Holiday Cheer Revisited

I’m finally in the mood to elaborate on the Snow Storm fiasco I mentioned before. My tirade began the moment I shut the door on the poor unsuspecting UPS lady who delivered my unwanted package. I paced across the living room a couple of times, before my bare foot decided that the best thing to do would be to kick the crap out of the offending cardboard box. It only took three or four hits for my foot to penetrate the outer shell, spilling holiday cheer all over the floor in the form of styrofoam peanuts, which the cats quickly herded into every nook and cranny of the house. After that quick phone call, which might have been avoided had the box taken a beating better, I put my shoes on to follow through on my promise to transfer evil box to dumpster. As with all best laid plans, I was easily thwarted. In picking up the box I was reminded that it was addressed to both S and me, so I figured the impact of community property law deserved consideration.

I knew what they had sent for me, as my nephew and two brothers all got the same thing. Theirs were not delayed by the snow storm. The delay had convinced me that they weren’t sending us anything. I actually had thought they were finally agreeing to leave me alone, and it felt really good. Anyhow, you know those Plasma Lightning Ball things you can get at Spencer Gifts? Yeah, well it didn’t survive the attack from my left foot, so it still went to the dumpster as planned. Oddly enough, the gift for S was a really nice necklace. (She finally showed it to me a week ago.) This is not the plastic 14-in-one Avon heart shaped necklace they sent one year. This necklace is exactly the kind of thing S likes.

So here’s the new problem. S, being the delightfully well mannered person that she is, would like to send a thank you card for the necklace. (The whole thing was sort of a Christmas/wedding gift.) You can imagine my horror at the thought of S becoming pen pals with my mother. It is bad enough she persists in trying to bully her way into my life, but she’s definitely not above bullying her way into my marriage too. After my divorce, she wanted to contact my ex to give her a guilt trip. “I just want her to know that I wish I had gotten to know her better.” My mother is really over the top on the clueless scale.

S and I talked about it. She decided not to send a thank you. Of course, now I feel a little crappy about that. It just never ends.