Hoppy Easter

Weekend was decent. Left work a little early Friday, packed up my gear, dropped my dog off at my former roommate's house, picked up GTIAGO, and headed to Steamboat Friday evening. It was a great drive. The scenery on that route is just awesome.

Stopped in Silverthorne for food and checked into our hotel about 7. Made a run into town and spent the rest of the night drinking mead, visiting the hot tubs upstairs, you know, stuff like that. Slept in Saturday morning (because we can, I mean, what's the point of slopeside accommodations if not for that?) and spent the day alternately snowboarding and visiting the hotel room to add/remove clothing and/or grab beer. It alternately was sunny, whiteout-snow, and raining. It was hard to dress appropriately for that.

Went out for a really nice dinner that night (Italian) and had a bottle of wine. Had a brief moment of Skankojama texting drama but resolved it pretty quickly, and moved onto the hot tubs once again. Had an excellent breakfast at Creekside yesterday morning and got back just in time for Easter dinner with GTIAGO's family and family friends. I was all nervous but it was actually really, really fun, and the food was awesome.

Now I am tired and feeling really fat. Um, that's about it. Totally awesome weekend. How was your EASTER?!

Karma's a Bitch

I actually kind of believe in karma. I'm not Buddhist or anything, but I really do think everything happens for a reason and that you can learn and grow from every experience, even the bad ones. And that a lot of times the things that are happening to you in your life, especially the ones that make you say "WTF?!" are an attempt by the Universe (or God, or your soul, or wtf ever you believe in, if anything) to show you in some way that you have maybe not been as compassionate or understanding of someone else, and their life, and their experiences.

Imagine my surprise when I woke up Saturday morning to a text - a very, very dirty text - from 4 am the night before. I'm not going to say who it was from or anything else about it except that I can't repeat what it said, and I haven't talked to the person who sent it since before I met GTIAGO. Since New Year's Eve, in fact.

I told GTIAGO. I mean, he's been totally straightforward about Skankojama, so I figure I had to be.

It was totally karma biting me in the ass, showing me the subtle nuances of unattached banging. Because this guy was very much to me what Skankojama was to GTIAGO, I am pretty sure. Of course, I didn't carry on with him for a YEAR (who does that, anyway?! still blows my mind). I had met him while I was still married (nothing happened then) and he seemed like a good choice for a quiet, low key, down and dirty interaction. We had one sort of mutual friend that wasn't even really HIS friend, more of a friend of a friend. We were NOT in a relationship and neither of us even remotely WANTED to be in a relationship at the time, or possibly with one another, at all. He's incredibly good looking, but also incredibly narcissistic and selfish and focused on his career. We went out a few times and went snowboarding once and then I kind of made an ass out of myself on New Year's Eve and took his number out of my phone. And met GTIAGO a week or so later and never talked to this dude again.

Not that I couldn't. He's my facebook friend (again with the facebook! ack!) and if I really wanted to see him, I probably could.

So that was a fun convo. All the hardass positions I had been taking with GTIAGO suddenly came back on me. Do I really need to call him and explicitly tell him he can't text me, that I have a boyfriend? Can't I just ignore it and hope he doesn't text me again? If he DOES text me again, but it's not sexual, can we be "friends" on some level? Does GTIAGO want to go have a beer with him sometime (that was mostly sarcasm)? And I heard myself saying the words..."you don't know the details of the situation or our relationship..." that so infuriated me when GTIAGO said them to me...nice. And then there's a teensy, tiny part of me that tells me I don't want to be rude or totally burn that bridge. Because, after all, things might not work out with GTIAGO. And this guy does have the most amazing green eyes...

And then I wonder if GTIAGO is thinking the same thing about Skankojama. Karma's a bitch. And then you die.

Why Facebook Can Bite Me

Okay, so, my settlement agreement seems like it is getting better, the yeast infection is gone, and the snow has (mostly) melted. Onward!

I blogged some on my old blog about how annoying facebook is for dating. Here is the FB story to end all FB stories.

So, GTIAGO was banging some 22-year-old for the last year, pretty much right up until he met me. The story *I* got (because we all know there are multiple versions of every story, right?) was that they had been "friends" for four years and then randomly started having sex about a year ago. He said she was a total pill popper/partier and they never dated, but would just hook up on occasion. He also said they had an "agreement" that if either of them met someone and started dating them, their little "arrangement" would immediately end.

