Trying to find Me again

After avoiding it for a while, I decided to take my friend's advice and go to a singles support group. I had to stand up and introduce myself. I thought, God I thought this was only done in AA meetings! When the counselor asked me why I was there my answer was 'I let myself go, I was too old, too stupid, too fat and didn't look like Trish. I was promptly corrected by the counselor. 'No, you are here because you are a responsable person and your husband wasn't.' He was abusive, inconsiderate, and a whole slew of other things I didn't want to hear them say. After all wasn't it my fault that I couldn't keep him? That's what he told me when he left.

It took me a long time to find Me again. I'm sure I still have more work to do. When I felt a little more like myself, although I didn't know who that was, I retained a lawyer for my divorce and child support. I had hired him under the assumption that I would be getting child support and half the shares from the restaurant. The soon to be ex had other plans. Although he was instructed to start paying child support, he continued to cry about the restaurant not making money , having to live in the restaurant office, blah, blah, blah. My lawyers advice was to get a private detective to prove that he was not in dire straits. Not only was he making the money, but he also told me that if I instigated anything, he would make sure that I didn't get a dime! I decided I would have investigate it myself!

Months passed, I was working in a deli overnights so I din't have to worry about the kids as much as I would in the daytime. My oldest daughter from a previous marriage became the second Mom. At an early age she learned to bottle feed, diaper and care for the little ones and entertain the older ones. I felt bad but not as bad as I did when there was no food in the fridge. My days were free so I decided to make them productive. I started to go to college for business part time and the rest of my time was spent trying to delay bills over the phone that I could not pay. One day it hit me. The poor guy was destitute but yet had charged my credit card thousands of dollars for furniture for Trish and his new apartment. Surely there was a record of it! My first phone call was to Seaman's Furniture. When I explained to this unsimpathetic woman my dilema she told me that the information was priveledged and could not give it out. I was not about to give up! I called back and got a different operator. This time I gave a different story. This time I I told her that my billing address was Pomona, NY but that I had a restaurant and an apartment upstate. I couldn't remember the life of me where I sent my table and chair set, and lets not forget about the bed for the bedroom that they shared. Without hesitance, she gave me the address in Salsbbury Mills were he resided. Next I got a rush of confidence as I dialed Orange and Rockland Utilities. They had my electrical account for years in Rockland but now had a new one upstate as well. It was easy to get his account number when I explained that I wanted to go to the local bodega to pay my bill and couldn't find the account number. Since I had given them my Rockland account number, address and both our social security numbers, she had no reason to doubt me. Now I had the address, his apartment number, and his balance with O & R! I was finally getting some where! Next step was to take pictures of where he lived!