DiiiiNOOOOO!!!

"No halves in this family.'

Dino and I are factually half siblings, but we were raised as full siblings by my father and our mother. My two oldest sisters had very little, if any, memory of their biological father. 

I NEVER thought of them as half sisters...but now I don't think of Dino as a sister at all. It's funny how the brain works...I knew they were half sisters, and all that entails, but it was more of a reality that they were my sisters. Just my sisters.

I always thought I would have a life long, close and wonderful relationship with Dino. I thought Dino and I had something special. Dino and I were walking that path until she intentionally took advantage of my concern for her, lied to me, and conned me out of money, plus more.

Not-So-Trustworthy Oldest Daughter.

When I was a little kid my dad was out to sea for 6 months, one of many deployments, and my mother had the opportunity to visit him in another state for a week. My oldest sister who was 18 at the time promise that she was mature enough and responsible enough to watch her three sisters for a week. She harped on my mother over and over until my mother was convinced and agreed.
Unfortunately, my sister lied. My sister didn't make us dinner. She didn't help us if we needed help with our homework. She didn't make sure we had lunches for school. I swear to God if we didn't show up after school she wouldn't even have noticed. And why would that be? Because she was too busy with her boyfriend.
The two oldest sisters even took advantage of the fact that the parents were gone and literally torturing the two younger. I remember being at the dining room table and we were told we weren't going to be allowed to have dinner until we each smoked a full cigar by ourselves. And they sat there and they watched us smoke the cigars and get sicker and sicker and sicker. We both threw up. Then they told us that they weren't going to cook us dinner because we threw up after we smoked the cigars. They would also hide my sister's doll and tell her that they had buried her in the backyard. They would sometimes not even show up until 9:00 or 10:00 at night and we would be at home not knowing what the heck to do. I mean they just took total advantage of my mother not being there.
Something Dino did do was allow her boyfriend to drive his motorcycle into our home. INTO THE HOUSE!!!!  Neither one of those dimwits thought that a full-time housewife wouldn't notice motorcycle tracks in her home, both in the living room and the dining room when she came home. Which she did, and believe me, all hell broke loose.
My oldest sister would also let him spend the night in her bedroom every night. She had promised my mother that not only would he not spend the night but he wouldn't enter the house while she was gone. Just for safety purposes. So that my mother could have confidence that everything was fine. And of course my sister agreed. Her boyfriend wouldn't be allowed in the house. Well, we all know that's a lie. She had every intention of her boyfriend not only being allowed in the house, but being allowed into her lady parts.
My other sister, Not a Princess, and I shared a bedroom. We could hear my oldest sister and her boyfriend going at it every night in her bedroom. At first we didn't understand what was going on. Finally the third sister, the one below the oldest, let us in on what was happening. This was a very disgusting sister who told us practically play by play what was happening and got a big kick out of letting two little children know what sex was, how it worked and why it was being done in Dino's room. She even described what happens at the finale. I mean it was really gross and crude ....sick.
Dino swore us to secrecy about her boyfriend sleeping over. But I think she knew that it was quite the gamble that one of the three sisters would probably tell our mother at some point. So my sister concocted this extravagant story about how her boyfriend HAD to sleep over because somebody had tried to break into our home. I saw my sister's boyfriend and my sister break one of the glass louvers in the window next to the front door. Then they taped cardboard up against it and it looked very convincing...to young me. And they told my mother that that's where the person tried to get in.
They swore to my mother that her boyfriend slept on the couch, and never even went anywhere near the bedroom. That he had too much respect for my sister Dino, for her parents, and for the family as a whole.
9 months later...That was proven a lie!!!!

Aprproximately two months after the "break in" I heard a ruckus of my mother screaming and Dino in her bedroom. Next thing I know a taxi pulls up, my sister walks out of the house, suitcase in hand, gets in the taxi and leaves. I didn't see Dino for quite a while after that.
Technically 7 months after that my nephew was born. This marriage didn't work out for my sister because she didn't have a lot of get up and go. She was married to a man who had goals, and a future that he was reaching for. He wanted nice things and he wanted her with him. But according to him he was frustrated because she would just sit on the couch and do nothing. She would watch TV all day. When he got home she would gripe about him. He said she kept a clean house, but they really needed to work towards something. But she didn't want to get a job or contribute to the family.
In the end the two separated and divorced. My sister lost custody of their child, because she was found to be an unfit mother. She immediately moved in with another man. Her ex-husband did exactly what he planned to do. He made something of himself. He built himself a business from the ground up and is now extremely wealthy and happy.

Dumbest Educated Person on Earth.

