What a week!
Oh boy! I've had the most exhausting week.
I was flat out at work Monday to Wednesday and Wednesday in particular was incredibly stressfull. I was flat out working on one of my colleague's files from 9am until 5pm and then when it finally all got settled just after 5pm, I had to start work on my own files to get things finished so that I could get my week's work finished.
Thursday was a little less frantic (thanks in part to my very late night on Wednesday) but I still had to stay back a couple of hours later than I had expected. Added to my stress levels was that, on Thursday, I had an interview for a permanent position I had applied for.
I had the day off on Friday and I was looking forward to a relaxing long weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.
I had a late night on Thursday night and just wanted to sleep in on Friday. But I had to drop off my car for it's annual service early on Friday morning. And then I went shopping with Mum. And then my sister-in-law came over with the kids. She stayed for a couple of hours and was in tears a couple of times. My niece is still ill and it's just heart-wrenching to see her. She's also milking it for all it's worth and, when she has been ill and starts to feel better, she pretends to still be ill when she starts to lose her mum's attention. It's just so hard to watch and it tears me apart.
Then, after they had been there for a couple of hours, my sister-in-law really loses it and becomes very upset and I'm still not really sure why. She seemed to think that there was some problem with my Mum, but nothing I could say would reassure her, and I couldn't comfort her. She was crying while she was packing up the kids and getting them into the car, and she was still crying when she drove away. She said that she just wanted to be alone and she just wanted to go home.
Thankfully, I did suggest to Mum that she stay away as soon as my sister-in-law mentioned that Mum had upset her. I figured that if Mum got into the mix they would both just end up even more upset.
As it turns out, Mum still got upset. She cried on and off for the next couple of hours while we tried to find out what was wrong and whether my sister-in-law was okay. But at least she wasn't feeling guilty for saying something in the heat of the moment that she shouldn't have said.
Meanwhile, I was trying to keep Mum's spirits up, while battling my own emotional response. I managed to have a quiet cry in the loo, but I'm pretty sure Mum didn't pick up on it.
That night, we were supposed to all be going to a FourPlay gig. I managed to convince Mum that she would enjoy it once she was there (and she did), but it was hard work getting her to get herself ready on time. However, my cousin was also supposed to be coming with a mob of her friends and she bailed (I suspect because she didn't want to deal with Mum) and my brother couldn't come because he obviously had to be home to give my sister-in-law moral support. So it wasn't quite the family night we had planned.
But we still had a good night. Mum and Dad and their friends all enjoyed the gig and have placed dibs on borrowing my CDs (I did suggest they could buy their own, but at least it means I have some ideas for Christmas presents). We had a pleasant dinner beforehand and I drank a little too much red wine.
The band were brilliant as per usual. They played two sets and a lot of their new songs which I gather will be on their new album (to be recorded later this year). I'd heard all of them before bar one - the first song of the second set. I'm rapidly becoming a fan of a couple of the new songs, Evolve or Decay and Trust.
The only disappointment was that they didn't play Gypsy Scream. I'd been telling my Dad all about this song, and then they didn't actually play it. *g* Ah well, that's the way it happens sometimes.
So it was a good end to a bad day. At least I went to bed happy! ;o)
And then there was Saturday. I had to catch up with my brother to give him his birthday present, but I didn't really want to see my sister-in-law because I just needed a break from it all. So I put it off as late as I could and went around when I was on my way home. It wasn't as bad as I had been dreading though. It seemed that my sister-in-law was prepared to just let it go and didn't want to get into all of the reasons for the blow up the day before. And my brother liked his present. It was very tense for me, but I couldn't stay long and so managed to keep it light.
Saturday night, I went to see FourPlay again. This time with a friend rather than with family. Which worked much better. I was still buggered after my tough week, but thankfully it was an early gig and another good gig meant that I not only stayed awake, I also enjoyed it immensely. Not the least because they played my favourite song - a cover of Suede's The Two Of Us from their first album. I just love the layers and soaring arrangement of that song. It was FourPlay's version of it that got me into Suede - I just had to hear the original. And it's stayed one of my favourite songs for many, many years.
So I was a very happy girl. I got me some Suede-y goodness. And they even played Gypsy Scream as their final song.
After all that had happened, it's probably not surprising that I spent all day today around the house and most of the day sleeping.
Hopefully, next week will be better.
Listening to: the ABC news
I was flat out at work Monday to Wednesday and Wednesday in particular was incredibly stressfull. I was flat out working on one of my colleague's files from 9am until 5pm and then when it finally all got settled just after 5pm, I had to start work on my own files to get things finished so that I could get my week's work finished.
Thursday was a little less frantic (thanks in part to my very late night on Wednesday) but I still had to stay back a couple of hours later than I had expected. Added to my stress levels was that, on Thursday, I had an interview for a permanent position I had applied for.
I had the day off on Friday and I was looking forward to a relaxing long weekend. Unfortunately, it wasn't to be.
