My $#@*&?! of a family

[markolas]

So, for a number of reasons, I have not talked to my mother (who lives about 500 miles away) in about 6-7 months. I didn't really have any plans to either, but I most certainly don't after she pulled this little stunt.

A little background: my mother and I have never really gotten along; our personality types are polar opposites...I'm an extreme introvert who doesn't really give a **** about what people with money think of me...my mother is maniacally extroverted and obsessed with keeping up appearances of having the "perfect family." She's also very emotionally manipulative.

She's also always been very embarrassed by me because of my personality. I could tell even when I was a little, little kid. She also has a tendency to use me as a kind of social punching bag...whenever she is around some people (usually people with money) to whom she feels inferior in some way, she props herself up by ever-so-subtly putting me down, and sometimes (as in this instance) outright berating me. She's also usually doing it to make me feel guilty about something (mostly for being an "ungrateful little bastard," one of her main terms of endearment for me since I was little).

Anyway, I hadn't heard from her in six months when she calls and leaves a message on my work voicemail (yes, my work voicemail). The message itself was just her yelling at me (literally...I had to put my hand over the earpiece when I listened to the message) to call her. But here's the real gem.

She "forgot" to hang up the phone after leaving the message, so I was treated to an additional 2 minutes of her berating the **** out of me to someone else. I couldn't tell who she was talking to, and couldn't make out a lot of what she was saying, but I did hear her say that she hated me. She also apparently misinterpreted my voicemail greeting to say that I was the "Head of New Business," and so she went on about how there was no telling how much money I was making.

Now, I know perfectly well that my mother did not "forget" to hang up the phone. The whole thing was completely intentional. She had absolutely no interest in talking to me whatsoever. I predicted that she would not call me back after leaving that message. Surprise, surprise...it's been a month later, and I have not heard another peep out of her. She didn't want to talk to me, she wanted to lay a guilt trip on me (and probably make herself out to look like some sort of martyred saint in the eyes of whomever that was she was talking to).

I'm moving tomorrow and having all my numbers changed so she won't be able to get ahold or me (she already doesn't know where I live, aside from what city) and leave anymore messages like that. I am so completely done with this whole family (there are more stories where this came from, believe me).