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Well, things have moved along.
On Saturday, Mother Nature sent a giant Bronx cheer to Honey, in the form of a snowstorm and temperatures below freezing. This did not deter us from attending the Suzanne Westenhoefer show at the Birchmere, and having a good time (despite our traditional get-lost-on-Glebe-Road bit). During conversation with her coworker/husband and their friends, she referred to something as "ours" ("Ours is like that, isn't it?"), to which I looked at her and said, "Ours?" (Ding!)
On the way home, I mentioned that I was not at all happy with the therapist she had selected for us to get counseling -- all of two sessions, etc., see previous -- and that I would give her time and space, but I was going to have her join me at my therapist to work on the issues that were not at all resolved. No comment from her. Subject changed, safe arrival at "home".
We did spend the day amiably dividing things into hers and mine.
Sunday AM, we got up early so I could take her over to the van rental place. After breakfast, she took the boy to church and came home after the first service was done -- he was tasked with something at both, so he stayed. We did some more divvying-up, and I walked the dogs. Just as I was ready to head out and pick up Sonny, her siblings arrived, two brothers and one sister. Oldest Brother popped out, said hello, his wife wasn't able to come along today (she's the one who's been emailing me) because of her knee, and other idle chitchat. As Oldest Sister came up, I said hello, "how are you doing?", and she replied in the usual ("Fine, how are you doing?"). By then, Honey was out and down the stairs, so I just told them I was heading out to get the boy and take him to lunch, and that we would see them later for dinner. I also asked Youngest Brother if he would take a look at the bed frame for my bed, as the metal anchors had been bent, and would it be safe to re-bend them?
I left, picked up the Sonny, we went to lunch -- he said he wasn't very hungry, so he got soup and mashed potatoes. I forced myself to finish a sandwich, which was very good; I was just not very hungry either.
We headed over to the bookstore (a bribe, you might think, and you'd be right); browsed, found some expensive books which I declined to buy, found a cheaper book which I bought for him along with one for me, and then headed over to friends for the rest of the afternoon.
K and J have birds, so we first sat on the couch and met them. Three green-cheeked amazons, one of which liked my voice and danced on the couch next to my shoulder, when she wasn't on my shoulder. One African grey who took an instant delight in Sonny, made his way across the room to stand on the coffee table in front of us, watched us for a while, hopped onto Sonny's knee and went to sleep. (Cockatiels and a canary rounded out the gang.)
J took the AG off Sonny's knee so they could go look at the Star Wars models, and then peruse the Xbox games. They ended up playing Lego Star Wars, at which Sonny is pretty good -- he helped J advance a few levels -- but it was hysterical to watch them. During the course of the game, Sonny ended up sitting teen-wise in the chair, which brought his knees up in perfect AG perching position, so the bird came back to his best bud. I took a picture of that, you betcha.
K and I talked, looked at her displays, drank tea and ate Scottish cookies, and watched the boys in their male bonding ritual. Honey called around 6-ish to say she was running late, and we wouldn't all be meeting for dinner after all, and she'd call when it was time to meet her at the van rental place. She was clearly stressed out -- her voice changes quite noticeably -- but we managed to get things going smoothly after that. We got to the rental place, which is also a service station, before she did, so I filled up on not-so-cheap gas (petrol, for my overseas audience).
She indicated that she needed to go "home" to get her car, so we went there first. I let that one slide. She'd fed the dogs before leaving around 6, and I quickly fed the cats then. We went to dinner right near her apartment building, where Sonny demonstrated the New Improved Teen Hunger mode he'd developed: two slices of Italian bread with a tomato pesto sauce, a slice (large) of plain cheese pizza, a full-size salad, and about half of his fettuccine Alfredo, with shrimp. I ate my salad, and some spaghetti, but didn't even try to finish my Pollo alla Siciliana. Not Hungry.
Note: she'd kicked out her siblings without any dinner, although she said they'd all had a late lunch, blah blah. She still admitted she'd essentially gotten them out the door and on their road home as quickly as possible, which just goes to show you, no one is safefrom her wrath.
We chatted pleasantly over dinner. He volunteered to get started on the groceries as the store was just a few steps away from the restaurant, which is all near the apartment. How convenient. She took her leftovers, and he requested that I take his, for dinner with me on Monday night.
I went home.
