This probably only amuses me, and it probably only amuses me becasue I am going to hell

On the Sotos Yahoo! list, there are all kinds of people. There are lovely, normal people whose posts are informative and helpful, and there are freaks. Not so much in between -- pretty clear lines dividing the two groups.

So, a while back a member posted a long, involved story about her son with Sotos who was involved in illegal activity, admitted guilt, and was sentenced to prison. Now, I understand that for a parent with a child with a developmental disability, this is devastating. Probably he could be better served in a therapeutic facility instead, but this is where they are, and there you go.

Recently, she came back to the group to post. Her posts go along the lines of:

Oh, it's so expensive to put gas in my SUV, so we can't drive to jail to visit our kid. Also, my cigarettes are SO expensive that I have no money left to send to my son in jail. Also, my house is being foreclosed on, and I have to have surgery and WOE IS ME.

Now, me, I read these posts and move on. But apparently I am not the norm, because a whole group of people held a conference call to discuss how best to help this family. They began trying to send money to the family and to the son in jail. They debated buying this woman a cell phone or paying her monthly Internet fee. It was lovely, but also a little bit scary.

The woman disappeared again, popping up now and again to mention how broke she was, how the house was in foreclosure AGAIN, how the gas makes the SUV impossible to drive, how the price of cigarettes is SO HIGH. And every time she shows up and posts, a whole bunch of people offer money, support, help, whatever.

Then. Oh, then.

Then, one day, someone who had been reading many back posts asked a question about how this kid wound up in jail. Someone posted a brief recap and said something about how there was a video of the activity which led to the boy's arrest.

Well. The mother went nuts. There was no video, she shouted. How dare you say there was a video!

The poster apologized and said she was clearly misremembering. The mother responded with a muttered Whatever, and by the way, did we all REALIZE how much cigarettes cost these days?

Today, the poster came back with:

"I am wondering what you referred to on post number [X] ........ on
[date]. It says [you] saw the tapes last night and [your kid did the misdeed].
The evidence speaks for itself, these were the words you posted."

Within moments, the mother replied and said that she didn't mean THOSE tapes, she meant OTHER tapes.

And Boy, Howdy, did the poster go to town.

"[F]unny you are always on the site when someone questions you, ready to retaliate" -- which was funny, because I've been thinking that for MONTHS.

To which the mother replied that she should the group was specifically for complaining. I just said that I did not have any cigarettes...no money and losing the house...could anyone help...that was not a plea for money."

Now, that already had me chuckling (because I am going to HELL, people), but she kept going until she wound up at "I can't help it if you don't have a husband. Don't knock the ones of us who have one. We live in a low income town and can't get services because we are not black."

Whoa! OK, then. Well, the poster replied with two posts, the second of which is over 1700 words long (!) with precious little punctuation, and details in part her medical records: "knee surgery, shoulder surgery, hip surgery, herniated discs from my neck to my lower lumbar spine from 2 car accidents, kidney stones, and other medical issues" and calls the mother a fraud PLUS a bad mom. And the length of the post and the fact that it had very little to do with the original topic and deteriorating language just... I don't know, it made me laugh. A lot.