Ruby, I agree Joe isn't evil. I think he's having a hellish life, though, but he behaved in ways that resulted in where he is now...
Love you too, Busting. I put down all the lessons from this particular episode, which will be posted on my blog. I hope my learning from all this pain helps other people (I think I'm already helping many)
Bug, completely agree. Thank you. As time goes by, and I've said this before, I realize how unhappy I had been throughout my marriage. I was always hoping Joe would grow up, that he would finally decide to prioritize our M, that he would for once be thoughtful/responsible/caring. That never happened. My first experience with a long-term R ended up like this, but I've started what can be the best years of my life. Better late than never.
My next hurdle w Joe might be when the year ends and he wants to see all my finances. He'll be scrutinizing what I've done to see if he can reduce the $$ of support. Joe can be quite nasty when it comes down to money...One of the L's we worked with for the retirement stuff told me that he would be happy to work with me again but didn't want to see Joe ever again. He said after dealing w Joe, he understood why the M didn't work out. Hmm...
