She doth protest too much

Well, not exactly, but makes too big a deal about something to be telling the truth. This had to be one where evil-JB and her counterpart evil-EJ together were trying to discredit me. Though I didn't really think about it until later.

They usually visited for hubbie's birthday. This year, they did not, because hubbie had a confict, so a few weeks later, he wanted to go visit them.

They went on and on and on about the birthday card that they sent hubbie. About where they bought it, about when they sent it, about how they had to chase down the mail carrier to get it in the mail in time, about putting extra postage on it to make sure it arrived, you get the drift.

They also were complaining about their mail carrier. (Boils down to that they didn't like him because he wasn't white.)

Finally after about the 15th time they mentioned the card, hubbie said that he didn't receive one. Then when the mail came, Father in law, evil EJ made a big deal about going out to accuse the mail carrier of throwing it away instead of sending it off.

At that point, it had not kicked in what they were REALLY doing. I saw it as them going after the mail carrier because he wasn't white. I took what they said as the truth. I had no idea if hubbie had gotten a card or not until he said so in the conversation. So I popped up and mentioned how the mail on our end is also bad... that we always get mail in our box that isn't ours and the neighbors get ours, and that it was probably at one of the neighbor's houses. That was what it was in my mind at the time.

Then I realized. There was likely never any card. They kept bringing it back up to try to get me in trouble, just like they lied about me withholding phone calls in my "big phone game" post. They part about going after the wrong-race mail carrier was cover. If they weren't trying to make trouble, why did they keep on and keep on bringing up, like 100 times, until hubbie finally said he didn't get the card.

If they were normal people, I'd say that the truth was it got put in the wrong box on our end. However, given the pattern of other things that they did, I think that they were just trying to make trouble. It was probably as revenge for not getting to visit on hubbie's birthday. But hubbie was involved in something of his own that day, he was taking a class that he could only go to on that day or had to wait about three months for.

Something that I realized Years Later

You have to read the last post for this one to be in context: The Big Phone Game

A while after figuring out that the in-laws had been calling the house and hanging up when they didn't hear hubbie, a distant past memory surfaced.

Hubbie was working in Field Service. He had an office, but he wasn't usually there. He was usually on a call or just hanging around home instead. I called him one day when I thought he was at his office. This is in the days before voice mail, secretaries (that was what they were called back then) picked up and took messages if the person didn't answer.

This day he wasn't in and the secretary picked up. When she offered to take a message, I told her who I was and thanked her and said that I would just page him. She responded "well, why didn't you just hang up on me like you usually do?" At the time, I thought, WTF? I thought it was strange, but didn't think much more of it.

Now I realize. MIL hung up when she called the house and he didn't pick up. She was doing the same thing to his secretary!

I did know the secretary back then because I had worked at the company too, but now I don't remember who it was. I almost wish I could go back and tell her that it was evil JB hanging up on her and not me. It had to be, it fits!

The Big Phone Game

I thought I had posted this one, but I don't see it anywhere.

It's about the big lie that JB got hubbie to believe.

Hubbie and I were fighting one night. He accused me of answering the phone when his parents called and pretended that I did not hear anyone. I just figured he was lying and said so. He said, "I have been right in the kitchen with you and you acted like you couldn't hear anyone. I would call them later when you were in the shower and they would say 'I see you got your phone fixed.'"

It was so ridiculous that I just called him a liar and dismissed it. Then I went into the shower. Then I realized what happened. Occasionally, I would answer the phone while fixing dinner and nobody would be there. I assumed it was a wrong number. It was only occasional, not often enough for me to realize it was a pattern.

After that, I put an end to it. If I got a call that nobody said anything, I'd hand hubbie the phone and say "whoever it is won't say anything to me." Since she wouldn't admit what she did, she hung up on him too. If he wasn't home and I got a call, I'd tell him when I got home "Call your parents. " He'd ask if they called, and I would say "Somebody called at 5pm and wouldn't talk to me." He'd get mad and wrinkle his face.

It culminated when the golden grandchild had her first child. Phone rang about 5:30 that day when he wasn't home yet. I told him as usual and he disputed me as usual. About an hour later they called and told him all about the baby. All the time he was talking, I was in the living room, yelling "mighty damn funny!!!" When he got off the phone he told me that they had been at the hospital and just gotten home.

After that incident, they started calling him on his cell. Most of the time.