I went with Mic to court today, and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. A bit rushed, but that's understandable (Of course it seems to me like if the judge was in that big of a hurry, then maybe he shouldn't have walked in a half hour late, but that's beside the point).

At the end of the day:

Mic will get more parenting time, but we don't know how much. The whole thing was that Ms. Perfect suggested we all do this one week on-one week off thing, and now she won't agree to it. She said that when she suggested it that she was "just exploring" her "options". So now Mic has to take yet more time off of work so that they can go to mediation. But it kind of works out, because they can use that time to address a lot of the other things that we couldn't really address in the courtroom (ie: how she talks about Mic in front of SS, the lying, the stuff with the school and the sports, etc.)

The judge upheld the phone visitation, stating that Mic is to have unlimited access to SS on the phone (although he still didn't seem to care that the other order was totally ignored). He asked them if they had each other's numbers, and Mic said that he doesn't have her home phone number. (A bit of background: 8 year old SS doesn't know his own home phone number, just so that Mic has to call the cell phone, which she can turn off at any time. Case in point: She called from one of the lines and it came up on the caller ID. When Mic couldn't reach SS one night, he called the number. The line was miraculously disconnected within the week). Needless to say, she was not at all happy about providing the phone number, saying that there was no need as her cell phone is always on (which of course is a crock). The judge also pointed out that if there is any deviation from the order, that the poarty had the right to file charges at the police station (I think that's his way of saying he's tired of dealing with this issue in his courtroom). Also, when Mic gets the extra summer visitation, he will have the extra support applied to the arrears, which was something that we really wanted to get done. But that won't be formally changed until they can agree on the extra time in mediation.

So as we were leaving, Mic noticed that there was no number on his paperwork, and he had to go back in to find out what to do (God forbid Ms. P. should give it to him after court like the judge asked). The clerk told him that her leaving without giving him the number was grounds to file charges if he wanted to. Mic said he didn't want to cause problems, he just wanted what the judge ordered him to have and the lady gave him the number from the paperwork. Ms. P. couldn't even go 5 minutes without feeling like she doesn't have to abide by the rules.

Apparently she was hoping that we wouldn't notice, and SS called Mic tonight, right at 7:00 (the court ordered time for Mic to call on the houseline). It's a shame it took all that for her to let her son call his father. If she keeps the calls coming, and doesn't disrupt the visitation, all should be well. If not, I guess she'll find out that we have the house number after all. And at least we are armed with paperwork now.

On a personal note:
As stated, this was my first time escorting Mic to court. Ms. P. has always been escorted by her 50 year old live in boyfriend. Normally, she tries to sweet talk Mic into leaving before the hearing, and usually has some nasty words to say afterwards. Not today, though. She wouldn't say a word in front of me. She had to sit all by herself while we were waiting for the judge (yeah, the boyfriend's had a kid with her since the last hearing, and he's beginning to figure her out- needless to say, he wasn't there). I dressed myself up just a pretty as could be, keeping my mouth shut through the whole proceeding. DBSOJO, gorgeous gal and model citizen. I think that the only bad thing she could have gone back to anyone and gossiped about was how sickningly supportive I was, or what a skinny bitch I am! And afterwards, she was forced to stand in the hallway with us for a whole minute while the clerk pointed out some things on the paperwork. I could be wrong, but it came off as the longest minute of her life. She couldn't skedaddle her ass out of there fast enough. I have to admit, it's a small victory, but it's victory nonetheless. I don't get out of the house all that much or anything, but watching her squirm this afternoon was one of the more entertaining things I have done in a little while.

Even if that were the only thing we got out of today, it would have been worth every second.