The high road: rocky with a great view

[ciluzen]

I keep wanting to post on others' threads, but I find that what I want to say has already been said by others or I end up writing super long posts that I then end up deleting. Sigh. I think its just a sign that I need to spend time selfishly on me. So, here goes.

DBing my older daughter has been working. She actually contacted me to find out when she should come to my artist reception on Friday and spent a little time there with me before it got too busy. I was able to get my "hug fix". It was a lot of fun and, though I was the featured artist, there were a few crafters there as well. I hit it off with a woman who was selling beautiful jewelry and she asked if I'd like to share a booth at an upcoming juried arts and crafts show (she felt I would have no problem getting in). Quite a few friends stopped by, so that was very nice and I sold a few prints of my work. Most people grabbed my business cards which, although it seldom leads to more than a trash can, is validating in that they enjoyed the work enough to want to remember the artist.I speak from my own experience as a grabber of cards, not out of negativity!

One woman whom I've met through an art meetup lives in the neighborhood. She stopped by near closing and we went out to a nearby wine tasting room to visit. Her new neighbor stopped by and we all traveled to a nearby place to get food. He actually was from a well-known family from where I grew up so we had fun talking about how much that area had changed. He ended up picking up the check for our evening, which was very nice of him, and we will probably all three hang out again. I was reminded that I am not really a wine lover, though.

I spent the next day skiing with a group of women who are part of another meetup and really enjoyed myself...made a few new friends. D26 called to see how the reception went and brought up XH a few times in the convo, but I just ignored as they were in passing. It really felt like she threw him in there for my reaction, so I gave none and we just moved on.

Skied again yesterday with a close friend. Both days were just sunny and beautiful (and cold!); very nice. I sure owe a lot to that meetup site for helping me through this S and D; just as I do this site!

On the H front, I haven't heard from him since he called about the airbed a few days before New Year's. No word on the form I sent him, but I did receive my spousal support check. Not sure why he hand addresses it and mails it when he can just schedule it to be transferred straight from the account at no cost. His deal, not mine.

I watched "Mean Girls" last night as I was too tired to focus on school. It made me think of H and his MLC issues. He always spoke of himself in highschool as being a tall, skinny, pimply-faced nerd (his words) that no girl would ever be interested in.He did have a girlfriend in highschool who was very religious and quiet. She rejected him after he drove 1500 miles to her university to visit her and he was very hurt by that. He had been a baseball player, but quit as his eyesight got worse (not sure what other reasons came into play...there seemed to be more to it, though). He was always an athlete and was a good highjumper. I realized while watching the movie, that all of the men in his social group right now are former baseball players and all of the women were former cheerleaders or popular party girls during their glory days. Their kids are all athletes as well. Ours were lways involved with sports, but he did nothing but complain about their playing...and my D26 was captain of her soccer team! He is the only health care professional in the group. He admitted that he feels used (they all enjoy the vacation home), but I think he enjoys feeling like he's finally part of that group he maybe covetted in high school. Except maybe he doesn't. I get that impression sometimes.

On a sad note for both of us, I had mentioned before that he was in search of that place like Cheers where everybody knew his name? We both had that at the back lodge on our ski hill, at least with the guy that worked there. I stopped in to say hi this weekend, but only his wife was there. She explained that he had been let go. I will miss him, but I know XH will be even sadder.