Our mother used to tell people that Dino was an "Educated Idiot." She said Dino had book learning but absolutely no common sense. She said a floating turd in a toilet had more common sense than Dino had.

 

 

 

 

Welcome New Baby!

 

When her daughter was born I sent her a huge gift package, all the way from Hawaii to Texas. It included cash, baby clothes and toys, and a beautiful and delicate butterfly motif shawl for my sister, the mama. Even if she didn't want to use it as a shawl, it would be a beautiful table or sofa cover. I wanted her to feel special, like she wasn't forgotten in all the baby celebration.

She never acknowledged the package. She never thanked me. I did try to give her grace and consider that maybe she didn't receive it...but the post office confirmed she did. I chocked it up to Dino being too busy as a stay at home mom with a new baby. I never said anything to her about it. I didn't want to make a big deal about it. I should have said something to her...it may have changed the way she treated my future generosity towards her.

Time went by and one day she and I were chatting on the phone. Of course, I was the one paying for the phone call from Hawaii to, then, North Carolina. Metaphorically, she would happily eat the meal, but never "reach for the check."

I don't remember how it came up, but she said "like the package mom sent when my daughter was born. Mom sent me this ugly shawl, a rattle and $10 bucks!" She went on to excoriate the shawl. Said it was the ugliest shawl she'd ever seen and she threw it away. She also said "mom" sent her $10, and I KNOW that was a LIE , because the package was from me, and I sent her a whole hell of a lot more than $10! And there was clothes, toys etc., for the baby, too 

I never confronted her about her mistake in remembering it as having come from mom, nor about the blatant lies about the contents. Part of me didn't want to embarrass her by pointing out her mistake but also, she hurt my feelings a great deal. I put my heat and love in that package, and since Dino was always crying poor-mouth to me, I wanted her to have some nice things and lots of it. I knew no one else in our family would send her anything. So I never said anything to her. 

When either of my children were born, Dino neither sent me anything nor made a phone call to me. 

 

Mom's Heart Attack.

 In 1980's my mother had a massive heart attack. It was so bad that they told my dad to get her papers in order. In other words they felt she wasn't going to survive. But my mother was one of those people where people always say that they're So man they're going to outlive everybody. 

Well, I was in Hawaii at the time, my parents lived in Hawaii, my sister "Not a Princess" lived in Hawaii. My oldest sister, Dino, lived in North Carolina, and my other sister, the lot lizard, lived in Texas. Dino desperately wanted to come to Hawaii to be with my mother because we all were told she wasn't going to make it. Dino was married with three children under her roof and she asked me if she could borrow the money to fly her and her daughter to Hawaii from North Carolina. She said she would pay me back a certain amount each month until it was fully paid. Without hesitation I agreed. Didn't ask for interest on the loan. I didn't ask for a down payment. I'm not a bank. I'm a sister. And she and I discussed it back and forth numerous times. She said how grateful she was, and that no matter what she was going to make sure that she paid it back because I was doing such a wonderful thing for her. 

In the end it was a con. A big con. Her ticket cost me a great deal of money. Flying from North Carolina all the way to Hawaii wasn't astronomical expense. But she and I had agreed to and I trusted her with all my heart. Especially in the time of an emergency. The month after she left I received a $50 check in the mail. Less than the amount it was supposed to be but, I just figured maybe that's all she could afford at the time. That was the one and only payment she ever made to me. She kept putting me off and putting me off and putting me off every time I brought it up. She kept coming up with this emergency, this house issue, this child needed to see a doctor, her husband had to go on an emergency trip for work. I didn't even buy that one, but pretended to. He worked for a pest control company. He would go out and kill bugs. And he never had to go out on business trips, but at least it was better than his previous job as a fireplace salesman. He would supposedly try to sell fireplaces. Anyway, I digress. 

Years later after she was divorced from that husband, I'll call him Harry, I decided to bring up the loan because maybe she was in a better position now and could afford to start the payments that should have been made over a decade earlier. Or at least we could clear the air on it even if I never saw the money again. So, I brought it up and I was flabbergasted at what she said. She told me that she didn't owe me the money. She said her ex-husband, Harry, owed me the money. That it was between him and me and had nothing to do with her. Her blatant lie was shocking. She said that since I had made the arrangements with him, he's the one that owes me the money. I pointed out to her that that's not the case. I never once spoke to him about the loan. I spoke to HER, my sister, and only her. I told her that she can't just shrug it off and say it's her husband that owes the money when the deal was made between the two sisters and I never once spoke to Harry about it. I had hoped I heard a little embarrassment, and yes shame and her voice, but I Heard a lot more anger. She was actually angry that I brought up the loan of thousands of dollars that she owed me. She didn't apologize that she never paid me back. And frankly she never even apologize that her husband didn't pay me back. If he owed me the money why wasn't she at least saying I'm so sorry he didn't pay you back? What she did say was that that's the way it was and I could either like it or lump it. 

