Sad Day

Laura and Lando have been having some relationship problems for a couple of months. I'm not going to go into the details because it's still so fresh and painful for them both. A couple of Sundays ago Laura called me crying and asked if she could come home. Of course I said yes. Then she asked if I could come pick her up because she was too upset to drive. Of course I said yes. I hung up the phone and grabbed Sarah who was sitting on my porch smoking.

We high-tailed it over to Laura's apartment about a quarter of a mile away. The way Laura was crying on the phone I was concerned that she and Lando had been in a physical fight. But no, thank goodness, he probably wouldn't do that but one never knows.

Laura got what she would need for a few days and rode home with me. Sarah drove Laura's car for her. Just as we were getting Laura's stuff into the house along comes Lando. Laura said she didn't want to talk to him right now so Sarah came running in the house shutting the door tight and yelling at Laura, "Don't you make me give his necklace back or anything like that. You know I'm not good at that!"

A bit of history: When Laura was in middle school, probably 13 years old, she met a boy that wanted her to be his girlfriend. Laura told him he would have to quit smoking (yes, he was just 13 too). He agreed to do so because my little princess was such a hot catch. One afternoon Laura caught word of this boy, whose last name caused us to jokingly call him "Moose", had been smoking in the boys' room at school. A teacher walked in on him so he put the cigarette out in a garbage can, which as you might guess, started a fire. Laura broke it off with the boy immediately. When Moose came over to the house to talk to Laura, Laura handed Sarah (then nine years old) the friendship necklace he had given her and instructed Sarah to return it to him. Sarah was outside for quite a while. Then she came back in the house just bawling her eyes out crying, "But he looked so sad," and pleading for Laura to give him another chance. Thus, "You know I'm not good at that."

I laughed so hard. Later in the evening it occurred to me that a week prior Laura had taken her engagement ring for it's every 6 months inspection. The diamond had slipped down a little in the setting so it was sent off for adjustment. I know it was mean but I couldn't help myself. I told Sarah that laura wanted her to pick the ring up at the jewelers on Tuesday and take it to Lando at the apartment. She screamed "Nooooooo! I can't do that. Are you serious? Noooooo!"

Last Saturday morning Laura called me at 8:00. I knew something was up just because it was 8:00am and she's not usually up that early. "What are you doing today mom?" I told her I planned to do some more painting on the daycare room. She asked if she could come over to help. When she got here she told me of another episode with Lando and that she was now ready to move out for good. We discussed how we were going to manage that now that it was nearly 10:00 and the men in our family probably already had plans. On our way to rent a storage building for her stuff we decided that she would just go back to the apartment for one more week and by next Saturday we could have help lined up. At noon my husband called to tell us that he would have help at the apartment a little after 1:00 and we got her furniture moved that day. It took a few days longer to get the rest of her stuff out. Three of my four bedrooms are now floor to ceiling with boxes. Ugh.

I do enjoy having Laura here with me. She's really good company and a lot of fun. I think we are going to start a diet and walk together. We both need to lose a lot of weight. I lost 45 pounds back in 2006 but 15 pounds have already come back. I need help!

The split up went very smoothly, like adults should do things. The couple had been together almost 4 years and lived together a year and a half so the division of belongings wasn't so easy. Laura still has the apartment key. Perhaps we'll send Sarah to return it.