I haven't seen Ann in a while. As I mentioned in one of my other blog posts, she was suspended from her job about two months ago (I still don't know why and I could get in trouble for asking). But I got together with her and two other work friends last night for dinner at my house, and boy, she has lost her mind.

She acts like she's all happy to not be working. She puts on a happy face and talks about all the fun she's having, but she's not fooling any of us. But, whatever. She's working on a children's book, going to yoga, spending extra time with Hot Tommy (who, if you recall, was "laid off" from his $100K+ per year job right around the same time Ann was suspended...hmmm...).

She brought Chris with her, and let me tell you, I have never seen a more unhappy child in my life. He didn't smile once. He barely responded to questions, and mumbled one-word answers. He usually loves coming over to my house, but all he did was sit downstairs in the family room watching TV alone. He refused to associate with anyone. Meanwhile, Ann was working her way through an entire bottle of wine (which, apparently, is a nightly thing now) and talking about how Chris will be 12 in a year and a half, and then she's going to let him go live with his father out of state. Good! I hope she does! Chris spent his entire Thanksgiving and Christmas breaks with his dad, and said he had a wonderful time. No, Ann CHOSE not to see her son at all for Thanksgiving or Christmas, even though according to her CO, she gets him both holidays. No, she was with Tom and HIS kids. After all, "When it's just Chris and me, it doesn't feel like family. When I'm with Todd, WE feel like family." Yet, in the same breath, she talks about how her and Todd's relastionship hasn't "evolved." They've been together about a year now, and they're still in the early dating phase, as she puts it. They see each other a couple times a week, they don't really share deeply personal stuff.

Grrrrrrr...I'm getting STEAMED rehashing this, but I guess that's therapeutic!

Anyway, she went to talk about how Mary and Liam (Tom's kids) now call her "Mom" sometimes, and it's so sweet, blah blah blah... and she insists that Chris isn't listening, but it's not like she was being quiet and he's a kid who absorbs EVERYTHING. Why the hell wouldn't he be miserable when he's being replaced? When his mother is more than happy to have him gone so she can be with her "new" kids? I mean, she sends him to spend the night with her parents or brother every Friday night so SHE can spend the night at Tom's. Why is Chris not welcome? Is it because he punched Mary? I hope he does go live with his dad. Maybe that would be her wake-up call. But maybe not.

My other two friends and I were talking this morning. She's lost. Very, very lost. She's a high functioning alcoholic, she's in a highly dysfunctional relationship, she's driving her only child away, she's just a mess. How do you help someone like that, who's in such complete denial? Do we just let her crash and burn? Maybe that's all that's left.

Oh, something else kind of random, but super weird. Ann was telling us how Tom's kids felt like going trick or treating last weekend. LAST WEEKEND! January 6. So, they got into their costumes and went door to door in the neighborhood asking for stuff. And people gave them fruit, cookies, leftover Christmas candy. W?T?F? Who does that? Way to teach your kids to be entitled little beggars. So, so strange.