T-Bird - Part I

We have a love/hate relationship. I’ve blogged about her before. We had the most dubious of beginnings. I believe it was in the parking garage of a local mall when she threatened to kick my ass. Yes, this was our first meeting. She and I babysitted the same little boy while his mother whined about being single and... oh, yeah... lied to us about each other. She was just that type. So, that was our beginning. The Bitch moved to North Carolina and left her son with me. I can’t recall exactly how long it was before she finally came back but it was long enough. She then would bring him back to T-Bird and T-Bird had him at one point for a month. Finally the Bitch came back and got him and then just sort of disappeared with this little guy that T-Bird and I had practically raised and nurtured as our own. This is the reason we started talking. When the Bitch stopped communicating we would call each other to see if the other had heard from them. Eventually, we did start talking about more and by the end of the year, we had shared why we felt such animosity for each other. Trust me, there was no love loss on either side. I hate for someone to lie about me. I can give you plenty of reasons not to like me, don’t make any up. It was the Bitch. I won't get into what all was said... it was not flattering. No wonder she didn't like me. The Bitch came home for Christmas that year and I, three months pregnant, told her to fuck off. What solidified my relationship with T-Bird was when we had our January blizzard and she and her boyfriend (then husband, now ex-husband, live-in) brought me groceries by walking up The Hill (where the trailer park was) because it was just impossible to leave. Before long I was going to their apartment every Saturday for breakfast. I’d call and ask if Bob was up because he was the morning cook. Those were good times. T-Bird and Bob were my best friends throughout the last months of my pregnancy. T-Bird listened as I cried and bitched about SD. I can look back now and say she was pretty stable psychologically at that point. Around July 4th of 1996, she left for a trip to her home state of Michigan and instructed me to not have "that baby" without her. *Salutes* Yes, ma’am. As luck would have it, one of my friends from college, a mother herself, had been the one to go to my childbirth classes with me instead of T-Bird and she was at the beach for July 4th weekend. Even luckier, I went into labor July 7th at 4:00 in the afternoon while I was on the phone with my sister. I had called to wish my nephew a happy birthday. I knew it was a labor pain as opposed to Braxton-Hicks because I had been in labor in May. Plus, SD had just yelled at me and made me cry... which is also the reason I went into labor in May. T-Bird took me to the hospital then too. I called Bob about 7:00. He said T-Bird had left Michigan about the time I went into labor, maybe a little before. I puttered around, struck with that "nesting instinct." Kind of hard to nest though when your belly looks like it has two basketballs in it. T-Bird called and told me she had just gotten home and would be to my house directly. She came in wanting to know where my luggage was and still I puttered. I was wearing a dress she had given me, which even in my advanced stage of pregnancy was still very, very comfy. She made me some toast and urged me to hurry up, which I didn’t. I had no desire to go to the hospital. I was willing to wait it out as long as I could. Finally, I made one last trip to the bathroom before leaving for the hospital. T-Bird yelled down the hallway, "Hey, my Mom thought she had to pee and instead her water broke." Yeah, just guess what happened!! I called her a variety of unbecoming names and was now forced to walk around with a towel between my legs. Oh yeah, this joy was just starting. Nate’s birth itself and aftermath are a few posts unto themselves so I’ll just tell you that T-Bird was there during my labor, part of which she slept through (lucky her), she was the one who helped shove my ankles to my earlobes, and she was right there as they laid Nate in my arms the first time and we cried together. Life though... takes funny turns.