December 31, 2007. I thought this year would never end. I'm normally an optimistic, sunny-side up kind of gal but this year has been the year to convince me (almost) that the sun had taken a permanent vacation from my life.
In order to better understand that cryptic sentence you need a little background on my life thus far. The year began with a divorce request from my (absentee) husband. His job required him to be in other states quite frequently and he felt that after 18 years of marriage he was a "single" kind of guy. The sucky part of that was said job produced no income so we had been living on my teaching salary for the previous couple of years. Not long after this lovely pronouncement the furnace went out, the pipes froze, (we live in an area with very cold winters) and the kids and I moved in with my parents until the repairman could find his way to our home to repair the furnace. Fast forward to my birthday when I receive the lovely news that my soon to be ex had been not so secretly living with another woman and her children down south for the previous year. Long story short.....I quickly recovered from any doubts, tears, heartbreak over his divorce request and summarily began divorce proceedings.
The kids and I moved into a different home over the summer and I have taken on a couple of side jobs to better make ends meet. (When I took my first waitressing job as a teenager I never had any clue as to how much I would fall back on those skills thus far in my adult life) The kids have handled the divorce fairly well as "Dad" was rarely around anyway, so not much has changed in their daily lives.
After a rough summer (the state said I had to let the kids go south to stay with their dad during the summer - custody laws suck when the non-custodial parent lives out of state) spent recovering from the depression of the first half of 2007, I decided to see what type of men were out there. (I did just spend the last 18 years of my life married to the same man). After sorting through many online profiles I decided to give it up and focus on being a happily single mother. Wouldn't you know on that very last profile search I came across one that just made me laugh (in a good way) the entire time I was reading. On a whim I emailed Mr. Irony who politely emailed back to say that as I didn't like brianiacs and he was one we might not be such a good match. Feeling a little argumentative and with nothing to lose, I emailed back my definition of a brainiac. His response was that he was intrigued by my definition, thus leading to a flurry of emails quickly progressing to phone conversations. We met for our first "date" in B&N for Starbucks and the rest, as they say, is history. :)
To sum up what I have learned from the debacle of 2007...you can't make anyone happy but yourself. I've tried and failed miserably, resulting mainly in my own misery. I'm ending this year with the resolve to stand up for myself, stop being a doormat, and make the choices that are best for me and my kids. The standing up for myself and not being a doormat may prove to be very entertaining as I suck at saying the word "no". Mr. Irony gave me a refrigerator magnet that says "Stop me before I volunteer again" and I'm wondering if I should have that permanently tattooed on me as my memory is like a sieve.
Why have I decided to begin blogging?
As I was shopping for a certain book that Mr. Irony had requested for Christmas I stumbled across a memoir written by Jen Lancaster. Deciding that would be my gift this year from Santa, I purchased it, along with a large tome on Thomas Jefferson and Kevin Smith's autobiography (Kevin Smith rocks ya'll and yes, these were the book request of Mr. Irony, although I will be borrowing the Kevin Smith book as soon as he finishes). Anywho, Jen Lancaster now ranks right up there with Jane Austen among my favorite writers. I laughed my ass off reading her first book "Bitter is the New Black" and had to run to B&N the day after Christmas to buy her second "Bright Lights, Big Ass". She is funny! Laugh out loud while reading kind of funny! Borrowing a page from her book (pun intended) I decided that I would move my writing from my own private little journal to blogging about it online, hence this rambling summary of 2007.
That said.....bring on 2008 baby! It's only up from here. :)