Ask my usual I just sucked it up and forgave her in my heart and and moved on. But the betrayal was pretty heavy. Not the fact that she owed me the money, but the fact that she betrayed me. She came to me and asked for the loan. And with love and caring and without hesitation I said yes. I didn't ask for collateral because I thought her word was her bond. But like in so many other cases in my family their word is not their bond. Their word is always their lie.

So she got a free trip to Hawaii with her baby, a free place to stay with me, she got to get caught up with all the family, she was the prodigal daughter, she was the big cheese at the moment, and she never had any intention of paying me back. I think her intent is what really hurts. Because she asked for that long and she knew she was never going to even try to pay me back. And that right there shows a lot of exactly who Dino is. She is a user. She is a narcissist. She's very selfish. She used to talk about how poor she was but you know what She always had a pack of cigarettes next to her and no clothes and makeup. She was always talking about how she cooked lobster for dinner or how they had steaks for dinner. But in hindsight I realized she was probably on food stamps. Riding the system just like our other sisters.

Turned Couch Cushion.

Yes. I found it. Piss on my white couch and you turned over the cushion. Didn't even tell me so that I could clean it. That was TRASH behavior. And I didn't even say anything to you about it. Nothing !  For a long time I blamed it on my pets. It smelled so bad because I couldn't clean it immediately, that I had to replace the whole sofa! And I didn't ask you for a dime! Or an apology. Yet you had the gaull to yell at ME for not sending you money to put YOU through college!!!! Trash 🗑️. Pure Evil Trash!!!

Off The Rails

Dino and I would talk quite a bit over the phone. Of course I was the only one that paid for the phone calls. And honestly I didn't mind. Except when she would go off on her tangent but I would just listen. And they were expensive phone calls too. One of them cost over $500 right after her divorce because she spent hours crying on the phone to me and I just felt like I needed to give her that long distance shoulder to cry on. I never did tell her how much that phone call cost because if I had she would have gotten mad at me and told me why didn't you just send me the money instead of the phone call?

So right after her divorce let's just say she went off the rails. And I totally understood because her husband made her feel ugly and stupid and unwanted. Her husband has spent years making her feel like she was less than every other woman in the entire world. Her husband had manipulated her into thinking that she was Lucky to have him because he was the only man in the world that would even look twice at her. The typical abuser manipulation. I know that manipulation because I had that with both of my husbands. But I handled it different after the divorce. Unfortunately Dino didn't have the maturity to assess her situation and handle it with integrity. 

She lost a little weight, started wear makeup again, started feeling good about herself and, how do I say this delicately, she got herself a lot of intimate boyfriends. She would come intimate even on the first date. And I totally recognized it as a problem with self-worth due to years of being manipulated and convinced that you were an ugly piece of shit. But I did try to talk to her about it, and she would always get angry and I would change the subject. 

She told me about how all these men told her she looks like she's 14 years old girl (giggle-giggle.) I told her that it sounded like a line to me but certainly she should take it as a compliment but just understand that it could be them wanting to get into her pants. She vehemently disagreed with me. She said she did look 14 and that I just didn't understand. And again, I would just change the subject to something a little more palatable for her.

It was very much like she was the youngest in the family, and I was the oldest daughter. When in fact it's the other way around.

In Love with a Military Assassin 

Then came the 19-year-old Military Assassin ( 🎶 dun-dun-dun!)

 

When she was about 40, she told me about her new boyfriend. She was absolutely giddy about him. Giggling, talking about his "physical attributes" and dreaming of her future with him. She said that he was 19 years old and in the Army. She told me she was head over heels in love with him, and that he was the perfect man for her. I didn't argue with her. Maybe he was the perfect man for her.... I hoped so. I hoped there was a perfect man out there for her. I worried about her though, because I loved her. Then she started to tell me about him. And I got worried. 

 

First, she said she, Dino, wasn't allowed to go to his apartment because for some reason his landlord didn't allow women at his apartment. I told her that it seemed illogical. If someone's renting an apartment, they should be allowed to bring anybody they want to that apartment. But she bought it, hook, line and sinker. For her, when it came to this guy, logic and common sense went out the window. I think she wanted to believe him, even though she knew he was lying. I think he said all the right words to her, and convinced a middle-aged woman, with low self-esteem, that she was young and desirable. He thought she looked 12!!! (giggle-giggle)…and through her low self-esteem she made herself available to him... intimately, emotionally and financially. 

