A little misery makes me happy

There's a German term, schadenfreude, for when you revel in other people's misery. Now, I’m generally a kind person. I stop myself from thinking evil things about the less fortunate, as much as I can.

But how about the more fortunate? Can I harbor unkind thoughts about them? Sometimes? Please?

I’m having a little schadenfreude about this person, whom I once dubbed Party Friend, since that was the only time I ever saw her.

Party Friend isn't partying anymore. She's divorcing.

She related her horror story over lunch Sunday, from how he left her with the mortgage and bills, plus three cats and two dogs, how she’d paid off his law school loans and is still making payments on his Cadillac Escalade, how she had to sell a bungalow she’d renovated because her Prince Charmless coveted a pricier address in the Hollywood Hills.

Now he wants half of everything, though he paid for mostly nothing.

So at the end of the month, despite a salary comfortably into the six figures, she’s $2,000 in the hole and completely stressed.

At the end of my month, I have only one cat, a cute kid who still fits into last year’s clothes, and a tiny, eminently affordable house in an overlooked suburb. The king of this humble castle makes uncomfortably in the five figures but somehow still pays all the bills with only minor amounts of crabbing.

Damn, I’m lucky.

She didn’t have a pre-nup and is shooting herself. We didn't need a pre-nup because neither of us had a pot to pee in back then. We still don't, unless you count Minitaur's potty, which was a hand-me-down from a cousin.

Cadillac? We drive an Echo, all paid up. I went home from my lunch thinking life is a ride, and mine may be bumpy and slow, but I looked over at the driver and decided the scenery is mighty fine indeed.

Comments

[plosh]

All my life I've been a cross-country runner. Our coach said "never take off too fast. Start slow and build up speed." Our team placed in the state's Top 10 three of the four years I was in high school. I like to think that we're just slow starters in the cross-country race we call life.

[Ontario Emperor]

It sounds like they don't have any kids together. This is a good thing.

[plosh]

Yes.