I hobble inside from the cold with Piper dragging me by her leash. "Ruby won't listen to me." I say as I kick off my sandals. "She's in the back."
"Get out there and get her!" my mom growls from the couch.
"But she won't listen to me." I try to try to explain slowly, hoping it may sink in.
She readjusts herself in her blankets. "Lie to her. Tell her 'cookie'."
By this time I had learned not to be exactally sympathetic towards Ruby when it came to listening to me. I gather my sandals and trudge outside again.
By the time I come back inside my mother had already gotten up and fixed the food for both dogs. "What are you doing? You should be resting! Get back in bed!"
"Don't you tell me what to do. I'm the adult here."
I sigh and give up, flopping on the chair across the room. "You know you should be drinking gatorade. I'll go get you a glass..." I didn't bother getting up, already knowing her reaction.
"No. Don't you tell me what to do." she walked back over to the couch after separating the dogs and putting their food down. She layed down with an 'ooph.'
"You need to eat. I'll get you some soup?"
"What I need," here we go. "is for you to take care of yourself!!" she started rearranging her blankets around her.
"I am...and that's the thing..."
"Oh no." she sighed. "What is it?"
"Well, the thing is, I really am taking care of myself...really well actually."



This was started in December of '08. It is now September of '10 and life has changed dramatically. I believe this was a time I had tried to ask my mom to let me start taking classes in highschool. She told dme that if I felt better at that moment, if I was getting better at all, then it meant that I had been lying to her the entire time and that I had always felt well enough to go to school. She told me that if I wanted to go to school to live with my dad (the ultimate in tretchory and woe) and I could be happy as a clam being in classes full time, which is not what I had proposed. Two years later and I've obtained my GED and passed an ACT with flying colors. No highschool period. Gift of grace much? Well, at any rate. I wish I had finished this, but don't want to try. Maybe another time. Probably not.