To quit or not to quit, that is the question.

Ok, here's the thing. My parents made me take piano lessons from the time I was 8 until I was almost 18. I like to play, but hate to practice. Surprise - the Kid is the exact same way. She took some lessons for 2 years at a foofy music school near NGFX's house but did not learn to play a note. So last year I signed her up with a very nice lady near my house where she learned the names of the notes and how to play them. But she has wanted to quit since June last year. I signed her up again but she is miserable. And not fake miserable, really unhappy. And I know how she feels. And I want to let her quit. I'm not a fan of quitting but in this case - where the teacher has a waiting list and where some other student would practice 30 minutes (minimum) a day and give 110%, I can kind of get on board with it. Problem: her father is giving me shit about it. My "I don't feel involved" (Because you moved almost an hour away with your trophy wife to your $600K house, ya ok) is being obstinate about it. I can't figure out why, exactly. Of course neither of us wants her to give up something musical but she is in chorus at school and she likes to just play for the heck of it. Oh yeah and it costs a ton - went up $50/month over last year. It's not like a team sport where others are depending on her. And I told her she could not take lessons for anything else right now. So NGFX and I are in an email pissing contest and I suppose I have to break down and call him today because he has not called here and he will be all sensitive and shit (fucking spare me, you pussy, you left) and deal with it. So now it's weighing on my daughter and it's weighing on me. He says "why do you get to make all the decision" - UM - because I am the custodial parent, I am her mother and I take her feelings into consideration.

The Kid keeps asking when she can make her own decisions and I think this could be one of them. Might she regret it later and blame me - of course, I fully expect it and I can say, "well, when you were 9 and wanted to make your own decisions, this was one of them."

Honestly I wish her father would just drop off the face or move to Fiji or some such.

I'm Baaaack!

I went to dinner with my awesome girlfriends last week. My friend Janet is semi retiring after a year long battle with some health issues and hell, why not? My other friend Christine says "you are a fucking riot, you should blog". Oh yeah, I have a blog and it's inactive, so wtf, start it up again.

Because I am so f'n pissed at NGFX that I can't be rational. So where else, right?

For those of you new to the program - my ex told me he wanted a divorce - one week after I popped the Kid out. Yep, we'd been married 10 years and he had his midlife crisis right on schedule. Nice that we had a business a house, a life that I thought was pretty good. Yeah, did he suck in the sack - absolutely....but my life was pretty good.

Anyhoo - moved on and up and married a great guy and the Kid is now 9. And NGFX is now feeling - because HE moved an hour away - that he is less than "involved". So I think I will start calling him at all hours when she does the most mundane of things, just to see how involved he really wants to get. He goes through these cycles - when his business is off, when his "trophy wife" is being a twat - he decides to take it out on me. And when my daughter asked me tonight "why did he marry you in the first place, Papa should be my real father" - I ask myself the same question.

Fuck you, asshole. You left, you moved away - just keep sending the checks on time.