Changing Man

[Gardener]

Now, after that diatribe, some Journaling.

Son and i decided that maintaining Christmas Eve tradition at my house would be kind of depressing what with it now being the two of us and not the whole, happy blended family crowd of 10.

So we went to a pub late last night to eat and talk.

Today, I went to my brothers' house for Christmas.
He and his wife were cool, normal. Nephews a little awkward, but not much.
When brother's SIL, BIL and their DD showed up, things were really kind of awkward, so decided to put it to rest with:

"I have known several of you for almost 40 years, some of you I've known all your life. And one of you, I've known all my life (my brother). So let me take a take a couple of minutes to address the 800 pound gorilla in the room, or at least the 120 pound woman who isn't in the room." I gave them a brief fairly non-judgmental synopsis of the last 13 months. Everyone seemed relieved, offered condolences, etc. and Christmas Day "officially" started quite comfortably and normally. Glad I did it.

Have I posted about Nephew, 31 telling a one-year-divorced coworker about me and suggesting we talk? N says to me "she's nine years younger than you and she's an art teacher, pretty, a lot of fun, great sense of humor and a bit hippie-ish like you. She gave me her email address and asked me to invite you to write her. She was saying she'd sure like some male company and conversation."

Good kid, that nephew.

That was a week ago. I'm in no rush and have been quite busy, so have done nothing.

Last night he emails me saying, "I know I'll see you tomorrow, but I thought I'd tell you that coworker mentioned at Christmas party tonight that she hadn't heard from you,"

Good sign, I figure.

So I wait until this morning and send her an email:

Subject: A man whose nephew has a good heart...

"...Is sorry for taking a few days to respond to your invitation.

But perhaps there can be no nicer first greeting than, "Merry Christmas Amanda."

I look forward to talking with you."
Gardener.

Pretty good, I thought.

Tonight, I get home and there's a reply from her from 6:00 pm:

"Subject: Merry Christmas"
and the first partial line I can see on my email system next to the Subject line says,"Merry Christmas to you, gardener. We usually hear" and that's all it shows.

That's all I know because I haven't opened it, yet!

Hey, I think I sent a pretty good opening email to her, but I'm new all over again at this, I'm tired and I think I'll wait until the morning to open it, respond, and get the ball rolling.

Other good news to report today is that Nephew tells me he got text message from my recently-estranged step-son today: "Merry Christmas (Nephew), I'm in Boston with friends for Christmas weekend" - (I was quite surprised to hear he wasn't doing traditional Christmas Eve celebration with Mrs. G. at her new apartment and kind of "bailed" for the entire weekend)) -"been too long. When I get back, you and me and Gardener's son should get together some night. Maybe Gardener, too."

My son got similar text message from Step son today, too.

Good sign. The supposed "estrangement" seems to perhaps be thawing quite soon already.

A good sign.

Merry Christmas again, to all. Sorry to go on so much like this tonight when I still have yet to catch up on so many of your sitches in the past week. I will this weekend.