Legal Eagle

Yay!  Just in time for the three day Memorial Day holiday, my lawyer finally said he received a response in the mail today from my wife's lawyer. *Sigh*

I know this really isn't a surprise to me because she told me she had met with an attorney last week....It's just that I saw the 3 page legal .PDF that my attorney sent to me today for the first time.  Something I could print out and hold in my hands.

It's pretty straight forward as far as legal documents go and what I should have expected.  Revert her name back to her maiden name (fine).  Dissolution due to irreconcilable differences (fine).  Division of common assets (fine).  As a matter of fact she can have most of her crap anyways...I'll be happy to pack it up for her.  Request for spousal support.......(Dammit....not fine!).

Amazing, but probably suggested by default by her attorney.  So I may be in for a small fight on this one. 

So let me get this straight.  When I was out of work a few years ago, I looked every day for a new job and even took a pay cut and worked as a temp contractor to make sure the bills were paid and we were both taken care of.  She lost her job 13 months ago, and has done very little to rectify that.  She hasn't gone back to school, read any books, took any courses at the local community college.  She turned down jobs that were 'beneath' her, and spent her government money on alcohol and bowling.  We even went without insurance until I could sign up for mine in January.

I am covering one of her credit cards, paid ALL the taxes, paying for her health insurance, her auto club card, making sacrifices left and right and in the middle....while she continues to 'F' around, drive all over, attend parties, continue to bowl, check into casino's, go to concerts....and she wants me to give her spousal support?

The key is to get this down to as little as possible.  It kills me that she up and left (you've heard it all before) and she wants me to pay her.  Why does the responsible one, the one that offered treatment, the one that suffered countless days, weeks, months on whether she'd get home in one piece or not, the one that cried and went to Alanon meetings, that prayed his arse off, that has his head screwed on straight  finanically, who begged for marital counseling, who already gave up so much for so little in return, who forgave and forgave and forgave and was treated like crap expected to pay?  Why does the fuck-up get to continue to party and fuck around and I don't?  This system is so ass backwards.

Well, even if I have to pay alimony, it's only for 4 years (1/2 the time of the marriage) max.

I'm going to try my hardest not to let this ruin my weekend.  I have a BBQ to go to on Sunday, but I don't think I'm going to Celebrate tonight.  My friend invited me, but I think tonight after work I'm going to get my haircut, maybe go to the grocery store, order a pizza, and stay in and play a video game on my Xbox.  No reason to drink alone.  No reason to spend money I don't have.  No reason to do something stupid.

All I can do is continue to pray for her.  That even though she's insane and making sure she gives me a hard time, I can't let her gain power over me anylonger and dominate my weekend and my life.