I hear you on the gift thing. W and I exchanged Christmas gifts. I don't think I'm gonna be getting a birthday present from her (whoo. I'm 26, now. Jan 9th.). heh.
And...it's nice to know that someone here can empathize on the having to work with the spouse thing. I managed to avoid her a lot today - except for dinner. We work with children, and every Tuesday we take the kids out for dinner (like, noodles and company, wendy's, subway, etc). The kid I work with wants to be w/ his brothers, so I can't just split off entirely.
I just got an 80 gig iPod Classic and ripped some DVDs, so I can at least use that to ignore W and B - while still paying attention to the kid when I need to.
Your situation sounds pretty uncomfortable, too.
I'm taking the advice you give though and trying to keep my chin up - and repeat to myself I'm a good person, likeable, strong as I can be right now, and I have a good idea of who I am and what my values are.
Now all I have to do is work through the pain of my wife actively looking for dates. Shouldn't be a problem (sarcasm on the last! Oye.)
On a side note: How many of our situations do you think make bad soap-opera material here? I think my life these past few months would actually be rejected for being too absurd.
