Ugh

Last weekend I finally did two things I've been dreading - I started the daunting task of scanning all of my old family photos and I called P (the crazy step grandmother) for the first time in almost a year. One of them sucked way more than the other... I'm sure you can guess which one.

I started scanning some photos a year ago, but once I realized how involved of a project it really was, I gave up. There are literally thousands of photos ranging from the 1920s-1990s, many of which are in bad need of corrections (the prints from the 70s are the worst - what the hell was wrong with film back then?). I want new prints of the faded ones for our photo albums... which leads to another huge project involving reorganizing the thousands of photos (many of which are no longer in albums because the glue that was holding them in disintegrated many, many years ago). I think it's fantastic that I have all of these pictures (especially considering most of my family is dead) and it is fun to sort through them, but still, it's a frickin' huge time-consuming project!

The phone call to P was a much less enjoyable. For those of you who don't know my history with her, you can read about it here. Basically, she's a big ol' flaming racist - and isn't afraid to let everyone know. She's also a hardcore religious zealot who has mentioned several times how I'm a horrible person for daring to live in the same house with a man I'm not married to; however, it's not like she wants to see me married to M anyway because of the race issue (I'm sure it's a constant internal battle for her). Needless to say, she's not too fond of me - and since my grandfather died, my tolerance of her has greatly decreased.

I really don't want to talk to her, but I feel I have to keep in touch - she still lives in my grandparents' house (which, technically, is now her house). However, the house and what's in it is important to me (there's a lot of my mom's and grandmother's stuff). Now I know that I'm named in the will and that once she dies or decides she wants to move, a lot of what's in there (and a portion of the proceeds) goes to me. Honestly, my only reason for keeping in contact with her is because I'm afraid that if I don't, she'll do something sneaky. She already demanded that the executor of the estate (a longtime friend of my grandfather's) give her back his copy of the will because she doesn't trust him (and exactly what the hell is he going to do?). I think she just doesn't want anyone to know what's in there because she's up to something.

The conversation was painful - she spent most it ranting about how Obama shouldn't be elected for "obvious reasons" and that McCain is far too liberal. Of course, she also managed to insult me several times with her witty banter about "the colored people." Fun times.