest back I can think is January 2002, when Dan bought me a digital camera as a belated Christmas present. I called her to tell her all about it. A few days later she went out and bought the same thing. But of course, she had been "looking at digital cameras long before" I had. Sure, Mom. Whatever you said.

January 2005. I decided to upgrade my cell phone, a Nokia something or other (a bottom of the line piece of crap that didn't even have a color screen), to a Samsung E315. Not to be outdone, the next day my mom stops at T-Mobile and signs up for a wireless account and gets the same phone, then comes to tell me all about its great features. As if I didn't already know from checking it out at the store and buying it before she did.

February 2006. I told my mom I planned on upgrading my cell phone again, and was thinking about the Motorola Razr. I bought mine on February 11th. I found out that evening she bought hers a day or two before. Of course, she SHE bought HERS first, I was the copycat.

February 14th, 2006. My laptop from notebooks4free.com arrived. While talking to her on the phone that night I mentioned it to her. The next day she called to tell me she had just bought a similar laptop, whatever one had came out right after it, from Costco, and it was so much better because of X and Y. (Not really - she had a bigger hard drive and the laptop itself weighed less, but that's about it!)

November 2006. I spent a few days reading reviews on the HP Photosmart R967 digital camera. Finally, I decided I wanted it. I looked online and saw that HP offered free shipping, but that Best Buy had a better deal, and no shipping would be required. I would have to drive to Delaware to get it, but the cost of gas would still be cheaper than the extra money and tax I would have had to pay if I bought it online. I told my mom I planned on going to Delaware to get it. She not only came along, but bought one for herself, swearing up and down she read reviews on it as well.

Spring 2007. After taking Alyssa and Ryan to several sittings at Picture People and inquiring about the types of digital cameras they used to take photos, I started looking into DSLRs. I originally had my heart set on a Canon Rebel XTi, because that's what I had seen in action at Picture People. I looked at Nikon reviews, too. I was undecided when, in May of 2007, my mom suddenly ran out and bought herself a Nikon D40x. I decided to try hers out, since I could test it in a variety of settings with different subjects and lighting, rather than in a store by a counter. I really liked it, so when I went ahead with buying a DSLR that June, I chose the Nikon D40x, simply because I had been able to test it out in different environments, and was more than satisfied with its performance. Of course, since my mother was the one to buy one first, I'M the copycat. Never mind the fact that I was the one talking about it long before her...

September 2007. After having my T-Mobile Dash for about a month, my mom just HAD to have one for herself. To date, she lets it run down half the time, and doesn't use it much, except to make phone calls. Why buy such an expensive cell phone if you're not going to use all of the features you're paying so much for? You know, like internet access, email, instant messaging, the ability to synchronize with email, contacts and calendar information on your home computer... in other words, all of those things I both BOUGHT it for and actually USE it for!

Ugh. I'm sorry for the venting, but this constant need to "one up" me by my mother gets REALLY, REALLY OLD. Especially when she buys all this crap that I do, barely uses it, and then bitches about not using it. So far the only thing she hasn't been able to one up me on is a MAN and KIDS (besides the ones she already had long before I had mine). Hah!