Stop the spinning, I wanna get off now

When last we left our heroes yesterday, S was heading to KS for nebulous reasons.

She finally called me. DS' dad, G's, wife/girlfriend/whatever-the-hell-she-is has decided that she didn't like S being there. So she told G to tell DS to tell S that she had to go. (Didja get all that?)

So I get home, and first thing I had a talk with E. Holy cow, talk about Jekyll & Hyde... I don't remember if it was "S" or "TX" that turned him, but it was like this past month had never happened. He yelled and growled and stomped around the house. He's so afraid of what S is going to be like... and S is so afraid that E is going to be the same person as he was in TX... do you think they're old enough to understand a self-fulfilling prophecy?

When E came back with me after graduation, CR had not been informed that he was leaving that soon. And he was like, "Ok, see ya. Bye." And I was in trouble again.

This time, I told S that she had to inform her mother. She said she would after CR woke up. (In my birthday haze yesterday, I'd forgotten it was CR's day off. 2 more demerits.) I texted her last night to ask if she'd informed CR and no, of course she hadn't. So I told her she HAD to get that info to her. Well, by then it was after CR's normal time to leave for work. (Of course, since it was her day off that was not valid ... yeah, yeah, yeah. 2 demerits for me.) I'd said, "Call her, leave a voicemail, text her, whatever. Just notify her." So she texted. Later I got a text from S that said, "Done."

Today, the day started with an 8:30 meeting. Of course you know that I'm not a morning person, but with the muscle relaxers I have to take for my TMJ, it's truly a challenge just to get out of bed. I had to set 2 more alarms (which brought the grand total up to 6... or maybe 7... I can't keep track). Even then, by the time I got here my right eye still wasn't working. You know those puzzles that when you "relax" your eyes you see a different image? Well that's what my eyes do. Only instead of another image, there's two of everything. So I have to close one eye to see where the real cars are. Poor me, I know.

Post meeting, I saw that there was vmail on my phone. It's an ANGRY message from CR. Woo-hoo! The gist was, "Why are you taking away my kid {read: grandchild}" That's it, I'm the bad guy. I called her and she didn't answer so I left the reader's digest version in her vmail. Then I called my mother. I basically told her that I'm tired of getting yelled at for taking care of HER children. *I* could use a little support in this matter instead of getting beat up all the time since I'm trying to do the right thing. She's like, "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Well, how 'bout the next time she calls you all whining and crying you take MY side for a change? AAARRRGGHH!

Moving on with the day, I try to get a rental car scheduled. They're all out of minivans. Wonderful. But he'll check and try to see what's available in the other locations and get back to me.

Called E to remind him to call the doctor.

CR called me back. Still angry, but less projecting anger at me, if that makes any sense. I recapped what I'd left in the voicemail. First she wants to complain about how S never does anything at home... and how G's wife/whatever is probably angry about that. I can neither confirm nor deny. Then she wants to re-hash E's whole trip to his paternal relatives. Oh sure, its not like I'm working or anything... plus, that was SO last week. Blah, blah, blah, making a pass at his step-mom... blah, blah, blah, E's truck broke down... blah, blah, blah.

Got the new power supply today. Oh, I think I forgot the mention this one. For Christmas I got the TX clan a very expensive piece of network equipment that would protect them from the risky [internet] behavior that the kids had of surfing the music/whatever download sites. They couldn't figure out why they all had spyware. Hmmmmmm... let's think for a second... So I got this equipment for them. All they had to do was PLUG IT IN. My company sells these, so we would set it up and manage it, they just had to PLUG IT IN. But "big D" didn't understand how it worked, so he wouldn't plug it in. ARE YOU FRIGGIN' KIDDING ME???!? Nope. I said, "If I was a heart surgeon and I told you you needed a pace maker and you didn't understand how that worked, would you not get that either?" So fine. I took it back when I was down there for graduation. It was out of the box, so I got a Walmart bag full of parts. When I went to plug it in at home, I discovered there was no power supply. So I had to order a $17 power supply. Which I realize is small change compared to the thousands I've laid out lately, but it's the principal. Bitter? Party of one...

Then my mother called with news from the court house. Last weekend, when I was in KC, I'd asked her to call the courthouse to get a copy of E's name change papers. See, he was born with my last name/CR's maiden name. Then, when he was 6 mo. old, CR got married to J, so they changed his last name to J's last name. Only the birth certificate says my last name. In order to get his license changed to KS, he has to show his current license and another form of ID, and birth certificate first on the list. So I ordered a copy of the birth certificate. But the license says J's last name. And I have no paper trail to explain how he got from A to B. CR said she had a copy of the court papers, but since the move hasn't been able to lay her hands on them. So I asked mom to get me a copy.

And the court house told her... wait for it... HIS NAME HAS NEVER BEEN LEGALLY CHANGED! Apparently she was supposed to send something in after she got the document that's been stapled to his birth certificate all these years, but she never did. She's just shown this document to everyone and nobody asked any questions. So all of E's paperwork, social security stuff, etc., says J's last name, but it's not E's legal last name. Everyone keeping up here?

I called CR and she said, "Oh yeah... I sorta remember that. I was gonna send it in, but I got busy..." aaaand now it's 18 years later.

I called E and told him and he said, "That's interesting." What do you want your last name to be? "Dad's." Of course. Not that either answer is going to be simple to fix.

I finally get a hold of S (who still doesn't have a cell phone because she smashed hers to bits in the Walmart parking lot fight, remember?) to confirm that she's coming this weekend. Thank God I called because she changed her mind. Her and the wife/whatever have kissed and made up and now everything is hunky dory.


The sun is staring at me like, "But the day has more to offer!" I told it to shut the hell up.