There's this woman who......

calls me her friend. The first time she called me this I wanted to puke. Let me tell you a few things about her: She's one of those people who can't seem to get along with anyone. She has trouble wherever she goes. She cannot accept happiness in her life and can't stand to see anyone else happy. She puts down everyone and everything around her. She is miserable. And so are you after being around her for more than five minutes. She is one of the two energy vampires I've know in my life.

I first met her during that time when my life was running me. I was so busy and overextended that I didn't have time to think -- or even realize I didn't have time think, so her words and actions had little impact on me. She'd say something -- always about someone or something else. I'd tut-tut her. And then some fire or other would flare up in my life and off I'd run to put it out (or at least try and manage the damage). Oh, I realized she was an A #1 b*tch, but I was too busy to let it affect me.

Maybe that's why she came to think of me as a friend? Because I was one of the few who didn't tell her to f*ck off? Whatever the reason, once son #3 and I began traveling with J. my life and routine changed so drastically I no longer ran into her. That was that, I thought. Until....a couple of years down the road (both literally and figuratively) I ran into her on a homeschool board. !! So, once again we were in contact.

Nothing changed on the homeschool board. She was miserable and tried her damndest to make everyone else that way. She'd be called out and then she'd moan and groan about not having anywhere else to go for support, etc. People felt sorry for her. She'd straighten up for awhile and then --- same same, all over again.

Then....I stopped traveling and started living at my *home-on-the-ground* once again. And, via the Internet, she figured this out. And, via the Internet, we made contact once again. Again, tho, I was busy traveling back and forth to MS. where A. and son #3 were in school, so we corresponded mostly through emails.

Then....last month she calls and says she's moving to another state and wants to know if we can grab a quick lunch before she leaves. We do and that's when she mentions I'm one of the only friends she's made here. One of the few friends she's ever made. I finally have the time and presence of mind to talk about this. She still doesn't get it. She still sees nothing wrong about saying (out of one side of her mouth) that this place had been so good to her kid (actually young man -- who ran away from home as soon as he could). While out of the other side of her mouth she says life in the South (she's from the frozen nawth) has been so hard for her the only way she's managed is to think of herself an her family as missionaries trying to enlighten us backwards doofuses. !!?? Did she know when she said that that the only thing keeping me from sticking her head through her a** and rolling her sorry self down the street (so sorry!) was that I didn't want to be on the local nightly news?

I started to get up and leave but didn't. I managed to ask her if she was truly as miserable as she seemed. She said she was. Now keep in mind this was a woman who was in the process of realizing a dream. She was finally moving to that little cabin in the woods she says she's dreamed about all her life. (Of course, that little cabin is still in the South. No way she'll move to the woods back home. No fricken' way.)

So, she's moved. She's living her dream. And she's still miserable. Go figure! From her emails I can tell she's spreading the misery in her new environment. I don't get it.

Whew! Just writing this has made me tired. And so glad she's away from here.