She drives me crazy.....

OOOOHH OHHH. Sorry, couldn't help myself. Happy Thursday everyone! I love Thursdays...why you might ask, well because for me Thursday is Friday. HUH? To you it might not make sense; however, once I explain you will understand. I work a 4 day work week, 10 hour days, M-Th. So, at the end of Thursday, I can party like a rock star...or well just be glad work is done for the week. I do like to party some though, seems like it's been ages since my last round of fun though. My fiance', who I shall call Jerry (and no that is not his real name), and I have been very busy preparing for the up and coming wedding. On top of that mess, we bought our first home at the beginning of 2009 and have been overloaded with work to improve it. Needless to say, we have not had time to actually enjoy life or our friends, who I'm sure are going insane since we are always busy! SORRY GOOSE :( On the flip side, the wedding and home projects are nearing an end and all the hard work has made Jerry and I quite happy. Once the middle of October comes and goes we are on a project hiatus and ready to live it up with our neglected friends. YAY!

So what about all this MIL stuff you might wonder? Well I have been dating Jerry for 6 and a half years. I've been exposed to this woman since the very beginning of that time, in fact I spent Easter with his family only weeks after we had started dating. At that time, I was in college and a good bit younger so I don't know if I simply overlooked the way she is or I was just stupid and thought this crap was normal. I should have realized I was in for an awakening, the signs were all there! The stories of her are long and drawn out and must be told in chronological order to give you the full effect of her insanity. I will give you a glimpse into this but then may have to make separate posts to tell the tale. Much like Mango girl does with her island adventure story, which by the way I am completely in love with!

After getting engaged in April of 2008, the future MIL would call me nearly every day to "discuss" the wedding. Jerry and I knew from when we got engaged we wouldn't have the actual wedding until the fall of 2009. That was a year and a half away! No need to start the planning until closer to time. These calls went on for what seemed like forever, though looking back it was only a few months. (yes still longer than necessary) See, my younger brother was getting married in October of 2008. So for my family, all discussion was focused on his up and coming day. That was fine by me, and was a good excuse to get the MIL off my back. I put my wedding on the back burner and as the Maid of Honor in his wedding, I was plenty busy to keep my mind occupied. The day of his wedding, my future MIL was asked to video the wedding and reception. My Grandmother was not in good health, yet wanted to be a part of the wedding. The video was done so she could see him get married and turned out to be such a wonderful thing as she passed away in January of this year. Anyway, during his reception, the MIL comes to me and insists we take and utilize my brother and new sister's decorations for our reception. She explains, "it would be silly not to use them"; however, she never stopped to consider they DIDN'T BELONG TO US! On top of this, the decorations were not at all what I envisioned for my day. My brothers wedding was beautiful and very fall themed with reds and oranges and browns. Not my style at all! I explained to her, that I would not be doing the same theme as him and had a very different image in my mind of how our wedding and reception would look. She, would not hear it and completely ignored that I had explained I was not interesting in using them. She even asked the bride if she could have the decorations including the 50 cent table covers at the end of the night so that we could re-use them. Luckily, my mother was standing there and put a halt to it, explaining that the decorations were the property of the brides aunt and that they were not, "Bamboo's style". By the end of the night, my future MIL had not only annoyed and angered me, she had also managed to piss off the bride and groom as well as my mother. I should have realized then there would be more drama, fight, and headache to come. Why on earth didn't I pay attention!???

Now, I'm sure some of you wonder...where was Jerry in all this? Well, Jerry is a couple of years younger than me and has apparently not "grown a set" to this day. He is terrified of his mother and cares not to argue with her but rather to let her have her way. He figures this is easier and causes less headache. More to come on this topic in the future.

So there you have it, the beginning of a good drama. The characters are all there and sadly enough, this is my reality. As the wedding is still six weeks away, there is obviously more nightmare to come my way. I am interested to hear if anyone else out there has an MIL from hell and how you handle her. I'll be hoping for more comments and suggestions as I dive deeper into the story but I'm interested to hear what you think at this point?

Check back for the next part of the series!