Thursday 28 March 2013

Best Friend Dilemma.

The clue's in the title really.

I've known my best friend for ten and a half years. I thought that we'd be friends until we were bitter old ladies, sat next to each other in a Nursing Home knitting away and putting the world to rights. However, that's not really the case any more.

For the past few months she's been constantly ignoring me, making excuses not to see me and just generally not being a very good friend.




She spent the majority of last year unemployed after leaving college. I tried to support her then and she pushed me away. I knew she was struggling but she just didn't want my help. I was doing my finals and she was trying to occupy herself by applying for an endless stream of jobs. She got there in the end and has been working full time for the past few months.

She's an incredibly difficult person to know and to get through to. She won't listen and when she really needs a friend, she pushes everyone except close family members away.

I'm the only person that she's regularly in touch with from school. She's disowned the rest of our mutual friends. She says that she can't be bothered with them because they've made no effort with her. They have, she just didn't realise... Or care.

I'm not going to lie, these past few months have been really tough. I've felt so down for such a prolonged period of time and the only people who've consistently been there for me are my parents.

When I think about how little she's supported me, my initial thought is that I'm just being selfish for expecting her support. She just doesn't realise how other people feel and she's definitely unreceptive to the emotions of others. I feel cruel for even saying that. I haven't seen her properly since last year. I didn't even get a Christmas card. She got a Christmas card and presents before Christmas from me. 

She texted me a few weeks ago to tell me that she was ill. I texted her the next day asking if she was feeling better. She ignored me. So after three days I began to get a little worried. I popped round to see how she was (bearing in mind she lives two minutes walk away from my house), and she couldn't wait to get rid of me. She didn't invite me in and blamed me for her dog wetting itself with excitement because I'd turned up unannounced.

I know our friendship has never been a conventional one, but I do at least expect to get a reply to a text within a week. Something that frequently doesn't happen. I'm losing patience with her. 

I honestly don't know what to do. In my heart of hearts, I feel like our friendship is nothing but a chore to her. I'm a burden to her like I am to many others. And best friends shouldn't make you feel like that, should they?

I can't help who I am and how I am. I can't change to a great extent to fit the needs and wants of other people. And to be honest, if being an unemployed loser for the past ten months has taught me anything, it's that I need to stop trying to please others and focus on making myself happier.

What do I do? Accept that she probably just doesn't want to be friends? Keep on fighting a futile battle? Get on with life and focus on other friends? I honestly don't know. Ten years of friendship would go down the toilet if I were to just walk away; but it's as though she doesn't want me in her life anyway.

We're both only children and there's sometimes a battle of wills when it comes to who's going to get their own way. When we were younger, I never used to give in, but nowadays, she tends to get her way. She deliberately makes me feel bad when there's a threat that she's not going to get her own way. For example, on my birthday a couple of years ago, the two of us went to London. I wanted to go on the London Eye because it's something I hadn't done before. She, however, didn't want to because she'd been on it once before with a relative. She said to me: 

"We can go on it if you really want to, but I really don't want to. If you do though, I suppose I'll go along with it..."

What can I say to that? "Yes I'll force you onto the London Eye against your own will and consequently never hear the end of it..." So, no, I gave in and we didn't go on it. She got her way and I've still never been on the London Eye... 

Recently if I've asked if she's free on a certain day, she'll just ignore my messages. So now I don't generally broach the subject of meeting up. I invited her out for drinks with some other friends over the weekend; she declined my offer.  It's just easier to leave her alone than it is to be ignored or rejected.

I asked her yesterday when she might be next free. She's ignored me. She's been on Facebook today, but she hasn't replied to my message; because I'm evidently a hindrance to her...

It makes me feel like I'm being needy. I'm not though, am I? For wanting the girl who's supposed to be my best friend to just reply to my messages every now and again?


I couldn't resist.

Apologies for this incredibly boring, self-deprecating and insecure post, but it's quite cathartic to write it all out... 
It's really just been a huge excuse for me to use an array of cute pictures. Sorry...

Night Nurse

No, this isn't about the cough medicine...

My next door neighbour pretty much disgusts me when he has casual 'relationship' after casual 'relationship' with poor women he scours for in local pubs whilst off his face on an array of strong ales.

Just recently he's had a particular lady over for 'intercourse of a sexual variety' (for the past four weekends out of five). She was even round this Monday but left yesterday morning. In fact, she's back again right now. 

Let's put it this way, not a lot of sleeping goes on.

They had an argument a couple of weekends back when she dared to go outside in front of the neighbours who reside across the road... And now I think I know why...

The lady who lives across the road is a nurse at our local major hospital. So was his 'girlfriend' until recently.

I was reading the news yesterday; when I found an article relating to a nurse who'd been struck off the NMC register because of 'unacceptable behaviour'. This is his girlfriend. The nurse across the road will probably have heard of her and he is clearly ashamed of being seen with her... Poor girl.

Basically, whilst working, she stole a prescription pad, fraudulently collected drugs from the pharmacy on the behalf of patients in her care and stole 200ml of Oramorph from the ward she worked on.

She then took ALL of the Oramorph in one evening and proceeded to go into work the next day; still under the influence, needless to say.

When one of her patients raised the alarm, a colleague found her slumped across the nurses' station fast asleep...

As bad as this is, I do kind of feel sorry for her.

She must have an long-standing addiction to and high tolerance of opiates if she could take that much in one go without going into respiratory arrest, surely?

She was struck off the NMC register earlier this month and that's fair enough because if she was allowed to continue her work as a nurse, it would raise serious concerns and potentially bring the profession and the NMC into disrepute.

She's obviously got problems and she needs to work through those, but she can't be allowed to care for vulnerable patients if she's been so dishonest in the past. At least not until she's healthier.

And as if her life hasn't been bad enough recently, she's now involved with him! Poor woman.

Thursday 7 March 2013

Hectic...

That's really the only word to describe life at the moment. Yes, I'm moaning because my life's hectic, but I guarantee I'd be moaning a Hell of a lot more if it wasn't.



We're in the process of moving house. The 'rents are divided on this. Mum desperately wants to; Dad definitely doesn't. I don't want to either (but my opinion's a bit insignificant; I'm just a 'kid' after all...)
We had an estate agent visit this morning to make an evaluation. Dad and I were hoping that he wouldn't recommend a high asking price, but it turns out it's £99,000 more than it was bought for twelve years ago: Music to my Mother's ears...

I stayed up until 6am this morning tidying my tip of a bedroom. After filling an entire wardrobe to capacity, three chests of drawers and five boxes full of clothes; it could be said that I've got too much stuff... I was up again at half past nine; feeling deflated before I even got out of bed. 

It's not just the house that's causing stress. My car's currently in the garage because its ECU (Engine Control Unit - effectively its brain) has gone haywire. The electrician man's taken away today to reprogramme; which will cost me a whopping £400. Why do things always go wrong and require money being spent at the worst possible time?! 

I've had no money coming in since my final student loan payment last APRIL; and my savings are rapidly depleting because everything around me seems to be falling to pieces.

To top it all off; my laptop's being a little, temperamental, shall we say? 

I've applied for 306 jobs. All to no avail; and it's getting a little tiring now.

No JSA. No wages. No benefits at all. There are people out there who have made little effort to find work but seem to get money thrown at them for doing naff all... Is it fair? Not really. Will anyone do anything to stop it? Doubt it. Does anyone really care? Again, I doubt it.

Anyway, excuse the rant... It's just that sleep deprivation always gets me moaning.

Let's hope I'm in a better mood next time.