Credit Where Credit is Due

Below is the exact text of an email I sent yesterday:

Hi,

I tried again recently to get my name taken off our joint credit card. No go since I am joint owner of the account. 

It is possible to close the account even though a balance remains. Bills would continue to arrive, etc.

Would it be all right with you if I closed it? It's important to my personal and financial well-being.

Please let me know.

I have not yet received an answer. But my brain is working overtime on this thorny issue. I have not used this card since October of 2008, and the balance continues to grow and grow. 

Credit card companies do not recognize divorce, which I've written about here,  and here. 

Yesterday I called the credit card company for advice. "You could get an attorney and take him to court," the young woman said.  Ha, ha, ha, I said, not going into any detail about the fortune that I've already spent on my divorce. But, yes, I thought, after I hung up, what about the Stipulation to Divide Joint Assets? Didn't my attorneys include some provision about this credit card, and yes, I will invoke whatever solution lies within this legal document, because several times I expressed my concern over this card to them, and yes, that's where the solution is!  Here is what I found in the Stipulation. 

Credit card account xxxxxxx : (Respondent shall close the account upon payoff by Respondent)


HMMMM. Toothless is the word that comes to mind. 


Meanwhile debt continues to mount in my name while I ponder my options. One option I am NOT considering is going back to my attorneys for advice on this one.

My Big New Writing Life

My big new writing life feels like it's been carelessly washed then stuffed into a too-hot dryer. I have to squeeze into it now and it looks like hell. Tight with a muffin top. Indecently short.

I've had ideas. My index card notebook is riddled with one-liners. I come home, set my satchel on my desk and slide the notebook from its pocket while my laptop purrs to life. I check my email. And then I write long responses to my attorneys. I open my Big D. file and pull things out, checking facts and figures and dates. I rifle through my file cabinet, and before I know it there are a half-dozen folders on the floor. The attorneys want account numbers, information about checks I've written, another list of all my assets. How much I spend....and how much I make. How much I make?? It's called alimony, remember? We went to court together to get it. But really, it's okay if you forgot. It was 3 years and 4 months ago. A long time, yes?

Imagine all this work put into my novel, selling my memoir manuscript,  or a new short story.

But wait. I've exchanged hundreds and hundreds of  emails with my attorneys. There's got to be a book in that, right?