12/10/2021 I’ve been reading through my posts from over the years, and I see some disturbing patterns both in myself and my daughter. No matter how old she is, and she’s two days away from 28 years old, she has a fully orchestrated routine. In the last year and a half, she’s definitely matured, so I give her that. Her good periods last much longer, and her reasoning skills are much better.

Where she just can’t get it together is with her communication, particularly with me. I only know my perspective, of course. For the longest time, I’ve called her early in the morning on work days. It started out because she was having trouble waking up and was getting written up for tardiness at work. I offered to do a wake-up call and it just stuck. Until last week, I’d say she picked up my calls 97% of the time, and if she didn’t pick up, I’d text and she’d text back soon after. It’s been 6 mornings since we’ve spoken. I literally don’t know why she refuses to pick up my calls.

I need to summarize her life of late. She’s been dating a guy for about 8 months (maybe it’s more and I’ve lost track). He’s wonderful and I adore him. My husband likes him. My friends are in love with him. He loves my daughter and knows all about her problems and struggles. He loves my husband and me, and enjoys being at our house. It’s a total lovefest.

She has a steady job, and has been valued and respected there for over a year. I’ve even had lunch with her there, where she has HER OWN OFFICE! She’s very proud of herself and has dealt with the great days and not-so-good ones with grace.

She’s shared her thoughts on her life, her job, her boyfriend, her sister, my sister, and all kinds of things. She’s still on medication for her mental issues (she’s been diagnosed as bipolar), and has totally been on an upswing. She looks beautiful from head to toe, and has thought about going back to school to upgrade her skills.

The best part is that she and her boyfriend came here for Thanksgiving (my sister and her children and my older daughter were visiting) and they had a great time. Then, the next day, I had a party with all my friends and family, and they came to that too. They had an even BETTER time and she was delightful.

My two daughters had a breakthrough with their relationship, and my younger daughter asked her sister to come spend time with her at her house (she lives with her boyfriend now). That was so wonderful, but, alas, there just wasn’t enough time to make that visit. They had long talks and the sisters planned to spend time together when the older sister came back to visit. My younger daughter asked me to talk to her sister to make sure she would stay at her house during her visit. I said I would do that and I did. I reported back to that the dates weren’t firmed up, but that she’d get her wish.

Since then, I’ve called, texted, and emailed and have gotten no response. Before the communication shutdown, we made plans to go to the theater. She stood me up and I had to scramble to find someone else.

I’m literally baffled at this sudden turn. I know I didn’t say anything wrong, and I showed nothing but love to her. I was so happy that she was here with me during the holiday, and it was amazing to see her playing with her younger cousins and getting along with her sister. I can’t think of any reason she’d shut me out completely.

I don’t think it’s right to contact her boyfriend, but I’m almost ready to do that. I know she’s alive and well because her phone activity is busy. I’m going into her birthday weekend with no plans to see her, and that’s NEVER happened before (except when she moved away). I don’t even know how to title this post, that’s how confused I am. I guess it’s just that pattern I’ve talked about before. The relationship is going great in my mind, and then when I’m so excited and think it’ll last forever, it drops in the toilet. Plop, plop.