Another one joins the flock (III)

[Mike85]

Thanks Snodderly!

Yeah, I'm definitely taking things slowly. I've been seeing the same therapist since the bomb dropped - what was a biweekly session is now monthly, and now we've transitioned from handling the wreckage of "what was" to the possibilities in "what can be." She has been a HUGE help and is helping me move into the next phase of my life and thinks I'm ready to put my toe back in the water.... slowly.

I've been talking to a single mom that I met through a funny set of circumstances (my son's cub scout group found her lost license while doing a roadside cleanup, I sent it back to her, she wanted to meet the scouts and me to thank us... and we hit it off). We're doing a lot of GREAT phone conversation and are making our first "date" be something low pressure and involving the kids - 'cuz after all, our respective kids WILL be a huge part of the mix. We're each hopeful about where this might go, but cautious. She is a great lady, and I figure that if nothing else, I will have made a wonderful new friend - but since I think she's cute as all heck, my first choice is the "more-than-friends" option...

As for the STBXW, thanks for having been holding out hope and being there for support, but I realize now that her MLC was rooted in VERY deep issues with which she had been and still is grappling and is, in many ways, unwilling to face, and as a result, any hope for reconciliation was doomed from the start. And in the last two years, she has burned FAR too many bridges - with me, with our friends and family, and with acquaintances- for me to ever fully trust her EVER again or want to be with her in any capacity again. She is fundamentally a very screwed-up and selfish person, and even if she gets the help she needs at some point, she has irrevocably destroyed what we had. I wish her no ill will in her new life, I just don't want her in mine any more than she has to be.

And I hope that you & yours also have a great holiday season!