Saturday, June 02, 2007

Identity Crisis

This one's even funnier when you add family dynamics to the story. Let's see if I can tell it all without making it too complicated.

Dad calls last night to tell me Mom is in the ICU. Then he does his normal, "Don't worry, she'll be fine" routine. He also tells me nothing. No reason for the visit, no condition is described, nothing the doctor has said is repeated. Any questioning I have leads him to accuse me of being nosy. His words. So somehow, any information I seek brings him to a place of feeling like I doubt his ability to take care of things. He tells me I worry too much and when it's time to worry about something, he'll tell me. I worry anyway.

Last night after I talked to Dad, I called my older sister, thinking maybe she has a secret way to get more information from Dad. She doesn't, and she thinks I worry too much, too. We don't have the best relationship anyway, and I always sense my personality and way of thinking is incredibly foreign and uncomfortable for her.

I worked a grave last night and so slept when I came home. When I woke up, I saw caller ID listed my sister calling once, then my dad, then my sister again. Worried, I called my dad first. He said things were fine, Mom's still in ICU, then he tried to tell me more info, and it seemed quite uncomfortable for him. The info was still quite vague: "Some level is too high, but she'll be fine." But I thought it odd he was making an attempt, even through obvious discomfort.

I then call my sister who says she was worried about me because when we talked last, I didn't seem like myself. I said, "I was fine last night." She said, "No, I mean this morning when I called." I told her I never talked to her and was asleep the whole morning. She said, "I talked to you for 10 minutes this morning. Had a whole conversation with you about mom. You just didn't sound like yourself." I had a hard time convincing her she did not talk to me.

AJ had actually answered the phone when she called. His 13-year old voice apparently sounded just like mine. He talked to my sister for 10-minutes, not once letting her in on the fact that she was not talking to who she thought she was. She even said things like, "You don't sound like my sister" and "Are you sure you're okay, you sound different." Why he didn't let her in on the secret for that amount of time is beyond me.

But the chain reaction was started. My sister was so worried she considered calling 9-1-1. She instead called my dad and told him he needed to call me and give me more info because I wasn't dealing well with things. So then he again thinks I worry too much and am just nosy, and is forced to call me to tell me more so I don't have some nervous breakdown.

Come to find out, AJ was so distracted by his computer game while he was talking to my sister, he had no idea who he was talking to. When she asked to speak to Sarah, he thought it must be my mom. I am not sure when he figured out it was my sister ... but one thing is for sure, she never figured out it was AJ.

But I've called everyone and explained why "I wasn't myself" when Sister called earlier. Apparently I was AJ. And no one needs to worry about me. They're all having a good laugh about it - I hope.

And AJ is banned from answering the phone if he is playing a computer game.

Chelle

5 comments:

Nikki Neurotic said...

I hope everything is okay with your mother.

Roberta said...

Ditto. I hope she's alright.

Unknown said...

Talk about mixed messages. Your kid sure is a space cadet. Maybe your sister too.
Sorry about your mom. Hope she improves ASAP.

Erika Jean said...

oh boy, hope everything goes okay!

Jolynn said...

That is too funny. What the heck? How are you not suppose to worry when you're mom is in ICU?? AJ sounds like a normal boy, distracted by his game.

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