Ha. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. I mean, I've done exactly what I just described. It's been a while, but I've definitely done it. Not for a freaking year, but then again, I have a short attention span. Anyway.

Cue to January, he meets me and we start hanging out a lot. We weren't serious then, I mean, I was totally dating someone else at the time. Several someone elses. So I didn't really worry too much about you know, whatever he had going on. At the end of January or so we decided we were only going to date each other, blah blah.

Then the phone calls started. At 4:00 am. And in my experience, you aren't calling at 4:00 am because you want to borrow a cup of sugar. Also in my experience, you aren't still awake and ready to go at 4:00 am without some chemical assistance.

And the texting! Ohhhhhh, the texting. You can only hear a text tone and watch someone look at their phone and laugh so many times before you have to ask, WTF is going on? And that's exactly what I did. He explained the situation to me and said he had just stopped calling her or answering her calls when we started hanging out. Um, a month ago. So she's still calling you because...obviously she's a psycho. But aside from that, you need to grow a pair and just call the biatch up and tell her you have a motherfucking girlfriend. Right?

So, he does. He calls her up, tells her he has a girlfriend, she can't call any more. She says okay. Then she texts him a few more times here and there (a random Friday night, also on St. Patrick's day) to see if he is going out to the bars. There was also one that said "you never come out anymore, you're so lame since you got a girlfriend." Classy.

Anyway, there were only a few texts from her and he didn't respond to any of them, so I'm still like, whatever. I figure eventually girls like that will just make an ass out of themselves and/or get over it and move on to pimp themselves out to someone else.

I was wrong. Next thing I know, she's friending him on facebook. Okay, whatever. I did have a momentary meltdown when that happened, but mostly kept my cool. I mean, I'm friends with guys I've banged on facebook. It happens. (And is a good reason NOT to friend people you date). So what? They're FB friends. I'm not in junior high. I'm not going to be neurotic about that.

Then shit starts showing up in my feed. First it's a comment on a picture he has up of this time that his car got booted. Her comment was lame, obviously she was there when the boot was put on, they were together, whatever, it was a freaking year ago, who gives a shit. I really wish I didn't even know this girl existed, but I'm still trying to be cool about this and all. I just really hate junior high drama bullshit.

The next comment she made was on a picture he had taken of her when she was getting up off a couch. In a minidress that showed most of both ass cheeks. That was so low cut in the back you could see most of her leopard-print bra. Think about that one. Getting. Up. Off. Of. A. Couch. In. A. Miniskirt. And the comment was definitely a subtle "hey remember how we banged" reference.

I don't want this shit in my feed. And on top of that, she's calling him (twice!) and texting him (twice!) at 4 in the morning on Saturday night. Get a clue, bitch.

I broke it down like this - dude, I have some serious baggage and I am not bringing ANY drama to your life, so keep yours out of mine. Deal with your shit. Obviously she didn't get the memo re: you're dating someone now, and obviously she didn't really mean it when she agreed to end your little thing when/if you started dating someone. Call her up and tell her you are in an actual serious relationship and she can't call you anymore, period. And while you're at it, please delete any skanky ass pictures of her you have up on your page. And don't call me until that shit's done.

So, he called her. She agreed not to make any more drunken coked-out 4 am phone calls, and he deleted his entire facebook account.

Priceless. And (hopefully) the final reason why facebook can bite me. I say final because I am hoping like hell I don't have to deal with anymore facebook drama now.

I am way too old for this. Really.

Nice...

My boss talked to me about my January billing (um, it was really bad) and was really nice about it, but I am trying to bust my ass lately, hence the lack of blogging.

It's blizzarding outside. No, really. I got a shitty settlement agreement this week that I will not be signing anytime soon.

I was on three different antibiotics back in January when I was on the verge of Darth Vader death, and have had a stupid yeast infection ever since. I think it's gone, and it reappears. I took advantage of the fact that I am working from home today to go to the doctor about it for the fourth time, only to find out it's DIFLUCAN-RESISTANT YEAST! WTF. I didn't even know there was such a thing. At least I didn't pick up chlamydia or something from GTIAGO.

Things with him are going well, we even had a semi-serious "where-is-this-going-want-to-have-my-babies" talk the other day. Random. But it went well. We're still both trying to be chill and just see what happens.

I have to sign my shitty settlement agreement before I can even think about that kind of thing, anyway. Right?

