So STBX has been back living in town for about a month now.
Still no sign of OW. I don’t want to ask my daughters directly if she’s around, but they haven’t mentioned her in that time.
STBX has been……nominally more helpful as a parent. He picked up D7 from her first day of school, preemptively picked up the school supply list and purchased all of it. He also gave me some additional cash for her school bus pass, again without my asking (I didn’t expect it either). Also asked me to move the schedule around a bit so that he would have the opportunity to volunteer in her classroom. Finally – he does seem to prefer my picking up the girls at his apartment rather than him driving them out to my house. It all sort of feels like he is establishing his turf and also planting a flag of “I will be more engaged in our daughter’s lives!” I’ll take it. I hope it lasts.
Some of the GAL seeds I have planted seem to blossoming. I started doing a lot of youth sports coaching last year. Last August when I first started coaching soccer, I didn’t even know the names of the positions. This year, I found myself writing a letter of explanation to the league president, that I really, really tried not to run the score up the last game – but it still ended up 10-2 (My team was so much better prepared than our opponents). It’s beginning to be a fairly common occurrence that I will be out grocery shopping and all of the sudden will hear a delighted squeal of “Coach Raliced!”, followed by a big hug from a girl I coached on one of my teams last year.
Started a new activity of going to the local cat rescue and taking nice pictures of the kitties with D7 for them to post on their website. Both GAL and a whole lot of feline love.
You know, when animals and kids like me, I feel like I am doing something right.
Sotto- (love the anagram) – I think the divorce is winding up but not quite finalized. It does seem to be dragging.
