Another one joins the flock (III)

[Mike85]

Just got off the phone with a friend who has been a great comfort to me through this whole ordeal. She and I, along with many of our other soon-to-be-former colleagues are planning a party to celebrate our new jobs.

Naturally, we discussed the letter I received from W's attorney.

As my friend and I talked, I realized that the one, single thing that OM provides W that I cannot is the style of living to which she feels entitled. She quite simply loves being able to live on the lake, owning a boat, going wakeboarding, hobnobbing with well-off folks ten years younger than her, the prospect of traveling to Jamaica and Europe... and is perfectly happy and willing to tear apart our family in order to have that style of living. She's told me that she loves her new life and can't see ever giving it up. Instead of trying to get that standard of living by finishing school and working hard in a new career, she has decided to shack up with someone who'll lavish his money on her.

Looking backward at the things she has said and done even recently, she does seem hellbent on getting a D the most low-key way possible. I don't believe that she means to hurt me, but I also believe that she wants a complete divorce from not just me, but from her old way of life.

She used to joke that she married the first time for love but the second time would be for money, and it seems as though she's on a fast track to make the joke a reality. I will not be surprised if after we file for the legal S, if she and OM become engaged by New Year's Eve. Honestly. She is the hottie that he never thought he could score, and he is providing her with the toys, travel, and social life that she has decided she is entitled to. They complement each other's neuroses and have spun a self-deluded cocoon, a little fantasy world, in which their selfish needs are fed by each other.

It is truly sad that the giving, loving, noble woman to which I given my heart for twenty years has become such an incredibly shallow, selfish, and superficial individual. It saddens me to hear people in the community talk about what she has become, how they just don't like her anymore, and how I'm perilously close to losing their respect for wanting to stay with such a self-destructive, selfish user.

I'll admit that my morale happens to be at a low ebb right now and that is coloring my view, but at this point, I can't see WANTING to be with her the way she is at the moment. I'm not going adversarial, but I'm going to take off the rose-colored glasses and make a point of using an attorney to protect the interests of myself and my kids.