I had quite the adventure yesterday. My high school sweetheart and mother of my eldest daughter, asked me if I wanted to go out-of-town with her. She and I are on really good terms and due to my situation I’m always looking for a reason to escape. So I agreed.
Her niece, who will always be a niece to me was in some trouble. She was practically being held captive in her baby daddy’s parents’ home. They took her car keys, shut off her cell phone and even made it so she couldn’t access wireless internet from within the home. She was made a prisoner from within the home she’s lived in for the past year.
She has a daughter and is pregnant with their son’s child. Her relationship with him has been on the rocks, and they gave her an eviction notice, effective November 1st. I can’t even comprehend this fully. Is this how you treat the mother of your grandchildren?
When my ex and I were together, it was a tradition of sorts for her and I to watch her (she was under 10 at the time) every NYE. It was weird to be a teenager and feel at ease to play family for a night, but they are fond memories that I genuinely cherish.
She lives almost 4 hours away, so we left my house at 8am and started on the journey. We had lots of talks and connection between the 2 of us. We’ve had our ups and downs but we’ve smoothed them out over the years and are really good friends and co-parents. We still struggle with some things our daughter does (or doesn’t do), but we are proud of the person she has become on the inside. If she would only bring those amazing qualities out for the world to see.
So we get there, and get a uhaul truck and drive to the location where K is staying. I’ll keep her name is as that. We pull into the driveway and one of the homeowners tell us to get off the property, so we oblige. My ex and the homeowner then get into a somewhat heated shouting match. I’m not there to do anything but move stuff, but it’s even stressful on me.
My ex calls the police, and they show up. The guy is from Bloomington and graduated from BHS (when Bloomington only had 1 high school). He then tells us that he knows the homeowners. K comes out, and they lock the door behind her, at first they refuse to let her get any of her things.
Again, I don’t understand.
After a standoff of sorts, things start to come. At first I wasn’t sure how little or how much we would get. We eventually filled an entire uhaul truck. I was kinda shocked at the amount of stuff she had.
We then quickly unloaded most of it into a storage unit K had purchased and then went to dinner with K and the on again off again boyfriend and her daughter. My ex had them do a birthday thing for me (which embarrasses the hell out of me) but it was quick, and she’s fun. She bought me dinner too, I’m appreciative.
By this time it was 6:30pm and the ex and I were on our last bits of energy. We were tired and still had almost a 4 hour drive home. We got to the place where K was going, and had to unload the rest of the truck up 3 flights of stairs. She and I were ruined by that. We dropped the truck back off at uhaul.
I made a big mistake when we dropped the truck off. I had found an 80’s station and this infectious tune came on. I cranked it up and it took all the pain and frustration from the day away for me. I had turned the cab and cargo area lights on so my ex could clean it out, locked the doors and forgot to turn them off. She put the keys in the drop off and we had no way to turn them back off.
We then finally made the journey home. I made it home right around 11:30pm, and took a shower and went to bed.
The lesson here? I had a full day, and I accomplished something. It was selfless, it was for someone I love. I’m starting to really feel like an adult (weird to finally think that at 35, I know). Don’t worry, be happy. It’s a new way to look at life.