The cost of renting a Uhaul truck: $2400 plus gas plus labor
The cost of a moving company to move and haul your crap: $2000
Moving to a new town with cool opportunities and close to a bunch of good friends?: $2000

;o)

Just got back from a weekend with my family at Great East Lake. By family, I mean my grandparents, my uncle and his girlfriend, my sister, and my dad (the extended family folks are from dad’s side).

Why did this happen?

Thursday was spent at court all day watching the final court proceedings of my parents’ divorce. My impression of the day:

My sister testified about my mother not having any contact with her for two years. My mother had this horribly angry look on her face. Dad cried hearing it. o_O That was wierd. And my sister told me he cried last night when she told him I was going to come up.

My mother comitted perjury because of me, actually. I mean…in the morning, when I wasn’t there, she said a couple blatant lies. But the only witness who could testify that they were…was me. When I was there in the afternoon session, my mother ended up contradicting herself. *sigh*

It was hard though. My dad and I have such a harsh history and while he’s unable to be an effective or even good father, I can actually see that he DOES give a crap. So…that’s hard to really grasp and deal with. And then my mother was so ALONE. I mean, Dad had me and my sister, his parents, his oldest brother and his girlfriend all there at court and after to support him.

My mom…just had her lawyer.

I know without a doubt that my mother is bipolar (undiagnosed and untreated of course. It’s lead to infidelity, wild shopping sprees…etc. She’s wrecked her life. She’s the third of my grandmother’s seven children to do so because of the illness. It’s like…Mom, get some help, and you won’t suck.

I also found out some other hard things: Mom was really neglectful to me when I was a baby. At one point, she and my father were separated and she stopped taking care of me. Mom’s older brother called my dad’s parents and they came and got me and they and my father took care of me for the next year. Mom also dislocated my left shoulder by yanking on it when I was a year old.

Just..disturbing stuff.

I mean…my dad DID actually try. My grandparents kept talking about how my mother just set him off, and orchestrated the fights between me and my father. From a clinical point of view, mom was raised in a chaotic household until her father left her mother (her father is bipolar). Could mom be creating the chaos of her childhood? It’s possible. Or are my grandparents excusing my father’s behavior? Also possible. With dad, I’ve seen ALL emotions from him. With mom, I’ve just seen anger and emptiness.

I am SO CONFUSED.

Anyway.

On other fronts, I’ve arranged the dang expensive move to Provo for the end of August. WHEN did U-Haul get so effing expensive?!