my teaparty sister threatened me last week

[magical thyme]

12. why did I let her rant?

I was numb with grief and exhaustion. She was my only family connection after a 25 year hiatus, and I wasn't ready to give up being part of a family. And in childhood, I was as well trained to sit and take both physical and mental abuse as she was to dish it out.

Abusers stun you and shock you into paralysis with their first blows, and then just keep hitting. What I have come to understand in the past week is she is a serial abuser.

This time, I hit back. She kept throwing punches -- no longer hitting anything because I couldn't hear a word she was saying at that point -- until I hung up the phone. She is out of my life again, this time for good.

And that is what the teapartiers are. Serial abusers that stun and shock with their first blows, and then never stop swinging until they are cut off completely. Maybe they need to be in straight jackets, rubber rooms and heavily drugged?

Edited to add I did well on my finals and graduated summa cum laude.