A Load of Junk

Let me start this off by saying that I am so glad I learned long ago to scream into a pillow to relieve stress. Ironically enough, I think I learned that from my mother.

On the de-cluttering front, we have actually been making a lot of progress. I called 1-800-GOT-JUNK and two guys came with a truck yesterday to pick up a number of large furniture items that were crowding my bedroom (a big desk, a smaller table, and even my bed). I got the idea from - naturally - Hoarders. The company charges a fee based on how much of their truck you fill up, and we paid about $200. Or rather, my mother paid. This was a point of contention that led to an unfortunate series of disagreements over the past few days.

I'll make a long story very short by saying that, after several days of stressful behavior on my mother's part - although I concede that she's not seriously affected overall, she has a few major emotional problems and issues with people - my mother made the questionable decision of allowing the junk haulers to come earlier than planned while I was away at my grandfather's house. I had expected to be home in time, but while I was at my grandpa's, she took it upon herself to (unnecessarily) disassemble all our stuff and put it out on the deck for the guys to collect, which we had not agreed on, and then let them come early because they didn't have any other pickups. She also paid them, even though I had insisted I would pay for it. Then, when I came home, she accosted me and played the victim, having done so much work, and insinuated that I was to blame for her overworking herself and doling out the money.

Although we've already had our argument and I've screamed into my pillow, I'm finding that as I write this I'm getting more and more angry with her behavior. I simply cannot understand the logic of her brain or her actions, and to me, the argument we had tonight was convoluted and only succeeded in showing me that we do not have compatible personalities or beliefs about how to conduct our everyday lives. If this were a random college dorm assignment, I would request a transfer, because her passive-aggressive, borderline psychotic behavior are hard for me to deal with, even after living with some pretty crazy characters in college.

I felt so relieved in getting rid of our junk yesterday and, yes, grateful that she dealt with it in my place, but her self-righteousness is not justified in my mind, and her excessively antagonistic attitude is ruining my own sense of accomplishment.