Congratulations on finishing up your class...96%! You've had a lot on your plate and you still came away w/flying colors on the course. You should be proud of yourself!
I think you are wise not to talk about your h w/the women in the office. As long as you keep the conversations on other subjects, everything will be fine. I'm sure your prints are lovely and everyone appreciates the hard work you put into them. The ladies in the office know just what went down and continues to go down and I like the fact that they are adhering to the boundaries of keeping him and Bubbles out of the conversations.
As for your D25, evidently she needs the time w/her father and most likely accepts Bubbles as just a gnat that needs to be blown away. Maybe she feels that she can talk to you and/or see you whenever she wants and in her mind, it's not the same w/her father. I do hope that your D25 realizes at some point that "mom" isn't going to be right where she expects her to be when she's ready to talk.
We all tend to lose ourselves when it comes to the relationships w/our spouses. Life has a way of taking over and before know it, the hobbies and things that we use to love to do go on the back burner, i.e., for a later time when we have more time. At midlife, things tend to change for those who can't successfully navigate those life transitions and they discover they can't cope the way they thought they could and bang! They change and then the reflect back on life as it was. They tend to forget, that over the years, we all change, our focus is on work, family and home. They forget that they did the exact same thing we did w/our focus. You can't go back and recreate the past and the fountain of youth closed the doors on them as they continued to age, notice I didn't say grow up? That's because they haven't.
The crisis is a gift of time (as Cadet points out). It's our time to turn the focus back on us, dig out that list of things we set aside many years ago and start doing some of them. It's a time of rediscovery and you know what? You might just be surprised at how much fun you will have learning some new things/hobbies along the way.
As for your h, he's got a lot of growing up to do and I certainly wouldn't want to be in Bubbles' shoes. She's got to deal w/him and all the baggage he brought to the relationship. Will he grow up and mature properly? Time will tell. Until then, use every minute you've got to be happy and recognize that you are right where you need to be at this time.
Sit quietly, the answers will reveal themselves when you least expect them to. The past is gone, the present is a gift and you need to focus on today, allow the future to reveal itself when it is ready.
