Trouble in River City

Do you remember "The Music Man" and that there was "Trouble in River City?"  Okay, so I can't really call San Diego "River City" although it's ironic that Sacramento, where I used to live, has that same nickname. 

So it's 2:30 in the morning and I can't sleep.  I'm stewing over a situation where I have caught someone in a series of lies.  Now before anyone jumps to any conclusions, it isn't Don, we're fine, and it isn't family, which is mostly fine.  My question is, why can't I deal with this like a normal person, during the awake hours?  Why do I have to sit and stew on it at 2:30 AM?  Is this normal? 

Okay so I can't lay all of my sleeplessness at the feet of this situation.  I'm on call this week and someone accidentally paged me at 11:23 PM, waking me up, when they should have held the page for morning.  Mistakes happen.  In this case it woke me up.  Usually I'd fall right back to sleep but not this time.  Now that I'm awake, I'm still stewing on this lying situation. 

Confronting the person on her lies won't work.  This person doesn't have the best communication skills.  She hears what she wants to hear, whether that was said or not.  This is actually one of her lies, that I said something I didn't.  That lie is the smallest of them and if I tried to pick that battle, it would be a "she said, she said" situation that would be tough to win.  I need to pick my battles and that isn't one of them.  Yes, it's part of list of the lies but its number four of four of the recent lies.  She also has to take control of the conversation and you're lucky to get a word in edgewise.  She interrupts constantly.  And when I'm talking and she interrupts me mid-sentence, then she berates me saying I interrupted her!  

Bullying and controlling is this person's modus operandi.  Maybe I should read some of the kids books that are out about how to deal with the school bully.  This situation is one I have to live with, it's not like I can walk away from it.  The liar is in a position of authority to me.  This person has a long history of this behavior and has had to go to "charm school" for it, several different ones in fact.

I contacted one person who is basically in a support position to me.  I asked him to call me so we could discuss it, basically outlining the issue in my email.  I needed information.  Well before calling me, he referred the situation up the ladder, and that's only going to cause more angst.  I just wanted to find out where I stand before I went up my ladder, so to speak, over the liar's head to talk to the hierarchy.  Now my hierarchy is going to hear about through the support's ladder and not from me.  That isn't good.  I will try to head that off at the pass tomorrow but, in some ways, that damage is done.

So I guess I have two questions for you.  How do you stop a bully?  And why am I obsessing about this in the wee hours?  Is this normal?  Okay, that's three questions but two and three are related.  While I was good at math as a kid, I was always in the shadow of my smarter siblings, haha.  (Having siblings who were smarter than me and siblings who struggled was actually a good experience, it kept me humbled yet centered.  Maybe that's a story for another blog.)

Any input is appreciated.  Thanks folks in advance!