Getting By

One of the funny things about getting divorced is how clear it was, to everyone around you, that it was happening. Despite your best efforts to keep shit on the DL, it seems to me now that most of my friends have come forward to tell me they saw it coming from miles away. That I disappeared off the face of the earth for 3-6 months, depending on which friend you were (i.e. long-distance acquaintances got the axe first...then couple friends...then my BFF's....and finally, even my family stopped getting their phone calls and emails returned), that we weren't invited to certain events because the tension was just too palpable when we attended functions together.

The most telling sign of all, to me, came the other day when I was looking for a phone number in my call log to my cell phone. Now, those of you that know me know I am TIED to my phone. It's my planner, my way to check my email and facebook when I am out and about, my way to feed my texting addiction. I plan probably 90% of my life via texting. As I was scrolling through the call log, I noticed something odd. Under "received calls" there is a huge gap between November 13th and December 29th. I didn't "receive" a single cell phone call during that time period.

Now, we all KNOW that doesn't mean that no one called me. And it doesn't mean I didn't call anyone, either. What it means is that I didn't pick up my phone one single time when it rang for over a month. Just. Too. Much. Effort.

I look back on November and December and see myself about as tightly strung as I have ever been in my life. And I tend to be a slightly high-strung person. I look back and see myself, arms out to my sides, holding redropes and legal pads and gallons of coffee and wine and random singular cigarettes, in my skinny jeans that were falling off my hips at the time, grinning and tense on a never-ending tightrope. And if you look up close, the grin is really me gritting my teeth. I couldn't even look at what was on either side of me, or I'd drop the whole fucking mess. I didn't even KNOW at the time I was on that tightrope, ready to fall at any second. I think my dog is down below running around somewhere, and my dad (who I talked to the other day for the first time since December!) and um, maybe something like self-interest.

The interesting thing is that I don't feel regret for missing out on that time...I mean, I have always kind of looked at life as you know, you've gotta do what you gotta do to keep your shit together. One of the few nonjudgmental things I took away from a dysfunctional family environment, I guess. Because that's what I saw.

Instead, I feel excitement for say, a month from now. Because I can look back on November and December and palpably feel how much things have changed. How much calmer I am, how much more I am getting done at work, how much more involved I am in the lives of my friends and family. How much more positive my attitude is and how much more open I am to possibility.

And I wonder what I will think when I look back on now. You know, later. Because sometimes NOW seems so amazing I can't really imagine that it can get just a ton better. Then I think, but NOW is better than THEN, so it's still possible.

This weekend was amazing and so much fun. I will post details later but I basically did nothing demanding or trying whatsoever. Friday I worked kind of late then went over to GTIAGO's house and we went out to dinner, then chilled at his house with some friends. He and his brother are hosting this mondo annual theme party thing this next weekend (there's teams and competitions and they actually hire "beer girls" for this thing) so there were a ton of people around planning/talking about that. Boys! So silly. Saturday we literally spent all day in downtown Denver partaking in the St. Patrick's day parade and after-festivities...bar hopping, eating and drinking way too much, and finally getting on the bus back to Boulder at 10. Sunday we vegged, went out to breakfast, then went to dinner at GTIAGO's parents house with his brother and HIS um, girl that he's dating or something. I dunno, she lives in another state and they aren't exclusive or anything but she's here for a week. It's kind of odd.

Like I said, deets later. But super chill weekend for me. How was yours?

The One Time I Will Look at Pessimism as a Postive Thing

I just had an ephiphany of sorts.

So, lately as I have been hanging out with GTIAGO more, and we aren't seeing other people, it's kind of freaking me out. I mean, even though we SAY we are trying to keep it cool and casual and not get too involved, at least until the divorce is over and I really *can,* it's obviously trending in a somewhat serious direction. Not like, moving-in-together-serious, you know, just more than casually dating.

I've been getting really nervous and uncomfortable about it, mainly because it's just such bad timing. And I feel like I am kind of a freak right now. I mean, I normally am a totally trusting and non-jealous-type person. Really. I mean, I honestly never worried about my ex cheating on me. And not because he's not super good-looking and charming and all that jazz, just because I kind of think, if someone IS going to cheat on you, what are you going to do about it? Or at least, that's how I used to think. I mean, if you find out someone is cheating, you dump their ass. Yes, it might hurt, but whatever. I kind of just think that any gain you might get from being so "on guard" and suspicious all the time is more than negated by the stress and strain and drama that kind of attitude creates in a relationship, not to mention the erosion of the other person's trust in you that occurs when you don't trust them.

