Working Too Hard

My life feels so very awfully terribly confused right now.  It seems I'm going in many different directions at the same time.  I often wonder, "Is it just me?  Am I selfish?  Incompetent?  Both?"

I broke my mother out of rehab yesterday, but it was a bit of an ordeal.  My mother was up and packed and calling me before I'd even finished my coffee yesterday.  

"Hold your horses, mom.  A lot of stuff has to happen yet.  You have to be checked out and released by the doctor."

Shortly after, I got a call from one of the facility administrators.

"Your mother is wanting to leave the facility now.  We usually need a few days to process a patient out.  Could you give me a call back?"

My cousin texted that she was going to have something to eat and then go up to see my mother.  I had to call her and say she might be walking into a shit storm.  She decided to wait.  

The jail break occurred just a little before four.  Apparently, we had rushed the process.  As we were waiting for the final paperwork, one of the fellows my mother had meals with, a swell guy, told my mother he was going to miss her.  I think he might have had tears in his eyes.  It can get lonely, I guess, in a facility like this.  As he walked away on his walker, I was feeling quite heavy with emotion.  

Not mom.  

I packed her things into the car.  Then her.  It was about a mile to her house. 

I started putting together her meds.  I'd bought a plastic pill organizer with four containers per day for seven days, twenty-eight containers to fill with four different pill combos per day.  It took me awhile. 

"Do you want to sit outside?" I asked my mother.  She did.  

And she wanted a beer. 

She downed it pretty quickly.  Before I knew it, she was calling for another one.  

"You know I don't tell you what to do, but. . . ."

She decided to hold off on the second one.  

We were sitting in the garage, my mother, her niece, and I, when the woman from across the street came over.  I gave her my chair and said I'd call later.  I had a whole lot of things left to do.  

And so I left all the responsibility of my mother's first night home to my cousin.  

My house is a disaster right now.  Things are a mess.  I have photo gear and a weeks worth of important mail lying everywhere.  

Important paperwork.  I had addressed two of them that afternoon.  The first was a letter from the State Attorney's office that confused me.  It said that the fellow who had stolen my camera gear and got caught selling it at the camera store over two years ago had violated his probation and was coming to court next week.  I didn't understand this at all, so I called the number the Assistant State Attorney had provided in the letter.  

Zippo.  Blank.  The number was a black hole.  A mechanical voice asked me to enter the number of the party I wished to reach.  I only had the one phone number, so I entered that.  Nope.  Bagel.  

WTF?

I searched for another number, and at the bottom of the page in small print was a number for another office.  I called that one and got a person.  I explained my dilemma and the person said she would transfer me.  A woman answered.  I went through the litany of confusion once more with her.  She explained that the fellow had gotten a plea deal in July.  WTF?  I was never notified, I said.  What happened to the girl who was also arrested.  She was the one with whom the former prosecutor wanted to make a deal for probation.  

She received nineteen months in lockup!

"So. . . she got nineteen months and he got probation, and I was never notified.  A year and a half ago when I talked to the prosecutor, he asked if I would like to try to get a judgement for compensation.  I probably would have a hard time getting it, he said, but since [the fellow] was facing twenty years worth of grand theft charges but would probably get less than one, they could stipulate that he would stay on probation after he did his time until he had paid back the lost funds.  That was the route I said I wanted to choose.  Now what?  I'm just out the twenty-two thousand dollars without ever having a chance to make a statement?"

The lady said she would transfer me to the Assistant State Attorney.  Of course I got to leave a message.  It was a long one, and halfway through my explanation, the recording ended.  I had options, though.  I could press 3 and leave my message once again.  O.K.  This time I was a speed talker like the announcers on a drug commercial explaining the side effects of the drug.  

I wait to hear back.  Probably won't.  

No wonder people become thieves.  

That took half my afternoon, but that was quick compared to the next call.  My gas bill had jumped from twenty-four dollars this month last year to two hundred and sixty four dollars this month.  I looked back through my past statements and my bill had consistently been in the twenty dollar range.  So I called the gas company and was put on hold waiting for "the next available representative" for half an hour.  When I finally got connected, I was speaking to a moron.  She kept asking me questions like, "what temperature do you have your thermostat set to?"

"I understand the logic of lowering your thermostat.  I don't need advice on that.  I need an explanation of the over two hundred dollar jump in my bill."

Christ, it went on and on and on.  Finally she said, "Can I put you on hold?  I want to check on something." 

"Sure."

Fifteen minutes later.  

"What I CAN do is schedule a technician to come out to check your meter."

He will be here between eight and noon today.  

That was just a little of what I still need to deal with.  

I was fortunate, though, to be home when the FedEx driver showed up with the new printer I had ordered early last week from B&H.  They sent it express two day delivery.  It was supposed to be here last Thursday.  I kept checking to see if I was going to need to sign, but nothing said that I would.  

I did.

The new printer is sitting in the middle of my living room floor waiting to be set up.  The cleaning crew comes today and I have an hour or more of putting things away before they get here.  

I woke at one last night.  Don't know how long I lay in bed thinking, but I know I am very sleepy this morning after getting up at 5:30.  Sleep disruptions will kill you.  So I read this morning.  So will living too long.  I just know that.  

And so. . . that is my Full Worm Moon saga.  Mom came home on a Blood Moon.  I haven't checked with the online soothsayers to see if that is good or ominous.  I don't think I will.  

The only advice I can give you, kids, is try to keep your chin up.  

It makes a great target that way.