WAW w/Exit Affair or WW? - 1 Year Divorced (7)

[bttrfly]

The vacation you described will be locked into your kids' memories for a lifetime. Good stuff, BL. Good, good stuff!

Also, I did notice lots of other families there vacationing at our beach spot who all seemed to be coupled up - not sure there are any other single parents there - it would sure be nice to have a partner to share in the experience and lighten the load. But out of my control. I also thought back to times when ExW & I were on the same beach with then S4 / D1, even naming D there on a walk before she was born. That seems like ages ago now due to everything that has transpired, but really wasn't all that long ago. But a few occasions of sadness didn't soil the trip which was great overall.

Yeah, I remember feeling that way at son's baseball and hockey games post BD/D. It was especially hard when I compared it to pre-BD life. I found it much better to just focus on the activity at hand and stay strictly in the moment.

Saturday when I dropped the kids off at ExW's, OM2 was out in the yard working on the house. It still riles me up to see him around. I know it shouldn't, but I'm just not there yet, and I drove away spinning a bit emotionally. Also that night after the buzz/high of the two week vacation activities the quiet and loneliness of my house felt like a bit of a low and none of my friends were available to hang out so that got me a bit down.

I cannot imagine what it feels like to have an interloper in the home you created for your family.
I remember exh missing his scheduled time with son, so I'd end up with three weeks in a row - yay! - then then emptiness when exh came back and got the boy. The way I coped was to volunteer at a local wildlife educational facility that had long interested me. I would come home so exhausted, yet exhilarated from interacting with the animals that I only had energy to shower, have dinner and go to sleep. It was my way of coping.

However, Sunday I met my buddy and his wife and some friends of theirs at a local music fest with with tons of bands in various locations in a neighborhood which was a lot of fun. I saw random neighbors, co-workers, and friends, and did a good bit of socializing. That broke my funk from the night before. What I thought would be a 2-3 hour event turned into 6-7 with me feeling reinvigorated. Good times.

Great job! I'm proud of you for getting out and GAL... it's easy to sit in the $h!t ... harder to do what you did.

He also mentioned he's planning to set me up with a friend's SIL is a doctor and single mom with a 4-5yo daughter who lives in town and looked pretty cute from the picture. So that would be cool. Though I've heard about a half dozen set ups in the past year and none of them have come to fruition so...time will tell if anything comes of it. I deleted all my OLD profiles 2-3 months ago because it wasn't serving me well and I'm glad for the break there, but at some point may start anew.

Keep us posted on meetups in the wild. You know how I feel about OLD.

Anyway, back to the grind at work today and bracing for the school year and Fall sports. As always, loving my kiddos and making them my main focus...

You're a great father BL ... do the kids play soccer in the fall?