 

When I found out she was giving money to this grown man, this military soldier, with a full-time job I was absolutely flabbergasted at her STUPIDITY. Yes, Stupidity! Not only that...but I was sending her CASH, at her request, because she was poor, being screwed over by her husband and her child were starving. (But she could always afford cigarettes, that's a fact!)

I tried to be understanding, and ask why a single mother was given a grown man who had a full-time job any money. She was very vague and just kept saying he needed it.

 

Finally, I told her that she must not need the money I was sending if she's able to give away money to a perfectly employed man. That pissed her off thoroughly. She started yelling at me as if I were the bad guy. I just didn't understand, she said. She cried and said that she loved him, and she needed to be there for him. I changed the subject. Fighting with her was literally like fighting with a 12-year-old. This 40-year-old woman didn’t look like she was 12, but she sure as hell acted like she was! The woman had no common sense whatsoever. There's a reason my mother used to say that Dino was book smart but didn't have a lick of common sense in her head.

 

Then she found out that he was having his ex-girlfriend and other women come to his apartment and stay overnight ”as friends.” She was devastated. She wasn’t allowed at his apartment, but other women were? 

 

When she asked him about it, he changed his story and said that his landlord didn't like Dino....only Dino. 

 

She asked him why. He came up with the story on the fly, telling her that the landlord doesn't allow Dino at the apartment, because the landlord had heard “bad things” about Dino and he doesn’t want illegal things happening at his rental. This confused Dino because the landlord didn't know her from Adam, and she didn't know him. But for some reason he doesn't like her, to the point where he doesn't allow her to visit her 19-year-old boyfriend's apartment? 

 

When she told me this excuse, I told her again that really sounds like a red flag... sounds like BS to me. Why would the landlord not like somebody he's never met and disallow them from coming to the house? It's not like the landlord was a roommate of her boyfriends. Dino decided that she wanted to believe him. That SHE was the problem, not his lies. I pointed out to her that the boyfriend is making it out that she is the problem... That she's the reason that she's not allowed at his house. And that just sounds like BS to me. It sounds like he's living with a wife or girlfriend and keeping Dino as a side chick. Dino became quite offended at that. She said that I didn't know him like she did and he's wonderful... he's her “Mr. Right!” She was very angry at me, but not even a little angry at her boyfriend for not having her back. She desperately wanted to believe him and desperately didn’t want to listen to what I was saying, so I let it go.

 

Then she told me that her boyfriend was an Assassin for the US Army!!! (Rolling my eyes to the back of my head!)

 

She said that he and his company were sent to Middle Eastern countries to assassinate high-powered politicians and individuals. I told her that if he was part of Special Forces or covert operations, he wouldn’t be telling anyone about it. She didn’t want to hear that. She said that I just didn’t want to understand. That he only told her because he loves and trusts her. (Rolling my eyes.) I looked into it at the time and an E4 in the Army with only one year under his belt could not be part of Special Forces or Covert Ops. They could train for the positions but at the point where he was, he would not be in the position where they were sent anywhere for Covert Operations. He would still be going through physical training, and he would also have to do educational classes and that would take years. Plus, he would have to qualify and that also takes time after all the training and education. Anyway, she wouldn't listen to me. My father and both of my husbands were in the military, so I had a pretty good idea that this guy was lying to her about his Military Occupational Specialty (MOS.) But she didn't want to listen. 

 

She then told me that she found out her boyfriend had his ex-girlfriend living with him. I asked her if she was going to dump him and she said no because he explained that he had to let her move in because she raped him. HUH????!!! What???!!! He said that an ex-girlfriend had snuck into his house one night and raped him. Literally raped him. He was forced to have sex with her, and because of that he felt obligated to let her move in. What???!!! He let his rapist move in with him??? Seriously ???? I could not get her to make that make sense. Why didn't he press charges? Why would anybody let their rapist move in with them? I told Dino that was such a huge red flag, NO! It was Bull Shit!!!...100% Bull Shit and she needed to open her eyes. She got angry and started yelling at me. Calling me names and berating me. I spent 20 minutes more on a phone call that I was paying for, with her screeching at me from the other end of the phone call about how stupid I was not to believe what was obviously a lie.

 

During another phone call, came the Coup De Gras! 

 

It was summer and she'd been talking to me for a while about going to Myrtle Beach with her boyfriend and how much fun she's going to have! Wheeeeeee!

