repair a broken friendship

I thought that I would be able to retire this goal this week, until I ran into a mutual friend at Starbucks.

We were chatting along nicely, until a snide comment cropped up in the conversation.

I kept my cool, bit my lip… [yay me!]

(Inside, I had lots of catty comebacks ready to sling! But I have decided that I wish everyone the best, and there is no point in being childish.)

I really do want to keep this mutual friend, but if they are going to try to gossip.. they are going to get voted off the island too!

Hanging onto this goal a bit longer, apparently I have some work to do!

Now that this lesson is in the past, I am more comfortable with “not seeing’ this person.

The hardest part is all of the friends that we both know who are not calling as much. I have not gossiped about it, so it is not hard to figure out where they are getting their information. Taking the high-road doesn’t feel so great right now!

To make things worse, another mutual friend is getting embroiled in this disaster. She was at my house and dropped a couple of hints that this friend is not doing well… etc. Then a couple of more hints that “oh you, know, friends have their problems.. but I am sure she has totally forgotten about it by now, and you should call her…”

Infuriating!

- She's still trying to manipulate the situation.
And
- Now I am paranoid again about who else she has been talking to

Entirely aggravating, frustrating and challenging!

Now it is clear that this person is lying to me about many things.

Kind of strange, since they are obviously rubbish, and now “stories” from last year are being recycled.

And I don’t even ask to know… [sigh] I see now, this is not really a friendship.. it is just a very sad person that I know.

Since she has caused so much trouble with other people (when she gets all upset about tid-bits, and vents to mutual friends.).. I am making my best effort to avoid providing her with any new info.

I started this week, and she already was trying to pump me for info... very interesting... glad I made the change.

I have learned a good lesson…

Breath deeply. I just keep reminding myself to breath deeply.

I got an email from the aforementioned person. And of course it contained a phrase designed to drive me batty!

‘Dont take this the wrong way….” Then she proceeded to blah blah blah chastise me about our cars parked on the street.

on Sunday, the Freescale marathon went right by our corner. Our street was packed with cars from all over, people were driving up.. cheering for a running friend, and then taking off to cheer for them further down on the route.

of course the parking was a bit messed up. 20,000 people were RUNNING past our houses!

The terrible phrase is just a way to make an excuse to say something ugly. Arrrgh!

You never know, people change over time. I have done my part, taken responsiblity for anything that pushed them over the edge, but if they are going to continue to be ugly… have to cut them loose.