Divorce - The things nobody tells you

So, I was a teen mother. I was engaged, pregnant, married, mommy and divorced all before I turned 21.
When I left my daughter's father, I just wanted out. I wanted everything to be over and done with and I let him manipulate me every which way. I gave him everything and just asked for return of my stuff and my daughter's belongings (of which I probably only got half of it back). He could have the house, the other car, furniture.. everything.
Anyhow, he was an E3 in the military at the time, so he wasn't making much money at the time, so the child support wasn't all that much. I never took him back to court after he got out of the military and was making better money. I didn't want to deal with the drama that would ensue if I did that.
Here are the things that I wish I had known back then.
1. Even if the support order says they are supposed to carry medical/dental/vision insurance on the minor child(ren). The only thing that the child support office will do is send a letter saying that he needs to provide the information. If they don't have them covered, or have insurance that is basically useless where you live, there's not much that can be done, unless you go back to court. Yes, they are in contempt of the order, but you need a judge to do anything about it.
2. If there end up being medical bills at a later time and they are supposed to pay for half of any of those costs, unless there is a money amount that the judge awards in the child support, there's not much you can do if they won't pay. So say you get a bill for the dentist/doctor/optometrist. You need to take a copy of the charges, send it to them within 30 (it might be 60) days with a request for payment. You need to do this in a way that you can prove to the court that you requested the payment from them and they received the request (so certified receipt, etc.). You must do this to show due diligence in trying to collect. If they don't pay, you then will have to take them court and get the judge to award a dollar amount.
3. If you can negotiate it, you should try to get them to agree to cover the child(ren) on their insurance until they have finished school (including college). Sometimes if you are lucky, you can stipulate for them to pay child support while the child(ren) are full time students.

If I had to do it all over again, I would have asked for more support up front. Because if the other parent refuses to help with any additional costs, you are SOL if it isn't in the court order. Remember... ballet, karate, gymnastics, baseball, football, music lessons. All of that stuff costs money! When your child is in high school (or middle school) and their class goes on trips to Washington DC or science camp.. Those cost money too. Those are things you can't account for. Your kid goes off to college, they are 18 and you may be the only one willing to help as much as you can.
I understand the want to get out, be done with it. But in the end, I wish I had the forethought to plan for these things up front. I wish someone would have told me this. Remember, either way, you are going to get out, even if it takes a bit more struggle in the beginning. If you don't do it up front, you will forever be fighting it later on. I don't know how many times I went to ask for more help and was told that I needed to use the money from my child support to pay for any of those things. Was told that housing/food shouldn't be considered part of child support since I needed to have a place to live for myself and I needed to feed myself. Sometimes they just don't get it.

Obsession.......

So as I said before, I am bipolar.. One of the side effects of my bipolar disorder is that I am always obsessing about SOMETHING. It changes from day to day, week to week. Sometimes it sticks around for a while, others it's fleeting and only around for a short visit.
Lately, my obsession was crafting. So along with crafting, it went to many different areas.. TUTUS - don't little girls look ADORABLE in little tutu dresses? Then it was Christmas items, decorations, gifts, etc. Then I HAD to have the expensive die cut machine. Which I was SUPER gung-ho about but it's been sitting in my kitchen untouched because the day I went to use it, I realized I needed something else, then just lost momentum on the whole thing.
I seriously have enough craft stuff of all shapes/sizes/styles/projects to fill a 1 car garage! I can't find most of it at this point, because there is just so much of it and I live in a little place, so it's mostly in boxes, stacks, bins.. etc. I don't know if it is more of my high-high bipolar kick that gets me switching from one project to another in lightening speed, or my ADD that makes me lose interest.
At this point, PINTEREST is pretty much the devil for me. SO many ideas and cute things to try and I just can't pick one.
I mean.. it's a little obvious, with how I write my blog for 3 days or so, then I don't touch it for a month. All of sudden, a month later, I realize that I haven't written and then decide to start again.
Am I the only one who deals with this stuff?

I don't even watch soap operas!

Seriously, something has got to give!!!
Is it only me that feels like their life is like a constant soap opera and you just want to get off the carousel?

My neighbors still bite the big one. There was some police activity (SERIOUS activity) about 2 weeks ago. So crazy that the entire condo community came out to watch! Think... Episode of COPS! DEA/SWAT...
Now they are home. How the heck did that happen? They've decided to step up their noisy game by a thousand. They switched out the all night stomping, and loud knocking visitors for playing their radio.. with the bass BOOMING! Like my windows shake, but the sound is down enough that you can't hear much outside. UGGH!!

My grandma has been in and out of the hospital the last few months, had to go by paramedics again this last weekend. My dad is supposed to have surgery on his birthday (tomorrow) for his shoulder, that will keep him out of work for 6 months. My mom needs a lady surgery that she's waiting for my dad and grandma's stuff to cool down a bit. My little brother is out of rehab, but running amok again.
Another friend/neighbor's boyfriend had open heart surgery last week and had a couple hairy moments.

This week, not much is going on with the kid, which is amazing. Oh, well she changed her major, but it's a good decision, so I'm on board with that. The dogs are driving me nuts, I can't find a psychiatrist locally..
my bi-polar butt is fluctuating so much that it could give a flux-capacitor a run for its money. And all I want to do is SLEEP. Which I can't do because my neighbors can't figure out the signal of me pounding on the wall means their bass is driving me BATTY!

There's a bunch more stuff, but I just have to save that for another day, so I don't end up giving myself an anxiety attack!