Living Room Ceiling

Yay! I did it! I painted the living room ceiling on Friday. And it looks really, really good. So good that I want to paint more of my apartment. Maybe after the holidays - I'm not going to have a lot of free time for the next month. So the ceiling looks great, and I spilled little drips of paint, but not whole buckets, like I was doing in my dreams. My neck and shoulders were really sore, though, from painting "up", but I feel good now.
And I scrubbed the kitchen floor, and that looks good. I went up to TIB's for Thanksgiving - it was her, her hubby, my mom, me, and my sister Ditzy. So TIB and her hubby start talking about how they are going to go visit their new grandson in Atlanta in January, and again in June. When I got home that night, I started thinking "uh-oh. What if they're hinting around for someone to take care of Mom while they're gone?" Last year, they made all these plans to go out of town but didn't bother to tell anyone until a month before they were to leave, at which point me & my sister Texas already had plans & plane tickets, Ditzy said she would be too tired, etc. The more I got thinking about it, the madder I got, because (a) why can't TIB just come out and say what her plans are, and that someone will need to take care of Mom - (b) why doesn't she ask if anyone will be available on the dates that they want to go out of town before she ups and makes all her plans - (c) why does this get dumped on me year after year when I have three other sisters and a brother who could be helping, but don't.
So I called TIB on Friday and laid it all out on the table. First, I asked if her comments from the night before were meant to solicit help in taking care of Mom. She said, of course, she was giving us early notice this year. At which point I asked her why she couldn't just straight out and say it, because frankly, I would have missed the point of her little hints if I hadn't got to thinking about it later. And she said, "I was being clear". Yeah.
So, on to the next bombshell - I told her to count me out for this upcoming year. I refreshed her memory that I have used up every bit of my vacation time for the last seven years, since Dad died, taking care of Mom. I reminded her that there are three other sisters and a brother who could be helping out, but don't. I told her that it was high time that other people in the family started helping out, and that was why I was opting out for the upcoming year.
At this point I know that steam had to be coming out of TIB's ears. I told her that if she thought it was time Mom went into a nursing home, the rest of the family would support that decision. That's when she told me, "it sickens and disgusts me that you think it's o.k. for Mom to be in a home. Mom belongs here with me". You have to understand, she treats Mom like a piece of furniture most of the time. But this particular piece of furniture is paying her (TIB's) bills, so she wants to keep it around. I thanked her for her opinion. I told her I knew she must feel like throwing down the phone at this point and running screaming into the yard, because believe me, I know she was pissed. I explained that I wanted to make my position clear as soon as possible, before we had another rerun of last year's debacle. And I got the heck off the phone before she could beam evil death rays through it and explode my head.
So. A hard job done. I was just determined not to be taken advantage of for another year while the rest of the family coasted. And of course, now I feel terribly, terribly guilty. But that's not going to change my mind this time.