I had a late night on Thursday night and just wanted to sleep in on Friday. But I had to drop off my car for it's annual service early on Friday morning. And then I went shopping with Mum. And then my sister-in-law came over with the kids. She stayed for a couple of hours and was in tears a couple of times. My niece is still ill and it's just heart-wrenching to see her. She's also milking it for all it's worth and, when she has been ill and starts to feel better, she pretends to still be ill when she starts to lose her mum's attention. It's just so hard to watch and it tears me apart.
Then, after they had been there for a couple of hours, my sister-in-law really loses it and becomes very upset and I'm still not really sure why. She seemed to think that there was some problem with my Mum, but nothing I could say would reassure her, and I couldn't comfort her. She was crying while she was packing up the kids and getting them into the car, and she was still crying when she drove away. She said that she just wanted to be alone and she just wanted to go home.
Thankfully, I did suggest to Mum that she stay away as soon as my sister-in-law mentioned that Mum had upset her. I figured that if Mum got into the mix they would both just end up even more upset.
As it turns out, Mum still got upset. She cried on and off for the next couple of hours while we tried to find out what was wrong and whether my sister-in-law was okay. But at least she wasn't feeling guilty for saying something in the heat of the moment that she shouldn't have said.
Meanwhile, I was trying to keep Mum's spirits up, while battling my own emotional response. I managed to have a quiet cry in the loo, but I'm pretty sure Mum didn't pick up on it.
That night, we were supposed to all be going to a FourPlay gig. I managed to convince Mum that she would enjoy it once she was there (and she did), but it was hard work getting her to get herself ready on time. However, my cousin was also supposed to be coming with a mob of her friends and she bailed (I suspect because she didn't want to deal with Mum) and my brother couldn't come because he obviously had to be home to give my sister-in-law moral support. So it wasn't quite the family night we had planned.
But we still had a good night. Mum and Dad and their friends all enjoyed the gig and have placed dibs on borrowing my CDs (I did suggest they could buy their own, but at least it means I have some ideas for Christmas presents). We had a pleasant dinner beforehand and I drank a little too much red wine.
The band were brilliant as per usual. They played two sets and a lot of their new songs which I gather will be on their new album (to be recorded later this year). I'd heard all of them before bar one - the first song of the second set. I'm rapidly becoming a fan of a couple of the new songs, Evolve or Decay and Trust.
The only disappointment was that they didn't play Gypsy Scream. I'd been telling my Dad all about this song, and then they didn't actually play it. *g* Ah well, that's the way it happens sometimes.
So it was a good end to a bad day. At least I went to bed happy! ;o)
And then there was Saturday. I had to catch up with my brother to give him his birthday present, but I didn't really want to see my sister-in-law because I just needed a break from it all. So I put it off as late as I could and went around when I was on my way home. It wasn't as bad as I had been dreading though. It seemed that my sister-in-law was prepared to just let it go and didn't want to get into all of the reasons for the blow up the day before. And my brother liked his present. It was very tense for me, but I couldn't stay long and so managed to keep it light.
Saturday night, I went to see FourPlay again. This time with a friend rather than with family. Which worked much better. I was still buggered after my tough week, but thankfully it was an early gig and another good gig meant that I not only stayed awake, I also enjoyed it immensely. Not the least because they played my favourite song - a cover of Suede's The Two Of Us from their first album. I just love the layers and soaring arrangement of that song. It was FourPlay's version of it that got me into Suede - I just had to hear the original. And it's stayed one of my favourite songs for many, many years.
So I was a very happy girl. I got me some Suede-y goodness. And they even played Gypsy Scream as their final song.
After all that had happened, it's probably not surprising that I spent all day today around the house and most of the day sleeping.
Hopefully, next week will be better.
Listening to: the ABC news
posted by OLS |
Sunday, July 31, 2005 | 7:15 pm
4 Comments:
Evolve or Decay.
Since you ask ;)
Better get back to work!
P
*blushes* Should know better than to write about a song when I know someone from the band is reading huh? :o/
How old is your niece? You might have said this over and over before but new reader and all that...
That faking sick just to maintain the connection is toxic for all involved. My mother uses her own immunodeficiency syndrome as an emotional leash, which has resulted in her actually now believing she's as sick as she always said she was (I figure it's at least 50% psychosomatic) and my running as fast as I can in the other direction. I feel for your sister-in-law, but also for you for having to be the strong one here. It's really not very fair to you to have to prop up so many people.
But I'm glad you have FourPlay. They sound marvellous.
Ka - she's only 5yo, so old enough to manipulate but not old enough to really understand. Unfortunately, my sister-in-law compounds the problem by talking about my niece in front of her. So my niece knows exactly how to manipulate her mum because her mum quite literally tells her how to do it.
I don't usually mind being the strong one. I'm far enough removed from them in terms of distance that I can generally stay emotionally removed from the tiffs.
I'd be shattered if I didn't have my Dad though - he's the one I lean on. Well, we're very similar in personality, so I guess we lean on each other. We understand each other and can talk openly without having to choose our words too carefully. It's a nice break from the rest of the family.
Now if only I could find a guy like my Dad... *g*
- OLS
PS - I've edited the post so the song is now "Evolve or Decay" not "Evolve and Decay".
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