The Waiting Game

I live on a check that I get each month from the sale of our bar.  It's a decent amount- just enough to cover all of my regular monthly bills from all over our debt, plus the basic necessities-- food, milk, diapers.  That's it.  There is no wiggle room for if my car broke down, or any other emergency were to happen.  As evidenced by the fact that I have been driving around in a truck that has the back hatch held closed with rope for the past month.  I would be completely at the mercy of my family if and when I need more money.  I live my parents now and thankfully they do not ask for any rent.

The check gets mailed out from the current owner (my ex's former partner) on the 15th of the month, every month.  It gets mailed to my ex's address.  And so the waiting game begins.  I hold my breath and wonder when he will send it to me, and when he does, how much is going to be in it?  He has a habit of arbitrarily taking big chunks of it and sending me the rest.  So I never actually know how much will be coming.   He also likes to make me ask for it.  He will hold it for days and days, knowing full well that I need it.  It's a power trip and control tool for him. 

So, inevitably, I ask him if he's received it yet, and then when he is going to send it to me.  I'm fairly certain that this is his favorite day of the month.  Then he gets to fire back at me about how all I ever think about is money money money.  He likes to question where all that money is going to.  This, coming from the man that stole my credit card and ran up $22,000 in ONE weekend... in addition to the tens and tens of thousands of debt that he charged on my credit over the years we were together.

Today is the 18th.... do I shoot off that text right now, or wait one more day. 

We met at my lawyers office a few months ago to try to hammer out a fair and reasonable divorce agreement that we would both be happy with.. or at least content with.  During this meeting he said that the following month, November 2010, he would go to his former partner and legally change the name and address on the check to My name and address.  Needless to say, this never happened.  Why would I ever expect him to keep his end of the deal?  Then he'd have nothing to look forward to each month when I no longer had to call him.

I think I'll go text him now.