Learn(ing) to Deal

I haven't been here much over the last couple of days. There are several reasons.

1. There are several school assignments I need to finish before classes start. I have spent most of my week reading art articles and answering questions about whether a guy who puts a Christ statue in 3 gallons of urine is making real Art. And yuck.

2. I have been staying away from Messenger and all kinds of forums because I can't really deal with people at the moment. 3 people close to me are messing with my head, whether intentionally or not, and I need a little time to figure it out.
My cousin delights in making me feel inferior to her at any moment, and the fact that a lot of people hold her in high esteem even though she's a hypocrite back-stabbing bitca doesn't help much. She cuts me down, has repeatedly said that I don't matter/am not important (etcetera), and constantly pushes me aside to make room for her huge ego. (Was that rude? Oh well.)
Another friend of mine, if I can call her that, has called on me with every problem that she has, and afterwards complained that she did not have any friends. I spent so much time with her, and yet she insists on drowning herself in self-pity, almost telling me like I don't mean anything (see a pattern?). I can't deal with that, so I avoid it. (Guess I deal with it in that way).
And then there's person 3. He was my best friend once. You ever met a person who understood you completely? He was that guy. Was, until last year when everything went completely wrong. It was his fault, I think. He blames everything on outside factors. He's wrong. Some of those factors apply to me, and I don't do those things. Even now I'm protecting him. I've given him plenty of chances, only to start over and over again. I'm tired of it. Only he's still the guy who was my best friend once, and I can't stay away forever.

3. Some family issues. My dad has been diagnosed with Primary Progressive MS a few months ago. It's not the really fast, destructive form, but the impact is still huge. He had to get his second MRI to find out how fast the disease is, and I'm just scared it's worse than the doctors thought it was. After all, if House is wrong several times, who knows what real doctors find? (Yeah, that was my misplaced attempt at a joke). We have to make adjustments in stupid little things, because his hands don't work the way they used to. He drops things sometimes, and he just gets so angry and frustrated, and it's hard to watch that.

Combine all three, and you get absent Inge!

I think I'm done whining now.