…know that just because You are their friend, doesn’t mean THEY are yours

That is my addition to the adage "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer."

There are a lot of things that I will put up with, but being lied to is not one of them. Standing in front of me when I tell you something and acting as if you are utterly astounded to hear it, when you were fully aware that it was happening, and did, in fact, add to the situation, is LYING TO ME! Truthfully, I thought when that little lie was exposed, that perhaps your involvement and frankly, SUPPORT of the situation was an act of self-preservation, and I was willing to overlook it. Unfortunately, I have learned a hard lesson out of this whole fiasco, and that is to remember that just because I count someone among my friends, I shouldn't expect to be able to trust them and count on them if there is a crisis. Twice in the last year, I have done something to help someone (2 different people), which directly impacted my world, on a daily basis. Twice now my friendship and help has been repaid by deceit. We all know the story of the roomie from hell back at the beginning of the year. The second incident I won't go into details about, but will say that if I knew something that was going to cost someone who had been a good friend to me dearly, I would be talking to them about it, to be sure they were aware of the situation, before it turned their world upside down. And I would certainly NOT let it go on for 6 months, while they were oblivious to it.

Yeah, I'm MAD AS HELL about this, and I'm having to carefully take stock of the relationships in my world, to be sure I don't get shafted again.

Unfriended & Other Stuff

Well, it appears that the Roomie From Hell decided to unfriend me on MySpace. Now, I don't particularly care, as I can still get to and see her profile, but I do find it amusing. She thinks, I know, that she is the victim in the whole debacle, and I'm sure feels perfectly justified in unfriending me. As I said, don't really give a damn. The main reason that I didn't unfriend her first is that I wanted to see how long it would take before she changed her profile and started trash talking me. So far she hasn't, and that's good. I do find it amusing that it happened almost EXACTLY a month after I kicked her out of the house. Crawfish season has arrived, which means our weekly dinners are at the same cajun restaurant every week from now until June. Yeah, I'm not so happy about this, partly because waterliving creatures and I have this mutual dislike for each other, but also because in the past year, my body has also decided that I can no longer have Andouille sausage. That was the one thing I liked there. So, now my choices are a burger, blackened stuff, which is unacceptable because I don't like eating charcoal, fried chicken strips, chicken fried chicken/steak or a salad. I've taken to having a kid burger and a small side salad. This week, we elected to sit on the patio, and there were a dozen of us. For some reason, they put the new guy out on the patio, with the big party. Yeah, great. I ordered my burger, substituting mashed potatoes for the fries, and adding a salad. Two other people ordered salads, and two more ordered appetizers in addition to their crawfish. The crawfish orders were 5 orders of 2lbs each, 1 of 1 lb, and 1 of 3 lbs. What arrived at our table was 1 order of 4 lbs (which, in the grand scheme of things wasn't a huge deal, as 2 of the 2 lb orders were on the same ticket), the 3 lb, and 4 single lbs. No salads, no appetizers, no burgers. My burger came out in a minute, but I had to ask again for my salad, because only 1 salad was delivered. The second lb orders arrived after the 2 salads, but still before 1 appetizer. Notice I've not said anything about receiving my potatoes. Because I never did get them, and one of the appetizers never appeared either. In the end, my burger got comp'd, though I have no idea whether it was because the waiter was so bad, or if it was because he somehow screwed up printing my ticket and lost the burger in the abyss someplace. Don't really care either, cuz it saved me some $. In other news, I started back to the gym this week. Monday I went to the gym close to the house, and did 1/2 hour of cardio, but didn't try to do anything more because it was 5 before I got there and the crowd was just annoying. I decided to stop at another location that's on my way home, and I can make it to before 4:30. By the time that I was leaving after 30 minutes of cardio plus an upper body workout on the express machines and some crunches, it was almost 5:30 and there weren't half as many people as at the other location. I'll be back over there tomorrow afternoon. Saturday, I am shooting for a yoga class, and next week I'll start water aerobics and back to bellydance. GO ME! I am not as sore as I expected to be, largely, I believe, due to the salve I bought from Estelril Enterprises. I bought the Chest & Muscle salve at TRF back in October, when I had the beginnings of an upper respiratory infection. I started putting it on my chest immediately, and haven't had a cold that goes into my chest since then. Generally, I have at least 3 chest colds/respiratory infections between October and the end of February. I put the salve on all my sore muscles that I could reach, and they pretty much are fine today. My back's a little achy, but as I'm not double jointed, it didn't get salve on it. Monday night, I slept like a dream, with no artificial assistance, for the first time in I can't remember when. Last night, however, I was so tired I was cross-eyed, yet couldn't get my brain to settle down and go to sleep. I played my electronic solitaire game to no avail. I simply closed my eyes and tried to think happy thoughts, yeah, nothing. Finally, I got out a mandala that I started coloring Monday night before I went to sleep. I guess maybe I find that relaxing somehow, because pretty soon I was cross eyed enough that I couldn't keep them open any longer, put away the pencils & paper, turned out the light and rolled over to sleep. For about 3 hours I did fine, but after that I was just dozing for a couple of more hours until the alarm went off. UGH, hopefully tonite I'll sleep a little better, however, I will be taking an Advil pm in about 5 minutes.

