Leo the Russian made my day this morning.
My mother has been a little isolated thanks to The Grandparent Situation. (If I name it, I don't have to re-explain it every time.) My grandfather is being moved into a hospice and my grandmother into a place that specialises in Alzheimers. My father has been staying either at my uncle's or my grandparent's while this goes on, and my mother says she has literally not seen him in a week. (I wouldn't have thought that would matter since they can't be in the same room together for more than an hour without arguing about something, but whatever.)
Anyway, since my mother has no friends of her own, and Brother Wibil takes every chance he can get not to be at home, she has no one to talk to. So she calls me. To talk about nothing.
I'm sorry, but I have a life. I do not have time to listen to my mother talk to me for over an hour about nothing. Not when she's calling every night, often multiple times. She refuses to send me e-mails, which would be fabulous because then I could just read them and skip the inane parts.
Does this sound ungreatful? Yes. But it's about been twice every day and she gets mad if I don't answer and leaves angry voice messages.
I want to take my freaking mobile and throw it in a river, no, the Grand Canyon. No, the Cracks of Doom. That way I could have the joy of watching it bubble and melt into the fires. And then, having returned the mobile to the firey hell from which it was forged, the evil would be destroyed.
Or is that taking things a little too far?
Anyway, Leo the Russian made my day this morning. I had a missed call from the previous evening and I held the phone to my ear gingerly, assuming that this would be a beration for not having answered the phone last night even though I spoke to her for two hours already.
Instead, I got a thick Russian accent telling me I have the most beautiful voice message in the world, and that he's e-mailing the rest of his play for me to look over and edit. Thank you Leo the Russian for being charming when I need someone to be charming at me. Thank you Leo the Russian for sending me the rest of your play so I will have something to read tonight. As you said in your e-mail, "thank you thank you thank you".