Did that even make sense?

Lately I don't feel like a trusting type of person, at all. It sucks. I feel like I just need to be constantly suspicious of every little thing, so I can "catch" it if the relationship is going to go south, and bail before it gets too painful. Sad. And I know it's sad. I also know that if I don't get a grip on it, it can really fuck some stuff up. I mean, I've seen other people destroy their own relationships via such tactics, even though they were incredibly happy with the person they were with. And that's not what I want to do.

Anyway, I've been kind of worrying the concept over in my head lately, thinking about it a lot. I definitely have moments where I think, maybe I should just end this before it gets too complicated. Because I really think at this point we could still easily go our separate ways. Yes, it would sting a little, but not like it does when you are four, six, twelve months down the road, you know?

Then there's that little voice that tells me if I don't at least see what this situation has to offer, I will kick myself for the rest of my life! Dammit. Make the voices stop. Or at least agree on something...

I talked to GTIAGO about it a little last night. Basically he feels weirded out that I don't seem to really trust him, even though he's done nothing the slightest bit untrustworthy. We've had similar convos before and in the past I just always let him think I was a jealous type of person, because it seemed easier at the time than explaining all my bullshit drama and baggage. Last night I finally just broke it down for him - I just had a bad breakup and feel kind of silly for putting myself in a situation where I could have another one. And the more I hang with him, the more I like him - and the scarier that prospect becomes. So it's not him, it's me, and the timing of the situation, and all this baggage, blah blah blah.

I was talking to my BFF/roommate Tiny Panther this morning about it, we were just chatting about how hard it can be to let your guard down again after you have had a "traumatic" relationship experience. I mentioned that it's just a scary concept that in any romantic relationship, you are essentially either going to end up married (or at least commitedly partnered in some way) or break up. And there's a good chance the breakup is going to suck.

Then I realized that even if you get married, it might suck. I mean, I'm not saying my marriage sucked - there were definitely good times. But I, of all people, should know that just because something "works out," and results in some kind of long-term commitment, doesn't mean it's not going to go bad at some point.

From that perspective, it seems like I am equally likely to get screwed either way. So I may as well take the road that's the most enjoyable, right? Which is definitely continuing to hang with him and see what develops, rather than pulling out early in the interest of overactive self-preservation urges.

I realize that just sounded a little pessimistic and negative, but in a weird way, it totally helped me feel better about the situation, LOL.

One of Those Days

Yesterday was just one of those days. I was bored with my project at work and realizing it was going to take a lot more time than I initially thought. Another attorney that I desperately need information from was not returning my phone calls, and GTIAGO hadn't texted me yet to make plans like he does on 99% of Tuesdays since we started dating. Then my ex's attorney's secretary calls me to clear dates for mediation.

Um, we agreed over a month ago that we weren't going to do mediation. That she was going to draft a settlement agreement, run it by him, and then send it to me so we could get settlement negotiations started. WTF has she been doing for the last month? And furthermore, since when is it appropriate to call someone up and ask for dates for mediation without at least notifying them that, um, you've decided to mediate? She wouldn't do that to another attorney...and she shoudln't do it to me, just because I am representing myself right now, either. I was feeling pretty frustrated with the situation until I called my ex and he said he had no idea what was going on either. Then I just felt sorry for him. I mean, as annoyed as I was, HE'S HER CLIENT. He is paying her to do this for him. That just blows.

So, I was all excited to potentially have this wrapped up by the end of March, which is the earliest a judge can enter a divorce decree under the statute. Or at the latest by mid-April, when we have a court date set that neither of us are particularly interested in showing up for. March is looking highly unlikely at this point, unless she can pull something together and get it to me mid-next week. Given her past abilities to do stuff in a timely fashion, or even to know what the hell is going on in her own case, I'm not holding my breath.

I want this done. I want this done so I can get on with my life. Yes, I know it's going to suck to see that piece of paper that once and for all tells me it's over, but I want my life back. I want my name back. I want that piece of paper that finally tells me my old self is back, that I can call GTIAGO my "boyfriend" and sign my maiden name to stuff and not have to worry any more about whether I should still be putting forth effort to "fix" everything that went wrong in my marriage.

And I was pissed that someone I don't even know, let alone like, is able to make this so much harder for me and for my ex, too. Fucking attorneys.

Major sarcasm there, obviously.

