I GOT THEM! I GOT THEM! I GOT THEM!
All right, pinky girls, it's time to party! Woo-hoo!
However...it was at a terrible cost. A tremendous fight and the relationships will never be the same. Ever. I am torn between exulting over getting the album, and writing forever to tell you all that happened. It was really bad, and I mean permanently. But I want you all to be happy for me, because I did what was right, and I knew you were all standing behind me, supporting me.
As you know, I called my mother and said what day I could come over for them. She agreed. Lord Crown drove me, and I walked in, and immediately realized the album wasn't there. It was another setup and another stall. In that split second, it went from being about the album to being about
me. I was going to be put through another round of repetitive reasons, requests, etc. And the album was never going to be produced. It was as if the "scales fell from my eyes". (Segaya - de schalen vielen van mijn ogen) I suddenly understood without question that this was dishonest and stalling and utterly contemptuous of me, and in that moment, my heart said "I can't allow this to happen. I can't afford to let this happen to me. I can't take this damage", and I struck back.
I ordered my N brother to go and get them, and I limped out to the living room. Everyone followed, kind of stunned. We all sat down, and believe it or not, my N brother (who is being upgraded to Psychopath as we speak) began accusing Lord Crown and I of coming over with an agenda, and abusing (abusing!)
them! Them! He asked if "this was an intervention". He told me that I could come over there and help HIM "scan" the pictures on a computer that is second-hand, not compatible with mine, and has no photo programs. At his convenience. Like he's doing me a favor. Mom said she didn't want the album to leave the house, but wouldn't tell me why (although it has left twice before with my Psychopath sister). They told me I was wrong when I specified the photography needs and programs. They said he knows more about my computer than I do, and he has never used a Mac in his life. My mother accused me in a general way of taking things, since "things were missing".
Now, here's the mise-en-scene. In the time it took for me to realize that this was just another mind-game, I reached a level of anger that has rarely been seen. Yet I controlled it. What I did was sit calmly in the living room, and no matter how stupid and insulting they got, I stayed impassive, and rejected every effort they made to draw me into a useless argument, or defend myself, or repeat the request again. When they were evasive, I said so. When he tried to draw me into an argument about abusing them or our "agenda", I laughed in his face and said, "Don't be ridiculous". They simply could not get to me and it made them crazy. I never raised my voice or made gestures or brought up the past. I was just obdurate. I would have cut my tongue out before I would have explained the project again for the millionth time.
Well, they didn't know what to do. They got all heated, and told Lord Crown to stay out of it, because he was "quietly" discussing with N brother what an abject failure he was as a brother. Mom got all upset and the tears started. Instead of going in and cosseting her, or trying to "reach her", I walked into the other room, sat down on a chair, and was cold and steadfast. She just kept crying, and I got up and walked out. At one point, I demanded to know why when she knows I am totally trustworthy, I can't take the album a block away, and she slipped, and said "your sister was slicker than you". So I controlled my rage, and said, "I'm not going to pay for that". She blamed me for "letting Lord Crown talk to her like that" (he had said restrainedly, I'm not going to stay out of it"), and I said, "I don't "let" him do anything. He earned that right with every tear of mine he wiped away. You wouldn't let my father say "boo" to your mother, that's your marriage, that's not my marriage." She kept crying like I had cut her heart out, and he kept throwing out this nonsense about how we were abusing them. Finally I said to N brother, "You need to learn the difference between anger and abuse."
So now she's sitting on the couch, being all crushed and victimized, and they are so frustrated because I won't react the way they are used to, and am furiously angry, but in a cold way. So she suddenly gave up, and said, "Just give it to her". So N brother goes up to the attic and guess what? Remember all the reasons about how it was too much work to dig it out, and find it, and so forth? He went right to the top of the stairs, picked it up (hidden in a suitcase), and brought it into the living room within a minute and a half. And I knew again it had just been another lie and another stall. That made me even angrier, but again, I stayed impassive. Lord Crown sent me out the room for a bit and took the opportunity to tell N brother a few home-truths about himself and his shocking neglect of me as a sister, and the like. N brother kept whining that he didn't know what to do, and wringing his hands, and Lord Crown said in effect, "if you had any feelings, and your sister was hurt or lonely, no-one would need to tell you what to do." I was so proud of him! It was really great to see him finally be able to let go and speak his mind.
So we left. No one called me and I was completely shunned. I was so exhausted and stunned the next week it was like I was dreaming, but I never once doubted that I had done the right thing. I let a week go by, and I called to check on my mother, ( yeah, I know, big chump) and she said "I want to talk to you about what happened." Now, I'm the first (only) one to try and reconcile and reach her, and I shocked her by saying, "I don't want to talk about it. I'm never going to talk about it." She then said what she wanted to say was that she
didn't want to talk about it. So if I had needed to, that door was shut in my face. So according to her, it's now all "behind us". But it never can be.
I am sorry that this is so long, but I wanted you to know what happened. When I wrote it out for my doctor, it was 12 pages! They are not used to seeing me angry, and never for my own sake. No matter what their sick reasons are for putting me through this, the main point was they were crazy mad that I had the audacity to be angry. The lies, the stalling, the disrespect, the endless repetitions. How dare I? And I was just supposed to go through it all again, and again, and again. And then, I didn't allow myself to be drawn into that psychotic trap of baiting me, and I get upset, and we go off on tangents, and I talk about how cruelly they treat me, etc. I didn't even bother. I just ignored the baits, and actually laughed at them, didn't stray off the topic, and didn't get distracted. Nor did I fall for the tears and the "sentiment".
I have realized that every time I was the only one who tried to reach her, and she just took that as my apologizing. There is not an ounce of contrition for any of it, or any sense that she was wrong in any way at all. If I went over and did talk to her about it, I would just be repeating myself, and I finally realized that. Also that it doesn't matter at all. I'm still being shunned, and I'm so glad, because I don't even want to see any of them. Apparently the pretense is going to go on, which is sickening, because this is why I ended up the way I did. Terrible damage, blaming myself, unable to believe myself if I thought the sun rose in the east. And they did this to me for nothing. And I'll never know why, and right now I don't really care.
So I have the album, but much more importantly, I have more of myself. I don't know how to explain that, except that I realized that it didn't matter if I got the album, but that I stood up to the damage they were going to inflict. And I did. Lord Crown is immensely proud, by the way, and even my doctor was pleased for me.
I hope you are all well and come back to the board soon. Sorry again for such a long tale, but I wanted to share it with you. I know you were all in that living room with Lord Crown and me.
Much pinky love, and here's a picture of how I was....:>
http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f23/Upthespout/posted%20links%20no%20move/Supergirl-1.jpg