Big Changes, Part 2

My ex seemed to accept what I said about moving at the end of June. I suspected he was thinking “roommate” in quotation marks and honestly, he was probably so busy thinking about that it never occurred to him that I might be up to anything else.

The people that would be able to help shifted, and I started to worry that I’d be alone the day of the move. I’d been friending coworkers on Facebook and messaged one of them asking her if she knew of anyone that wouldn’t mind a potentially awkward domestic scene and helping with a move. She promptly volunteered herself and her boyfriend, though it turned out only her boyfriend (also a coworker) was available at the necessary time. Other coworkers volunteered but their schedules didn’t fit, but I still ended up with 2 people from my D&D game and 2 people from my work. It was overkill, but I knew the more people there were the less likely it was that my ex would break character as the caring father and injured victim of his gold-digging ho wife.

I told the kids we’d be having brunch with my friend (Indy M) and we headed out. Once we got there, I ate with them and then said something important had come up I needed to take care of. I wouldn’t be able to take them home, so M was going to look out for them until I was back to get them. They accepted that calmly and apparently watched Mirror, Mirror after I left – Indy M said afterward that they were clever, insightful and well-read children – a little rambunctious, too, but not in an overwhelming way.

I then headed back to my old apartment and contacted the police so they could send out a deputy to oversee the situation. They sent 2, and the deputies talked to my ex first and then I went inside and started throwing all my stuff in boxes and bags. I’d already taken and stashed some of the kids’ clothing that had been left in the laundry room.

I also managed to quickly lift my sons’ bearded dragons out of their aquariums, wrap them in towels, and pop them in paper bags to be carried out by one of my friends – appropriately the lady that plays a rogue in our D&D game. The dragons were the most important thing – anything else I could leave behind if I had to, but I wanted the dragons to be there for my sons because I wasn’t sure how long it would take to get a parenting plan in place and I felt it would be soothing in a potentially traumatic situation if they had their dragons to take care of.

Sadly, I couldn’t do the same for the cat my ex adopted for the kids, without having consulted or informed me that he would be doing that.

He wouldn’t let me take my desktop computer. He was contesting it on the grounds that the kids used it more than I did. I rolled my eyes and left it alone. He also refused to give me the 2nd set of keys to Red, so I refused to give back the keys to his apartment. It was petty but I’m still on the lease until July 19th.

He asked if the kids were coming back that day and I rolled my eyes, sounded annoyed and said yes, then left.

I was out.

(Slogging my way through this as I’m still having focused on writing it out, so there will be more to come.)