No conscience...

Sometimes the complete lack of respect for another person's feelings astounds me. I can never imagine intentionally making an effort to hurt someone else with no remorse or conscience.

This evening, I was having a conversation with my mother in-law about the upcoming American holiday to give thanks for the land our ancestors stole from the Native Americans. We eat turkey and watch football to show our gratitude. While on the phone, my x2b calls my cell twice, leaves a voicemail, then sends a txt message. I don't bother to end a nice conversation with her mother, who is more concerned for my well being and that of my son, than my x2b ever was. After our conversation, I check the voicemail, and the x2b leaves a message about how she's trying to reach my son (who doesn't understand phone conversations quite yet), while in the background there is a loud crowd of people and music. Obviously, she's out at a bar. I sit down to watch some television with my son and the phone rings again about 20 minutes later. I have a specific ring for when she calls....."You just keep on usin' me.....until you use me up." -Bill Withers. I think it's a nice match. Once again, I neglect to jump to her call and answer.

About 30 minutes or so, my son starts asking about Mommy. Being the nice guy I am...and have always been, which has brought me to this situation in the first place...I say, "C'mon son...let's call Mommy." I dial her number, put her on speaker, and hold the phone by him. She answers...it's still very loud and I can barely make out her voice in the crowd. I encourage my son to say "hello" or "hi Mommy" or something...he's more interested in playing hide-from-the-phone. She says she can't hear and will call right back. A few minutes later she calls. I put speaker on again and rather than stepping outside or going to a car or somewhere quiet, she's only moved to a slightly less noisy area of the bar. I try again to get my son to talk to her. After a couple seconds, a man's voice gets on the phone and says, "Hey there buddy. How are ya?" Can you believe that? She had the tenacity to put her F'ing boyfriend on the phone with my son. I think he realized he was on speaker and I hear him say something about "I think Chris is on the phone"...but away from her phone...in the background. She gets back on the line and I still can't hear her...and my son has no interest in talking, so I just hang up.

Now that I'm a little angry about her blatant attempt to pour salt in the open wound that is my heart, I can't resist calling her. She answers and I say, "You call my phone to speak to our son and you put (Name of BF) on the phone? What is wrong with you?" She says something in response, but is breaking up. I say, "What? I can't hear you." She says something else that I can't make out...so I just hang up.

I call her mother back to let her know what a bitch her daughter is. Believe it or not, her mother agrees with me. I vent for a minute and her mother tells me to blow it off, calm down, get some sleep, and come have a nice day tomorrow with the family. I thank her for listening, tell her goodnight, and here I lay in my bed typing to a mostly British audience about my ridiculous situation. Thank goodness for people who understand this, despite our different backgrounds and geographic locations.

My phone will be used for conversation with only people who are not trying to hurt me for the rest of the weekend. I refuse to take any calls from her until next week.