Challenge Day 10: Someone you need to let go, or wish you didn’t know

Before I even get started here, I’m going to level with you fine people; my mind and heart aren’t really in it today. In fact, I wouldn’t even be writing this if I wasn’t so opposed to letting a goal drop away unrealized when it is attainable. Forgive me my laziness on this matter, I just have a couple other projects I’m way more excited about… and I lack control over my own brain!  

Okay, so I’m really not hung up on anyone that needs letting go; dealt with all that emotional baggage some time back; so someone I wish I didn’t know… hmm… I guess I could go down a long list of family members who I’m not overly fond of, but that’s a rather time consuming thing and I just don’t have the time, so let’s pick a single person.

I rather wish I didn’t know my dad’s current girlfriend (let’s call her Sally).

My father has a history of picking women that are not entirely chummy with sanity, you see, and his latest gal pal is no exception. Before I start going on about why I don’t like her, I should at least be fair enough to point out that she’s a hell of a lot better than the last sociopath he dated; that one was a handful of fries short of a happy-meal. This new one has never whispered in a corner to her private demons (or whatever) about how she’d like to kill me or any of my siblings, so really – no matter how you slice it – she’s an improvement. Still… she kind of gets on my last nerve.

Now papa has had exactly two sane girlfriends; I really liked the one and I think I would have gotten to like the other one quite a bit, but my dad – as I mentioned – is attracted to nutters, and so the sane ones never last. When I first met his current lady-friend, I thought she was sane, and as I got to know her I just assumed she was a little quirky. I like quirky. I can work with quirky. My sister was the first one to question the woman’s rationality; this came up after my lil’ sis (let’s call her Jade – even if I’m only going to forget I called her that later) caught her drinking grape-seed oil out of a bottle. She brought it up a second time when she caught Sally talking (yes, you heard me – talking) to her shoe. I told Jade that this wasn’t so strange really in light of all dad’s exes and their bizarre behaviour, and I attempted to like Sally. That’s until she started giving me advice. I am so not an ‘advice’ kind of person, especially when it’s coming from people I barely know and who haven’t the slightest inkling about me. That’s beside the point; I can deal with unsolicited advice graciously enough, even if I rarely take it. It is her manner of advice that grates along my spine.

 “Robin, a woman your age should really think about cutting her hair shorter,” Seriously? A woman your age should stop pounding back Twinkies and beer like they’re about to be taken off the market.

“Robin, don’t you think it’s about time to loose the lip ring?” Um, no, not particularly, but we’ll talk again next week when I get my nose done.

“Robin, you should really call your dad more often – he misses you.” This is one of the most frequent pearls of wisdom she offers me. She coupled this with a guilt trip last year when I neglected to call my dad on his birthday. I felt like saying um, hmm… can you do me a favour and ask daddy-O when my birthday is? Or wait, no, just ask him how old I am… if he can hit within a five year mark, I’ll start calling him every other day and we can shoot the shit like ol’ pals. (My dad and I communicate through text-messaging most frequently; we’re not tight, but we both deserve a little credit for trying… we’ve spent spans of years in the past not talking at all, and we are working on a relationship now, even if we don’t always chat on birthdays and other events.)

Honestly, these are such minor little things it seems a little petty to get annoyed by them, and yes, I do realize that. In fact, I almost feel a little guilty about going down this road, but alas, I needed someone to bitch about, didn’t I? Perhaps you’d understand my frustration more if you realized that I’ve only met her in person twice; the rest of our relationship has been over the phone; and that my dad’s already begun his annoyingly passive-aggressive attempts to get her out of his life. It takes that man forever plus a day to get rid of an unwanted girlfriend since he’s never actually reached maturity and learned the best way to do this is to say, “Um, hey you – we’re through.”

So yes, in closing, though I wish her no ill-will, I’m looking forward to the day when I get to meet dad’s next loony-bin escapee, and get to pretend this one (like so many before her) never existed.

On that note… back to the things currently in control of my brain!

March 10, 2012 | Categories: 30 Day Blog Challenge | Tags: annoying, blog challenge, crazy, daddy issues, Family, father, Girlfriend, insanity, Online Writing, Parent, passive aggressive, Relationships, rush, sanity, Twinkie, Writing | 6 Comments