The master bedroom doesn't have a bed now, and my bed frame still needs to be fixed -- which reminds me..(makes phone call, talks to Honey, reminds her of obligation to fix bed frame, promises to call again and again if she needs reminding) -- and there's crap all over the place. It looks emptier, and more open at the same time. The "great room" is empty of furniture, as she took that with her (with my agreement). I think I'll bring the desk down from the guest room and put that into the great room, and maybe some small bookcases.
Anyway, I walked the dogs, and settled down on the couch once more. I didn't fall asleep as early as I'd hoped, and the dratted timer on the light still turns it on at 4:30 am, so I was asleep late/awake early, always a lovely combination. One of the bits keeping me awake was a short email conversation with an old friend who is in the throes of her own mid-life crisis, complete with indifferent husband, two kids, one with Downs, and a lack of employment since before Kid #1 was born. We commiserated briefly, but meaningfully, around midnight.
Despite the early awakening, I got in to work later than usual. I fed the animals, walked the dogs, took a shower, made my tea, packed a lunch, dressed, turned off all the electronics, exited the house, saw the neighbor setting out on foot for the train station, offered her a ride, she asked about the furniture moving, was sorryshe'd asked to hear about Honey's abrupt departure, told me about her coworker going through major brain and emotional issues related to menopause, commiserated in general, offered general help, got out at the station, waved, and I went on to work.
Then, I realized I was late for my appointment to donate blood (not that they care -- as long as you show up, they loveyou your blood). I donated, got some cookies, went back to my office, and worked on various documents.
Then, just after lunch, the phone rang, and it was my home number. Gee, I thought, why is my house calling me? That sounded like a good question, so instead of answering "hello?", I answered with "Why is my house calling me?" Honey immediately explained that the house was calling to let me know that the front door was open..ha, ha; we chatted briefly about her morning meeting at the AFIP Museum (full of medical oddities, although some might consider these to be grossities). She asked if she could take half of the recently purchased soups and fruit cans, and I pointed out that I'd bought them even though we'd shopped together at Costco. Oops! (Ding!) I still let her take what she asked for, because I'm generous that way. She said she'd taken the day off, and I thought how nice that I hadn't also done the same; but she had forgotten that she didn't tell me her plans.
My mother was amazed that not only did I go to dinner/show with my now-ex, but also that her sister-in-law was commenting on my Facebook posts. Very "California", in her words. Too true.
Onwards.
On Saturday, Mother Nature sent a giant Bronx cheer to Honey, in the form of a snowstorm and temperatures below freezing. This did not deter us from attending the Suzanne Westenhoefer show at the Birchmere, and having a good time (despite our traditional get-lost-on-Glebe-Road bit). During conversation with her coworker/husband and their friends, she referred to something as "ours" ("Ours is like that, isn't it?"), to which I looked at her and said, "Ours?" (Ding!)
On the way home, I mentioned that I was not at all happy with the therapist she had selected for us to get counseling -- all of two sessions, etc., see previous -- and that I would give her time and space, but I was going to have her join me at my therapist to work on the issues that were not at all resolved. No comment from her. Subject changed, safe arrival at "home".
We did spend the day amiably dividing things into hers and mine.
Sunday AM, we got up early so I could take her over to the van rental place. After breakfast, she took the boy to church and came home after the first service was done -- he was tasked with something at both, so he stayed. We did some more divvying-up, and I walked the dogs. Just as I was ready to head out and pick up Sonny, her siblings arrived, two brothers and one sister. Oldest Brother popped out, said hello, his wife wasn't able to come along today (she's the one who's been emailing me) because of her knee, and other idle chitchat. As Oldest Sister came up, I said hello, "how are you doing?", and she replied in the usual ("Fine, how are you doing?"). By then, Honey was out and down the stairs, so I just told them I was heading out to get the boy and take him to lunch, and that we would see them later for dinner. I also asked Youngest Brother if he would take a look at the bed frame for my bed, as the metal anchors had been bent, and would it be safe to re-bend them?
I left, picked up the Sonny, we went to lunch -- he said he wasn't very hungry, so he got soup and mashed potatoes. I forced myself to finish a sandwich, which was very good; I was just not very hungry either.
We headed over to the bookstore (a bribe, you might think, and you'd be right); browsed, found some expensive books which I declined to buy, found a cheaper book which I bought for him along with one for me, and then headed over to friends for the rest of the afternoon.