GTIAGO finally texts me and we make dinner plans. I'm so stoked to be done with my day, sitting on the bus, knowing I am going to go jogging and then spend the evening with pleasant company.

Then my landlord calls. She has an official complaint from the HOA about my dog barking during the day while I am at work. Great. I tell her I will replace the batteries in his bark collar and try to keep him inside on days I know I will be leaving work for sure at 5. I don't know what else to do. I know he's just bored since my ex took our other dog.

I was so relieved to see GTIAGO and just be able to talk to him and know we were going to cook an amazing dinner and have a great night. As I am telling him, you know, I am glad to see him, today was rough, just ONE OF THOSE DAYS, you know...I pull my wallet out of my purse. It's upside down and all of my shit - change, business cards, stamps, a pic of ME AND MY EX - falls out onto the coffee table.

At that point, he looked at me very seriously and said, "just one of those days, huh?" And all I could do was laugh. Seriously? I mean, could one more thing please just irk me?

I'm sure it didn't help that I was majorly PMSing. I'm going back on birth control starting, um, yesterday, so hopefully that will help.

Gah.

Crazy

I've always been a little fascinated by women's reaction to the word "crazy." Mainly because I say it a lot, i.e., "that's soooooo crazy" or "you're crazy, girl." There's a lot of baggage associated with that word for a lot of people. Don't believe me? Make it part of your general vocabulary and stand back as women will react to a seemingly innocuous comment by turning red and saying something along the lines of, "what? Me? Did you just call ME crazy? How is that crazy?"

Some are more defensive than others. And I have a theory about it, that I posted on my old blog at one point. Basically that guys are hardwired to tell women they are crazy anytime we call them out for some bullshit. You see your guy at the club with some blonde rubbing all over his ass? (Yes, this really happened to me.) If you call him out, and he's a douche like the guy was that did that to me, I guarantee you he will say something like, "you're crazy, that girl was just a friend." Um. Okay.

I'm not trying to say all guys are manipulative jerks, here, just that I kind of consider the "crazy" line to be a generic, all-encompassing fallback for guys who don't want to deal with the realities and emotions of being in a committed relationship. When the woman's expectations differ from the man's, often the woman gets labeled as the crazy one for desiring what would otherwise be totally normal behavior on the part of someone you call your "boyfriend."

And some girls have been told this enough that they are sensitive and overreactive about the word itself, as I mentioned in the first paragraph. One thing I will say for my ex, he never really pulled the crazy card. Even when I was acting, well, somewhat crazy, say during trial preparation. But I do remember him mentioning that HIS ex was one of the sensitive ones...so much so that when he would teasingly sing "Crazy Mary" by Big Head Todd to her, she would react to it.

Which finally brings me to my point. Gah I am such a rambler. So Sunday night, GTIAGO and Tiny Panther and her boyfriend and I cooked dinner together, right, and just chilled at the house. Tiny Panther was in the shower, her boyfriend was upstairs, and GTIAGO were just sitting for a minute in the kitchen, talking. I had gotten all of our ingredients out and we had just poured some drinks. I was telling some random story and at the end, he said, "you're so crazy," then quickly backtracked, "I mean, you're not REALLY crazy, I was just saying like, the story was crazy...I definitely don't think you're crazy, just so you know."

In my mind, I was thinking the following: "wow, he's definitely experienced the girl who's defensive about the word crazy, huh?!" Amused, I said something along the lines of, "well, that's good, I mean, if you really thought I was legitimately crazy, that might be a problem for us."

Then I sat for a minute, thinking, but would it be? I mean, if he was serious, like, he really just told me he thought I was being crazy about something, would it matter? What would I do? Would I change my reaction, however crazy it may have been? Probably not. I would probably just take that as a sign that I should move on down the road and find a guy who didn't think I was crazy. And isn't that like, the number one mistake we make in partnering up? Instead of seeing the little signs along the way that scream to us that we're not compatible, and moving on to someone we might actually BE compatible with, do we instead hope the other person will see things OUR way? Will someday change and "get" us and we'll live happily ever after?

Or was that just me, LOL? Personally, I think THAT is the craziest thing...the mindset that somehow, someone else will be "it" for us, and that if they really care about us and love us, things will work out. Sometimes they just won't. And I have a waaaaaaay different attitude about compatibility and relationships now than I did even just six months ago. You would have thought I would have learned my lesson from the blonde ass-rubber (haha, ass rubber) but it appears it took me about five years more to figure it out. So, that's my deep thought for the day.

