Well, mediation sure is interesting. I saw H for maybe 3 seconds as he was sitting in the lobby when I walked in with my L. I shook hands with H's L and then looked away from H- we didn't even make eye contact. My L walked me into a conference room and H and his L went into another one.
Then the waiting began. The mediator was still in court and running late. At one point H's L walked by our room and stopped to talk to my L - they talked about turkey hunting (no, I'm not kidding)
At 4:00 mediator shows up - nice, older man, a real estate lawyer (good for me because he took great interest in the condition of our house - looked at the pictures and read with great interest my letter - said "hmm" when he read the part about H spending every weekend with OW and maxing out credti cards)
Then it all began. L told mediator we wanted them to make the first offer. Mediator returns and says no they want us to make it first. So mediator and L go round and round about the house/debt/retirement until my head was spinning. Mediator leaves comes back with a counter offer which was ridiculous then goes and comes back one more time. Then of all things - H's L comes to the door and says "hey guys I've got to run, can we reconvene some other time?" Um, ok.
As I was leaving with L he said - don't worry, we've got time, no hurry. I said but H is still in a hurry and L said - then he should have kept his L from leaving. He was obviously miffed at the sudden departure. It had barely been 2 hours.
I was strong. I channeled Joyce Davenport (thanks Puppy). I stayed firm on the house issues. And yes this is a fault state so my L is still weighing the pros and cons of whether to go to court or not. I was strong and I did look fine, but it's still hurting bad. I hope H can't sleep tonight now that he knows I'm digging in my heels.
To be continued.
Me 56 H 47 Married 21 years No children Bomb & moved out 4/07 "My feelings have changed" & "I want to live by myself". Ow Bomb 8/07 H filed 6/08 D final 2/05/10
