Well, THAT was fun.
Or not.
I met with Chuck after work so we could exchange income tax forms (he made about $20k more than I did last year . . . and he still can't pay his fucking bills) and divorce forms and such. We discussed the promissory note that he's going to execute regarding the $14k he owes me--he suggested $25/month as a repayment for now, because he's so very strapped for cash (for which I have no fucking sympathy, believe me). He also wondered whether I'd consider giving back his mother's diamond. He said that the question "wasn't from him" but, apparently, from his mother. He was nervous and almost apologetic--as well he should have been, on an assortment of levels. I told him I really didn't want the diamond, but did not have the money to have it removed from the ring right now. (Let's face it, I'm not going to have the money until he pays back the $14k. Which, at $25/month, will take 47 years.) I've been waiting for that request, so I wasn't surprised, and I managed to avoid open hostility, but it took a serious effort on my part.
I've set a task for myself to maintain an attitude of compassion, and I told him that. He of course said he didn't need compassion, and I said that everyone needs compassion, in the buddhist sense or the golden rule sense, which he accepted. I didn't succeed as well as I would have liked today, but it could have been a lot worse. As I said to him--when he thanked me for the lack of acrimony--the last thing either of us needs is more pain in our lives.
Maybe tomorrow I'll have the energy to tell you about my flat nephew (it's a class project--kind of cool, actually), which I got in the mail Tuesday. I had three editing projects simultaneously, but I finished one tonight--the one on which I've been working since November. The other two are due next Wednesday, which, for me, means Monday, so my life, except for Tuesday, has been pretty much come-home-from-the-bakery-and-edit. It's fine, though, and I'm happy to have the work; I figured, when I got the last two, that they'd be pretty quick, that it would be two weeks of editing heck--followed by two checks, and that doesn't suck.
4 comments:
47 years! Only $25 a month? Gee, don't spend it all in one place...
An editing correction: "my flat nephew..., whom I got in the mail Tuesday." You're talking flat children, right? No? ...I'm confused, then.
You're right--it IS whom. It's a paper doll of him, and a blank one of me, and I'm supposed to take Flat Nephew and Flat Narya to various places in the state in which I live (though I don't see "confusion" on the map . . .) and tell Flat Nephew about it all and send it back to his classroom.
funny, I was just wondering how Chuck was!
Personally, I think you should pawn the diamond for the $$ he owes you. If he wants it back, he can get it out of the pawn shop.
Easier done mentally and from a distance...
Oh and yes, you may hear from another of my colleagues about an editing project.
The nephew thing sounds neat! I'd love to hear more about it.
It really sucks that you have to worry about money so much. You sound like one of the hardest-working people I know.
Post a Comment