I didn't speak w/ W at all on Saturday as I went out to the D-Backs game and grabbed some beers afterward. D called me four times however, so we talked quite a bit.
As is her pattern, after a day of inactivity, she makes a lot of effort to contact me. It started early on Sunday w/ a text about picking up D. Then after D called me, W got on the phone to talk. It was an interesting conversation b/c I mentioned putting the house on the market w/ the prices being so low. W asked "why don't you just stay in it?" and I replied "I can't b/c that wouldn't allow me to have 50% time w/ D, unless we can find and agree on a school that is 1/2 way between our two residences."
W didn't answer that one and was pretty silent. I broke the silence by saying we'll have to wait until the parenting evaluator wraps up his assessment before we can answer that question. She didn't like it for sure, but that is reality right now. We need to agree if I get 50% custody. I'm still nervous about not getting it, but I'm praying I will.
Anyway, W called again a few minutes later to tell me she'd quarantined D's suitcase b/c of the lice. She then called an hour after that and asked if I had x-rays done on April 11.
After that, she sent a text about D being asked to be the flower girl in my niece's wedding. I replied that we still needed to talk w/ her, but she had been asked. W replied saying she was all for D going and asked where it was, when and how long we'd stay.
So, I replied and then got a snotty text from W who was ticked off at me. I couldn't understand why and asked for clarification and she replied "Just when I think we cold be pleasant and work together, you remind me why I left. Thank you."
Ok, I was very confused, so I asked for clarification (I know I should have left it alone -- I'm still on the learning curve here), but she didn't answer. I did call D later last night and we talked and then W sent another text about when we were scheduled to meet up today.
Today started w/ a call from D, then a text from W about a check, and then another call from D. On the 2nd call from D, she handed the phone over to W and we talked. While I had W on the line, I told her I didn't know what I had done to set her off, and she told me she was pissed b/c I didn't thank her for being so willing to let D be in the wedding last summer.
Ok, so now she's pissed off at me b/c I didn't fall down at her feet and thank her for her kindness. She is wacked out. However, on the other side, I know that she really, really needs strokes and she has this image of me that I'll never give them to her, so I could have looked more closely at this as an opportunity to affirm her actions.
The thing I'm the worst at w/ her is affirming. I know she's waaaaaaayyy off the deep end, but I still can use the interactions as a time to work on my affirming skills. I see this now as an opportunity that I'll work to capitalize on in the future, not just w/ W, but w/ everyone.
Ok, that is it for now. I'm going to try and catch up and then get cleaned up for the meeting w/ the parenting evaluator today.