 

Well, in the end, that didn't happen. No Beach…Myrtle or otherwise. She was so disappointed that she wasn't able to go to the beach with her boyfriend because he told her that as an Army Assassin, he and his other Army Assassin buddies had to go to a Super Top Secret Army Assassin's beach, that was only for military members who held Top Secret and higher security clearances!!!! Wow!!!! Amazing!!!! Who knew???? (Rolling my eyes!!!!) No girlfriends, no wives, no mothers, no daughters, no women at all were allowed at this Super Top Secret Army Assassin's beach.  It was a beach specifically for Super Top Secret Assassins to go to, and get super-secret suntans so that when they go on Super Top-Secret Missions to the Middle East, they are well tanned and become indistinguishable from Middle Eastern men. 

 

What!?! 

 

I tried to be sensitive. I know her husband broke her, in so many ways. I really didn’t go into detail as to what I was really thinking. I was trying to get her to see the manipulation she was being subjected to by this man, but trying to save her dignity at the same time.

 

I questioned her… so there's a Super Top Secret Assassin’s beach somewhere in North Carolina? "Oh! Absolutely!" she said angrily. I think she realized how stupid it sounded repeated out loud. 

 

I asked her so they're supposed to get “Middle Eastern” tans? Ok...but I still don't understand why you're not allowed to go. It's a beach. And why do they have to go to this Super Top Secret Assassins Beach to get a tan? Why didn't he just not go to the Super Top-Secret Assassin’s beach, and take you to a not so Super Top-Secret Assassin beach, that way he gets a tan and he gets to spend time with you? 

 

She said she didn't know, except that they're all supposed to go together as part of protocol. At that point she Dino accused me of being both stupid and jealous. She said that because I was fat, I am jealous because she is skinny and looks like a 14-year-old. She said I was jealous because her boyfriend had a better MOS in the military than my husband. She said that just because I was sending her money, didn’t mean I owned her. She wasn’t obligated to me or to live the way I wanted her to.

 

I was done being gentle with her. There was no one in her life being truthful with her and she was falling for ever male scheme thrown at her. She had one-night-stand after one-night-stand. And this was still a time when HIV was devastating our country. She was obviously sleeping with someone who was sleeping with multitudes of other people at the same time. It is not only immature, but dangerous. 

 

I pointed out that it was probably the case that this 19-year-old doesn't want to bring a wrinkly 40-year-old woman, whose given birth to 4 babies and has the stretch marks to prove it, who smokes like a truck driver and cusses like a sailor to a beach where his buddies will show up with 17 to 20-year-old "hard body" girlfriends in tow? I told her that his story about the Top-Secret beach should be enough to have her questioning his motives, but if she put the apartment story and the rape story together, they add up to him wanting noting from her but zex. 

 

I told her he is flat out lying to her and she needs to dump him. He is spewing bullshit. I told her to use her common sense. He's 19. He's never been trained as an assassin. He doesn't have the rank for any kind of covert ops. If he were a Super Top-Secret Assassin for the US Army, the last thing he would ever tell anybody about it. And he certainly wouldn't be telling Dino about Super Top-Secret beaches the Army uses, nor would he tell you that they are on the verge of deploying to the Middle East to assassinate Heads of State. 

 

She lit into me telling me how I just don't know... I don't understand... I'm just jealous... He's the love of her life and he wouldn't lie to her. 

 

She then said something that gave me some insight as to why the truth upset her so much. She said, “You’re just like my in-laws…They think I’m a whore, and you think I’m a whore!”  I assured her that I didn’t think she was a whore. I told her I knew what her ex-husband was like and I knew that she was going through emotional issues, and that’s why she needed to use common sense. “You think I’m a whore!” I told her that is not fair. I don’t think she’s a whore. But she lives in a very small town and if this 19-year-old is an example of the men she is choosing, her in-laws are probably hearing lies about her. And I told her if she is being promiscuous, she needs to stop! That if she doesn’t want the name, she should play the game.  She shouted into the phone for me to “F” myself and hung up. 

 

I tried many times to reach out to her, but she never answered my calls. I gave up on her and stopped sending her any money.

Family Photographs.

I sent Dino a HUGE box chock full of cherished family photos. It was a financial hardship for me to do that, but I felt it was necessary to keep these important photos in in the family. I know she received them, and kept them, because the post office verified it was delivered. Did she call me and thank me? No. Did she send a thank you note? Did she send the box back, unopened? No. She kept them... enjoyed them... passed some on to her adult children. TRASH 🗑️. SHE is TRASH.

This year I, having not learned my lesson, I sent another box of cherishef photos to her. Turns out it couldn't be delivered because she moved. According to what our sister wrote all over the internet