Court Update
Most of it went the way my litigator friends had prepared me. The short version: the judge granted the continuance but refused to schedule our next date as a meaningless "status," and instead scheduled it for full hearing on May 7. That's a pretty quick turnaround in the judicial world, so that's good.
The longer version: my ex has re-hired his horrible lawyer from before (the one who represented him for years until his parents decided to stop paying the bill). In the past she was always very bulldoggish and awful, but today she seemed a little more...reasonable. There were glimpses that she knows the demands my ex is making (I'll get to those in a minute) are ridiculous and he will never get them. Then again, she is unscrupulous and awful, and I don't trust her one bit.
My ex wants me to agree that he can move our daughters to another school. I understand he lives in a crazy expensive area, but our parenting agreement provides that we must consult AND AGREE on something like that. I made it crystal clear to his lawyer that I will NOT give him blanket authority to move them wherever, and furthermore, they are now old enough to have input into the situation, including the possibility of moving in with me and going to school up here. Bottom line is that this issue is totally separate from my petition to stop alimony payments to him, and he would have to file his own motion (which would make him look stupid, should he try to have a judge rule in his favor without even ATTEMPTING to discuss any of this with me).
The other big thing he wants is for me to continue paying the full amount of alimony as payment on the arrearage I owe from when I was unemployed. My response to his lawyer was that there is no way I will do that, there is no way the judge will order it, and she (the attorney) knows it. I also told her that I am not in a position to pay anything more than the statutory minimum on the arrearage.
Finally, I told her that frankly I have nothing left to lose and will gladly just let the judge decide all of this. I could not care less if we don't settle it on our own.
She made some other rumblings, about how my ex says I never told him I started a new job (which is utter crap and I have the correspondence to prove it), so I fully expect that when they make their filing in the next two weeks, it will contain some sort of counterclaim trying to have me held in contempt. They do that crap all the time.
I am still deeply, deeply upset. I came home and took a migraine pill...hoping it will help me take a short nap.