About that New Rule...

I posted last week (or sometime) about my new set of rules, and a couple of nights ago, someone called and asked, upon my "hello," with "Who IS this?"  First of all, I was having a harried night-baby cranky, dinner late, and for some reason I decided I wanted to make a lemon merengue pie, so was kind of in a mess in the kitchen.  Which really isn't unusual save for the fact that I was making a pie, of all things.  Second, the person calling was a man, and believe me, I don't GET calls from men.  So I didn't recognize the voice, even after responding with "Who did you call?" he said, "Who IS this?" so I hung up on him.  He called back, I didn't answer, so he left a message (another pet peeve: people who let the phone go over to voice mail and NOT leave a message.  I don't return calls that just show up on the Caller ID, not unless they leave a message.  So he almost cancelled out the "Who Is This" call).

Turns out it WAS someone I know.  One of the friends that the ex got in the divorce, I say, but really, I guess he is a friend of mine as well.  Kind of.  The only time I EVER hear from him is when he is having women troubles, really.  Anyway, he was calling to tell me that the ex had moved out of this woman's house he was staying at, left a bunch of his stuff there, and she wanted to know if I wanted any of it, or just what she was supposed to do with it.  I called him back last night, like "What the hell?"  First of all, unless there is something worth large amounts of money that I could sell, why would I want any of his things?  I guess there are some family albums (of the ex's family, like his dead father and grandparents), but I see no reason to have them, even for Sam's sake.  I mean, they are dead, Sam never knew them or even MET them, and frankly, the kind of family that raised my ex is not one I want to enshrine.  In addition to that, there are, I don't know, clothes and stuff?  I didn't really ask, because why would I CARE what she does with it?  As far as I am concerned, we could make an effigy and burn it in the moonlight, but perhaps that isn't healthy...

Turns out that the ex is actively using again, which is no surprise and something I have known for a long time-but now he is back into the meth scene, which is pretty bad.  It makes me feel unsettled and afraid (for the some of the reasons, see this Flashback Friday post), and I truly hated having to go through the old safety rules such as "If you see him, do NOT go with him.  Run to the nearest house/teacher/store and call me, then call the police."), which are feelings I haven't had to feel for a long time.  I hate the feeling, and I hate what it does to my kids.  My only hope is that he is SO gone into the drugs that he has forgotten he had a family; in the past, it has gone either way.

There is a positive spin to this, though: this man who called me knows where he lives, knows what he drives, so I have been able to give Child Support Services the info; maybe that means they will be able to do something in order to recover some of the money I am owed, or perhaps start the license suspension proceedings.  Still and all, I would really just rather not have to deal with this kind of crap at this point in time, you know?