Totally off-topic, but how cute is it that GTIAGO texted me about 10:30 last night "kisses, gangsta!" Ohmifreakingah. I'm pretty sure it's cute guy speak for "thinking of you, goodnight," or something.

WTF Is Up With Me And Fire Alarms?!

A few weeks ago I had a really weird night with Software Guy. It was our third date, and two of my girlfriends and I had met up with him and two of his friends at a trendy-disguised-as-dive bar in downtown Denver. You know, it used to be a dive bar before all of the ritzy condos went in around it and turned it into a trendy place where the same old bartenders bitch about how no one cool ever comes in anymore?

I should preface this by saying that on our second date, he accidentally told me he loved me. Oops. Um, yeah. It was super awkward. He was really wasted and just got out of a 7-year relationship, so I chalked it up to late night drunken confusion and accepted his explanation that that's not what he meant to say. Then told him to please stop talking - the attempt at rationalization was just making the whole thing worse.

So that kind of skeeved me out, but I figured I would give him one more chance, that the random expression of love was an abnormal thing for him - and met him at this bar.

Again, he's totally wasted. At this point, I am realizing he's been totally wasted on all three of our dates so far. Hello red flag, nice to see you again. We have some drinks, he's pretty funny, and I agree to go back to his place. We kiss a little and AGAIN he starts with the drunken confessional emotional talking. He is really digging me, he thinks we should be exclusive, he doesn't want me to see anyone else, blah blah blah. AWKWARD. I told him I actually was seeing someone else, and maybe we should talk about this later, at which point he got kind of butt hurt. I thought about going home at this point, because I could tell he was obviously high maintenance and rebounding and that this probably wasn't really going to work for me right now, but (against my better judgment) agreed to stay the night when he asked.

I had been asleep for about an hour when the fire alarm went off. The flashing lights, pulsing noise type of fire alarm. He didn't move at all. I lay there for a while, wondering what I should do, and eventually it stopped. I was woken up four more times that night by the fire alarm, and once by him flailingly smacking me in the face and offering up the sleeptalky explanation "sorry, I was just texting my friends about how fucking cool you are." Nice. He didn't remember the fire alarms or the sleeptexting at all the next day.

The next morning he apologized for the drunken confession and asked if we could just pretend that convo never happened. I said sure. In my mind, because I sort of believe in synchronicity and karma and all that other bullshit, I was thinking the fire alarm was a sign to me to get the fuck out of there and not go back. Alert, alert, this isn't going to work.

THEN, I went to the gyno this morning to get my annual physical. I've been thinking in the interest of not having any random babies I should probably go back on the pill. So while I am there, in full spread-eagle-most-uncomfortable-moment-of-the-entire-physical mode, the fucking fire alarm goes off. What are the odds of this? Like I'm not already super tense and nevous and full of adrenaline already. GREAT timing. The doctor says to ignore it and we will finish the exam, and I say okay. Then someone comes and starts pounding on the door about how we need to leave! I mean, for the record, while you're having your annual exam is totally not the greatest time to be startledly jumping at loud and surprising noises. Gah.

So now I am wondering, if fire alarms really are all symbolic and shit, what that one was trying to tell me? Don't take birth control pills? Don't be banging anyone anytime soon? Or just avoid the gyno from now on? Or, I'm totally open to the idea that a fire alarm is just a fire alarm, you know.

I've Finally Discovered My Bitterness

I've been wondering when the bitterness sets in. You know, that angry, irrational part of divorce that makes women turn into men-bashers and/or depressed and pathetic homebodies? I saw my mom go through it. I've seen other (usually older) women go through it. Pissed that they can't live in their own homes anymore, that they have to sell their cars, that they are stuck with the kids most of the time, that the men their age want 20-year-olds.

I've been lucky. I still have the house (of course, it's a rental), I still have my car, he's not asking for any money from me, we don't have kids, and so far, the actual divorce process has been pretty smooth and amicable. I've been out with two 26-year-olds, a 31-year-old, and a 37-year-old, and they were all super chill skater-type dudes that were easy to date and deal with. I joined match.com for a free trial and got so inundated with email that I got overwhelmed and didn't respond to any, canceling my trial two weeks into it.

Everyone kept telling me my time was coming, that at some point the shiny newness of being so suddenly unencumbered would wear off, and I would realize that divorce sucks.