K and J have birds, so we first sat on the couch and met them. Three green-cheeked amazons, one of which liked my voice and danced on the couch next to my shoulder, when she wasn't on my shoulder. One African grey who took an instant delight in Sonny, made his way across the room to stand on the coffee table in front of us, watched us for a while, hopped onto Sonny's knee and went to sleep. (Cockatiels and a canary rounded out the gang.)
J took the AG off Sonny's knee so they could go look at the Star Wars models, and then peruse the Xbox games. They ended up playing Lego Star Wars, at which Sonny is pretty good -- he helped J advance a few levels -- but it was hysterical to watch them. During the course of the game, Sonny ended up sitting teen-wise in the chair, which brought his knees up in perfect AG perching position, so the bird came back to his best bud. I took a picture of that, you betcha.
K and I talked, looked at her displays, drank tea and ate Scottish cookies, and watched the boys in their male bonding ritual. Honey called around 6-ish to say she was running late, and we wouldn't all be meeting for dinner after all, and she'd call when it was time to meet her at the van rental place. She was clearly stressed out -- her voice changes quite noticeably -- but we managed to get things going smoothly after that. We got to the rental place, which is also a service station, before she did, so I filled up on not-so-cheap gas (petrol, for my overseas audience).
She indicated that she needed to go "home" to get her car, so we went there first. I let that one slide. She'd fed the dogs before leaving around 6, and I quickly fed the cats then. We went to dinner right near her apartment building, where Sonny demonstrated the New Improved Teen Hunger mode he'd developed: two slices of Italian bread with a tomato pesto sauce, a slice (large) of plain cheese pizza, a full-size salad, and about half of his fettuccine Alfredo, with shrimp. I ate my salad, and some spaghetti, but didn't even try to finish my Pollo alla Siciliana. Not Hungry.
Note: she'd kicked out her siblings without any dinner, although she said they'd all had a late lunch, blah blah. She still admitted she'd essentially gotten them out the door and on their road home as quickly as possible, which just goes to show you, no one is safe
We chatted pleasantly over dinner. He volunteered to get started on the groceries as the store was just a few steps away from the restaurant, which is all near the apartment. How convenient. She took her leftovers, and he requested that I take his, for dinner with me on Monday night.
I went home.
The master bedroom doesn't have a bed now, and my bed frame still needs to be fixed -- which reminds me..(makes phone call, talks to Honey, reminds her of obligation to fix bed frame, promises to call again and again if she needs reminding) -- and there's crap all over the place. It looks emptier, and more open at the same time. The "great room" is empty of furniture, as she took that with her (with my agreement). I think I'll bring the desk down from the guest room and put that into the great room, and maybe some small bookcases.
Anyway, I walked the dogs, and settled down on the couch once more. I didn't fall asleep as early as I'd hoped, and the dratted timer on the light still turns it on at 4:30 am, so I was asleep late/awake early, always a lovely combination. One of the bits keeping me awake was a short email conversation with an old friend who is in the throes of her own mid-life crisis, complete with indifferent husband, two kids, one with Downs, and a lack of employment since before Kid #1 was born. We commiserated briefly, but meaningfully, around midnight.
Despite the early awakening, I got in to work later than usual. I fed the animals, walked the dogs, took a shower, made my tea, packed a lunch, dressed, turned off all the electronics, exited the house, saw the neighbor setting out on foot for the train station, offered her a ride, she asked about the furniture moving, was sorry
Then, I realized I was late for my appointment to donate blood (not that they care -- as long as you show up, they love
Then, just after lunch, the phone rang, and it was my home number. Gee, I thought, why is my house calling me? That sounded like a good question, so instead of answering "hello?", I answered with "Why is my house calling me?" Honey immediately explained that the house was calling to let me know that the front door was open..ha, ha; we chatted briefly about her morning meeting at the AFIP Museum (full of medical oddities, although some might consider these to be grossities). She asked if she could take half of the recently purchased soups and fruit cans, and I pointed out that I'd bought them even though we'd shopped together at Costco. Oops! (Ding!) I still let her take what she asked for, because I'm generous that way. She said she'd taken the day off, and I thought how nice that I hadn't also done the same; but she had forgotten that she didn't tell me her plans.
My mother was amazed that not only did I go to dinner/show with my now-ex, but also that her sister-in-law was commenting on my Facebook posts. Very "California", in her words. Too true.
Onwards.