IT'S OVER!!

Yesterday’s icy remnants of the storm that came through on Tuesday night kept me home from work, but the leech went on in to her job. I took advantage of this time to make sure that when she moved out, none of my stuff would go with her. This is what I found when I opened one box:

The newspaper wrapped items are pieces of Rosenthal china, the box in the upper left corner is a replica of the Ballpark in Arlington, the blue & white thing is a case in which to store china plates.

Farther down in the box I found:

The brass & black utensils are a Thai serving set that we have had in our house for longer than I can remember. Also mixed in under there are assorted ‘collectible’ spoons and baby utensils that were mine and my little brothers. These items were stored in the drawer of the wooden silver service chest that held my mother’s STERLING SILVER SERVICE, 6 place settings. At this point, her fate was sealed, and I could no longer allow her into my home. I continued my search for my belongings, since I was pretty sure that there were more of them among her things.

The next box yielded:

Yeah, that red & white box, that’s my Polar Express Sleigh Bell that was given to me by my BFF the year that the movie was released. It is engraved with my name, my BFF’s name, and our #1 Boy’s name. UH, yeah, relatively identifiable, dontcha think. Also in the box was my PE miniature train ornament set, and a Greek keyhook. WTF???

Hanging on the wall behind her door was this bunch of necklaces:

Yeah, see that shiny diamond solitaire pendant? MINE, made from the solitaire in my maternal grandmother’s engagement ring. Yep, that diamond was cut back in the 20’s or 30’s, I can identify it, I have had jewelers come out of their shops at the mall to comment on it and ask about it.

In yet ANOTHER box I found:

See the 6 silver plated candlesticks? They are part of a stemware set that my parents bought when we lived in Athens. Farther down in the box I also came across: That wee bottle there? That’s a bottle of Gold flakes brought back to me from Alaska by some friends who went on an Alaskan cruise last year. That arrowhead and the box that it is in came from a jeweler in ATHENS GREECE. I have had the locks re-keyed, and will be getting a copy of that key to my landlord this week. I packed up all of her stuff and put it out on the driveway yesterday afternoon.

The conversation that ensued, via text, beginning at 2:55 pm:

Me: Your stuff will b on driveway when you get to house. I cannot live 1 more day with a thief. Locks have been changed. I hope you will get the help you clearly need. Me: Ourtown PD has been made aware. You no longer have insurance on my policy Roomie From Hell: Whatever RFH: What RFH: What do i RFH: What do I have. What did . do. Me: china, silver, thai serving pieces, amethyst earrings. Do not play dumb with me. Just come get your stuff and go. RFH: If I have your things sorry. I have no place to go. Me: Go to B’s I don’t care. I tried to be a good friend, you took advantage and stole from me. YOU did this to yourself. I am done helping you. RFH: Guess I sleep in my car Me: Should have considered that before you stole from someone who cared about you. Not my problem. Are you still @ work or on way to house? RFH: Why Me: Just tryin to figure out how long to be here since your stuff is out on driveway and I don’t want anyone to steal it. Don’t think it’ll happen with my care there RFH: Who is going to be their. Police Me: Just me. Police know I’m putting you out, but unless you start problems, I won’t call them. RFH: It will not all fit in my car Me: It all fit in the other car this 1 is bigger so it should all fit. If you can’t fit all, take a load to B’s & then come get the rest, which u can leave on porch RFH: I can’t stay at her place Me: Not my problem. Funny, last nite u said she had offered to let you stay there. I can’t help you anymore. RFH: She went out of town until tomorrow Me: So get a motel I don’t care. I have done all I can. I cannot trust you in my home, so you cannot be in it. (sent this at 3:46 Received a blank message at 4:54, she pulled up about then & started loading her stuff. I went and got in my car to go to dinner. Me: Your W2 is in mailbox (sent this message at 5:05) RFH: Where is my necklace that were hanging behind the bedroom door Me: In the bare traps box

I haven’t heard from her since then. I had a lovely dinner with some of my favorite people, came home to a quiet house, had a nice HOT shower, and managed to have a couple of phone conversations that I could have without anyone eavesdropping or interrupting me! WOOT! I am quite happy.

It’s also a bonus that my burger last night managed to digest fully without sending me running to the bathroom within about 10 minutes of eating it! It’s possible that at least part of my beef problem of the last several months was related to stress…. HMMM