But most of the time, the lack of the previously-almost-constant tension and stress that surrounded my home life was enough to keep me going. The feeling that I was finally free to be myself, and not constantly trying to meet some unattainable and unknown "standard," kept other, potentially more negative feelings at bay, or at least overruled them when they came up.

But I have found something that completely, totally, and I have to say, irrationally, pisses me off.

Talk of weddings and babies.

I am unfortunately at the age where a lot of my friends are getting married and/or having their first/second kids. I'm going to be honest and say every time I see a facebook status message or a blog post about ordering flowers, picking bridesmaid dresses, finding out the sex of the fetus, or how so-and-so finally went pee pee on the potty, I want to vomit.

I know it's incredibly selfish of me. I know also that I should be celebrating the milestones of my friends and family, that children are precious, weddings are sacred, and all that other bullshit.

I actually went through my facebook roster the other day and deleted a bunch of people that were not close friends who regularly post status messages about their babies. I am soooo going to hell. I just can't take it. Having kids was one of the things that I wanted out of my marriage, that I was hoping and planning for in the near future, and that I feel was unfairly taken away from me without anyone asking me what I thought about it.

It's interesting to me that this is the thing that bothers me the most, so far. I wasn't particularly in a hurry to have kids when I was married. I kept thinking, we will do it when the time seems right. And it never did. Which is part of the reason we are no longer together. But as I've started to date again, and seriously think about my future, the concept of my future kind of scares the shit out of me.

For example, I am not sure that I want to get married again. Ever. Before I got married the first time, I trended towards "it's an archaic and no-longer-necessary legal institution that was created to control women, and I want no part of it." I'm not sure what biological switch flipped when I met my first husband, but it was tangible. And overnight change, literally. I changed my name and everything! Ohmigah. Who was that girl? The issue of the name change was one of our worst fights, and in retrospect, one of the many times a chunk of my soul went missing and I should have said, "sayonara."

But even more difficult for me to face is the prospect of being an old mom. I'm 29 now, and while I know the conventional wisdom is that I have a good 5-6 years before I have to "worry," the fact of the matter is I don't want to be an old mom. I wanted my first kid by 30 at the latest. Of course, there were a lot of things that I wanted to be different by 30.

Then there's the looming concept of having to have, um, a father for the nonexistent kid. I was recently dating a really nice, really hot, really successful software dude that loved to snowboard and had great taste in music, movies, etc. He took me on crazy-expensive dinners and called and texted me regularly. On our third date, he mentioned that he NEVER wanted to get married or have kids, and it was an instant turnoff. Never? Really?!

And as much as I really like the current person I am seeing, who knows if that will work out long term, you know? Realistically, how likely is it that you will end up in a real relationship with the first person you had any "real" interest in after your divorce? I think to myself, even assuming this guy and I were to go on to become something "real," most people date for what, 2-3 years before getting married or doing something as crazy as having a kid...which puts me at 32, 33 before I can even consider it. And again, that's assuming I only date this dude and don't end up going through you know, the breakup, nursing my broken heart, spending time alone for a while, complaining to my friends about the lack of decent men, meeting guys that seem cool but two months later AREN'T, joining match.com again, hiding my profile again, and then maybe, maybe, maybe finally meeting someone else...and starting all over. Not to mention how many, many people get a year or two into a relationship, or even to the "will we or won't we stage..." only to discover some as-yet-unknown yet dealbreaking aspect of the other's personality....yikes.

This is where I usually start to feel a little panicky and/or ill, a) because I can't believe I just thought that far ahead about someone I am dating, ew, and b) I am imaginining myself pregnant at my 40th birthday party, bloated and sober while my friends dance on tables and frolic in the grotto pool. Wait, what?! Um, yeah.

So there you go. I found the thing that I'm bitter about. That I'm angry about. Someone took my sperm donor without asking me first.

I know, logically, that it's highly likely I will go on to meet someone else, someone better suited for me and better suited for um, actually living with me and being my partner and a father to my nonexistent kids. I've read the statistics that most people (I want to say it's in the 70's, percentage-wise) actually remarry within 2-3 years of a divorce! That seems crazy to me - of course, right now, the concept of marriage seems crazy to me. And, honestly, I don't think marriage is a prerequisite for childbearing. I never have.

Besides, I guess if it doesn't happen, I'll just travel a lot. Get some fake boobs. Spend a lot of time at the gym. And continue to hit on 26-year-olds. It's working for me so far.