Yeah, still with the nothing.

But it's ok. I'm trying to be very Zen about this whole thing while also trying to talk Mocha Cub into making his/her escape. So far, no dice.
Now that I'm home most of the day, and spend a few hours in bed with three kitties most mornings, the cats ARE ON MY ASS ALL DAY. It's no secret my three cats are pretty needy, and also pretty damned cute. But now they are in my business all the time. One of them will seriously wake from a dead sleep to sprint ahead of me into the bathroom every time I use it. Yes, that is as creepy as it sounds. The other two spend every waking second whining at me and trying to get me to follow them around and pet them. While it's very sweet to be loved on all the time, it also makes for several almost-fell-flat-on-my-face tripping incidents that leave the cat freaked out, and me cursing them out.

And please allow me to vent my MIL irritations. Xtian hadn't spoken with her since she sent that horrible letter a few months ago. (I'd link to the post about it, but I'm unbelievably lazy. The gist: Xtian is a terrible person whose wife is destroying his life, and he won't be allowed to see his own brother until he "Gets rid of the negative influence." Which would be me. Yeah, she's encouraging her son to dump his pregnant wife. Classy.)
I've discontinued all contact with her for over a year now, and it's been delightful. But I also know that Xtian has a lot of guilt where his mother is concerned, so I do my best to encourage him to laugh about the things she does that are crazy and help protect him from her cruelty. Anyhow, so he'd not heard from her in months. Then Thanksgiving hit, and Xtian sent a text message to his brother wishing him a Happy Turkey day etc. This was apparently all the invitation MIL needed to pretend nothing had ever happened and to start with the daily phone calling and guilt-inducing messages. Xtian had determined that he still didn't want to deal with her, so he ignored her phone calls.

But, MIL is crafty. Xtian was speaking to his brother on the phone, when MIL took the phone away from the brother and started talking to Xtian like everything was just peachy.

She'd been asking her younger son to find out what she could get me and the baby for Xmas. (She uses the brother, because Xtian won't tell him "Not a goddamn thing you fucking bitch") Xtian relayed this message and I told him that I'm not comfortable accepting anything from her, and that I'd tell her that if he preferred. I don't want to put him into an awkward situation, and it's not up to him to fight my battles.
So, Xtian sent the message through the lines that he'd think about it and get back to her.

This all went down last Saturday right as we were heading out to see my lover, Denzel. (Seriously? The man can do no wrong. American Gangster had me rooting for a big time heroin smuggler and dealer. That is the power of Denzel.)

Monday, two letters arrived addressed to Xtian from his mother. One was a print out of some bullshit email forward (further proof that she is not quite right in the head. Who actually PRINTS out email forwards and then spends money on postage to send them to someone who couldn't give two shits about it?). The other letter was typed up like they were meeting minutes.
It was kind of weird. And the memo field stated, "Re: Phone conversation from 11/28. (You don't have to lei to kick it -- An old saying)".
Yeah, that's verbatim complete with her own spelling issues. Problem being? There was no phone call that occurred on that date, and there was no further reference to the quote.
But basically it was a full page, 8-point font condemnation of Xtian and his life. I didn't read it, as Xtian asked me not to. But the gist was she believes that living in Chico ruined him, and that he's now being dominated and controlled, presumably by me.
As a new twist though, she's started roping Xtian's brother into the mix. Claiming that the strain in her relationship with Xtian is creating problems with his brother. (Which isn't true, and we all know it since Xtian and his brother talk on the phone a few times a week.) But, clearly, she wasn't hurting Xtian enough with her own bullshit and vitriol, and this is a new tactic to manipulate him into doing what she wants.

That raises an interesting question. What does she want? She used to want Xtian to move to LA with her. Then for a while she let that one go since he was out of Chico, and moving on with his life. Then all the information and enrollment packages from LA based schools started showing up in the mailbox again. Yeah, she puts his name on mailing lists for fun, apparently.

So, after this last letter, Xtian fumed for a while. I am working on being supportive without trying to persuade Xtian to my way of thinking. But he beat me to that one. After a couple of hours of him being pissed off, he sat down and wrote her an email telling her basically that he didn't want anything to do with her until she got some mental help. He was sorry things had gotten this far out of hand, but that he couldn't let her further hurt him or his family.

So, HURRAY FOR XTIAN! He actually stood up for himself and is so far sticking to it. I have no idea what the outcome of all this will be. I doubt this will actually get her to re-evaluate anything, or start getting the therapy she so clearly needs. I'd be more than willing to bet she decides that I'm behind it all, and that I'm evil. But, either way, Xtian got to say some things he's not been able to before, and stood up to his mother. Yippee!

So, yeah. That's a long rambling explanation of the drama going on in my home these days. At least it gives us something to think about aside from WHEN THE HELL IS THIS KID GOING TO GET THE HELL OUT OF ME?

That's it. I'm going to go bake some cookies now. Be very, very jealous.