My Intentions Were Good
I was all set to write a little something for y'all - a nice little summertime tale. And then I ended up talking to my mother on the phone for forty-five minutes - a total of twenty of those minutes were spent listening to her talk to anyone who happened to be passing by her room at The Plantation - staff, other residents, visitors.
It would be tempting to say "Well, she's got Alzheimer's. She doesn't get it. She simply doesn't get that she probably shouldn't be yapping with others while her daughter is on a trans-Atlantic call with her.". Nope - she's always been this way. When I first moved to Germany and she lived with my sister and phone calls to her were much more expensive to make than they are now she'd be talking to me and then start in on a conversation with whomever happened to enter the room with her. Example:
Me on the phone: And so yesterday I...
(Brother walks into room with my mother)
Mother: How was work today? You staying for dinner?
Me: Mama?
Brother: I have band practice. I just stopped by to get something out of the garage.
Me: Mama?
Mother: Well I've fixed some fried chicken. You wanna take some with you?
Me: Mama! Mama! MAMA!!
Brother: Who's on the phone?
Mother: Your little sister.
Brother: Well talk to her!
Mother: You wanna take some chicken with you?
(Sound of me beating my head on wall.)
No, I'm afraid I don't have it in me right now to write for you a regularly schedule blog entry. My mother has sucked whatever ability I had to do that today right out of me. I'm going to need a Fudgesicle and a vodka martini to get over this.
Labels: frustrations
posted by Dixie at 11:19 PM
13Comments:
Sometimes I feel like that when both my boys try to have a conversation with me at the same time.
Which, is pretty much, all the time.
Enjoy that fudgesicle and Martini combo!
My mom does that to me too, sometimes. She actually wanted to know if she could put me on hold last week...
Moms are so fun, aren't they?? My Mom still yells into the phone like it IS a trans-atlantic call when I'm in Illinois and she's in Michigan. :)
Both my mother and my sister do the exact same thing to me.
As a side note, I can't wait to see your mom this fall.
Every few months or so, I'll get so fed up with my mom doing the same thing that I hang up on her. She always calls back, and she knows why she got the hang-up. For a week or two she'll stop the extra yapping, then it'll creep back.
My mom and dad are the same way, it really hurt my feelings when I would call them from Japan and they wouldn't pay a bit of attention to me. I guess it is the same for everyone, good to know it isn't just me.
One of the things I miss most about Mom is her driving me batty on the phone...
Carol
A fudgsicle and a martini. YUM! You DO have a flair when it comes to chocolate snacks! I'm sorry your call was so frustrating.
My mom and my daughter both do me that way. I agree, this calls for a fudgcicle.
My mom's like that too; reading all the comments, I think it's universal!
VOIPCheap (voipcheap.com) has been a lifesaver - she can get distracted all she wants, and it's free for me. :-)
It's nice to know it ain't just my mother doing this. I reckon it's just a mom thing.
The money part of it means nothing. I call the US for about 1.5 cents a minute and my whole phone bill for the month is always less than 25€. It's the idea that she begs me to call her more often and when I do, she takes that time to chat with anyone walking by her room. Talk to those folks any other time I'm not on the phone with you!
I tell ya, Mama's a mess! :)
My mom does that too...or else she will try to multitask while I am talking and will just say uhh huh repeatedly. It's a mom thing. My grandmother died this year from complications from Alzheimers, the wierdest part was that until the very end she had days where she was totally lucid...and then other days no.
Personally the only thing that makes me forget people with ADD stressing me out on the phone is some raw cookie dough and xanax. I guess the xanax kinda replaces the martini.
Ohhh you just gotta love Miss Virginia. Well, actually she's...well, she's just "PRECIOUS."
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