I'll Take The Box

I was talking to my buddy Judy yesterday. I noticed a post-it on her board in her office, laughed, and asked her, "Psycho Cell? What is Psycho Cell?" She says, "Oh, that's my ex-wife's number." I say to Judy, "How do you have an ex-wife?" So Judy explains that her husband was married before and when she said she'd marry him, she went into it understanding that she was getting an ex-wife and a daughter too. I lauded Judy on her mature approach to her marriage and wondered if I'd ever meet a man who'd be willing to have my ex-husband.

Judy then asked me, "What's going on with your ex-husband?" I shared with her his recent phone call about visiting here & his hard headedness about looking for a hotel room. I told her that I sent him an email suggesting he plan to fly our son out there to visit him over either Mardi Gras or Easter which would cost less (no hotel room, no rental car) since he's so strapped for cash. I shared with her that it pisses me off to no avail that after 8 years, he still thinks of the child support as paying me. What ticks me off is he doesn't understand that I've been denying myself things over the years to make sure our son has what he needs...and any single mother out there will tell you that the self-denial can lead to a severe drop in self-worth (er go, really long, really bad relationship with an emotionally retarded man).

I went on to tell her that this man (my ex-husband) is insistent on going to school (he's been in school off and on since 1990...for an architecture degree), no matter how much it costs and now matter how much time it takes away from him being able to get the money to his child as needed. He recently screamed at me, "I will be an architect!" (the screaming is why he's not welcome in my home...I will no longer accept disrespect and verbal abuse). I said to Judy, "If he ever becomes an architect, I don't want to be the one living in any house he built!" She laughed and said, "I wouldn't want to either! I'll take the box!" Thank you Habitat For Humanity! Homes in a box...nooooo, I'll just take the box if it has "Designed by Khari-El" on the side.