Granny vs. Nanny

My mom and Bill divorced when I was 2. During their separation my stepfather had recently arrived from Cuba after spending 5 years cutting sugar cane as punishment for marrying an American and trying to leave the country. One weekend my mom took me and went down to Miami to spend the weekend with my godmother, and my cousins. During that weekend My mom's knight came galloping in on his white horse to whisk her away. Well, not really. He just knocked on her door and said "Hi! I'm here to spend the rest of my life with you." And it's been true love ever since.

Back to the granny story. I have been ridiculously fortunate to have had an amazing set of paternal grandparents. Although Bill was an absentee father, what he lacked was more than made up for by grandmother and grandfather.

On Bill's dedicated weekends, if he happened to pick me up, he would turn around and drop me off at Nanny and Pop's; otherwise they took the responsibility to pick me up themselves. Obviously, I was extremely close to Nanny and Pop simply because I spent my entire life with both until 2003 and then it's just been me and Nan. Besides every other weekend in their care, my dad willingly sacrificed (ahahahaha) his 2 weekes during the summer to send me off to North Carolina to spend it with my grandparents.

On the other end of the spectrum, my mom and abuela have always had strained relations, including several hiatuses in their relationship. Abuela has the uncanny knack for exuding manipulation and afflicting those around her with severe anxiety.

For these reasons, I have had the good fortune of been closer to the sane grandma than the psychotic one. This relationship however, has been the envy and bane of abuela's existence.

So here's the recent story: Remeber that Red has been searching for an apartment to spend his spring training? (Did I mention that? hmmm....) I have been diligently searching for a 45 day furnished rental under $1300 (during season, sooo difficult). I found one 4 weeks ago. Do you think the initiative was taken to quickly make a decision, stick with it and give a deposit? Ohhh no. Last weekend I spent trapped in a car for 48 hours looking for apartments. And this weekend, 36 hours before he has to be at spring training is when a decision is being made.

Now, Nanny takes several weeks to arrange a trip to visit me and other family here in town. She picks me up and we putz around, have lunch, visit our family, and maybe do a little shopping before returning me to camp. I notified abuela of Nanny's plans 2 weeks ago and she didn't say anything. So when I reminded her on Thursday, WWIII broke out.

"Buell, ju can't jus be leabing here beneber ju want Dis is no how it works. Jur granmoder jus come to picke ju up, an ju bery nice wit her. Den ju coming back here wit de actictue. No buay!! Dis is de Cuban way in dis house, no de American buay! ur nana or noonoo or buateber ju calling her needing her to be call me!!!!"

So abuela said there was no way I could go with Nanny on Friday and that she would have to rearrange her plans because we were going to Fort Myers Friday afternoon to leave a deposit on Red's apartment. So we came to an agreement, I could go with Nanny but I had to return by 4pm. So I left early in the morning and we raced back to the house to make sure we were on time and to avoid being reprimanded.

Now. Do you think that we actually went to Fort Myers? I'll give ya two guesses....that's correct! No. And do you think that she dragged me off this morning to go with her? No. She is in love with inventing whatever excuse she can to pull me away from Nanny. This is becoming increasingly frustrating as I have realized that she is a tad jealous. So I try and kill her with love, but it's hard to love a thorny bush. Not only is she attempting to pull me away, she tries to feed me poison by saying that Nanny doesn't love me because she doesn't send her Social Security checks to me to help pay for my expenses. I would debate this point with her, but it's no use.

Did I tell you her latest threat? She has threatened to buy pot, to plant it on me, then call the cops, and have me thrown in jail. Oh! And she's threatned to beat herself up, call the cops and tell them my grandfather (her estranged husband) who lives with us, is beating her up. Now,does anyone doubt her psychosis?! I didn't think so.