Tell us what's happened to you recently (that's interesting)

Is it a bad sign when you have your (first?) middle life crisis at 25? Stopped smoking since then, though.

Time to get a new family and new friends for your birthday! Wheee! Happy new birthday!

@Skipper Happy late birthday, man! I was laid up all day yesterday with a cold, but I hope it was an awesome one for ya, old man :)

@nijimeijer Tolly Ho is exactly as good as you think it must be based on all reports.

That sentence was worded very intentionally. But for another perspective, when my Lexington pals took me there, I loved it!

It’s been a few years since I really got up to Lexington, but I used to really enjoy visiting when several of my closer friends lived there. It was fun :)

It was indeed, still celebrating for the entire weekend!

Sweet; that’s only a few blocks from where I’m working. I am going to have to try it out more or less immediately.

Happy Birthday, @Skipper!
I know I’m late. I’m a slow reader.

Thanks man!

Happy Birthday, @Skipper! I had my 50th three weeks ago. I got to bowl in my first senior tournament Wed!

Was thinking about this post and decided to do an update!

Well, it’s been six months since the separation and the difference between then and now pretty damn stark. Right before the separation, my youngest was back in the hospital for suicidal ideation. He hadn’t had a full year of school in three years and the outlook was pretty grim. Thankfully over the summer, the county, realizing they didn’t have the resources to deal with his issues, approved us for non-public placement. The school he’s in now is an awesome private school that deals with kids who have all sorts of disabilities, physical, learning, mental, etc. Now he’s in school more days than not, actually participates in class and has other kids he talks to etc. Basically everything he wasn’t able to do in the public highschool. I’m grateful for the County and their decision, if we had to send him there ourselves, it would be $38k/year in tuition, ie not possible.

As for me, I’m in therapy once a week, I’m working with my therapist and my Doctor to work on my anxiety and am overall trying to take better care of myself. After being on my own for a month or so I dipped my toes into online dating, just to try and get some conversation that didn’t revolve around teenagers issues lol. And after learning some lessons about what kinds of women I should and shouldn’t date lol, I met an absolutely amazing woman. We’ve been together for four months now and feels like we have a bright future. The difference between being the only person working in a relationship and being with someone who is right there putting in the time and effort, who wants your happiness as much as you want theirs? Just mind blowing to me. Makes me realize just how long things were bad before.

Early on she noticed how my youngest and I had a pretty strained relationship and she gave me some advice on how I might change how I interact with him. Just to listen and not try to fix everything (I’m a fixer lol) and man, it just turned things around. He and I are so much closer now, that one small change and the way we related got so much easier and more productive. We’re much closer than ever, and now he tells me things that are going on that he would have only told his mom before. Which is good, since moving out, she’s become much more distant with the kids.

Anyway, other than money which is super tight, things are looking good. I appreciate the words of support folks gave me back then. They did help get the ball rolling! Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays etc to everyone, its going to be a good season here.

That’s a fantastic update, thanks for sharing. Continuing good luck!

Indeed. That is awesome, @Shellfishguy!

Glad things are better. Hopefully the monetary situation also improves in the new year.

Congrats on the shiny, new life! :)

Thanks guys, it’s really nice to finally look around and feel pretty good about where my life is. It’s been awhile.

Oh and Happy Birthday @Skipper and @Kelan !

Hey man, happy belated to you as well!

Merry Christmas to you too, sir. It’s a great time of year to assess, be thankful, and be happy. Cheers!

That’s great to hear. I am glad things are looking brighter for you.

Just read your posts. That’s awesome.
Good things come with time and patience, as you’ve proven.
There have been a few times in the recent past that I’ve been ready to just throw my hands up and give up on everything, but posts like yours remind me that the future can be unbelievably unpredictable, and not always in a bad way. Thanks for posting your story.

We got an e-mail yesterday afternoon that all of our adoption paperwork has been finalized and approved! We meet with the agency a couple of days after Christmas to officially transition onto the waiting list (which isn’t a list so much as a pool, but “waiting pool” sounds weird).

Between now and then, we have to put together what is basically a book-sized dating profile that will be given out to birth mothers who contact the agency. After that, it’s literally nothing but waiting, but progress is progress.

The entire process has been so fascinating.

Best of luck!!

Ugh ugh ugh

I made myself pretty crazy sore cooking a ton of food a couple of nights ago. Yesterday, I was feeling a distinctive twinging knot in my lower left back somewhere amidst the spine and hip. However, yesterday, I was also scheduled to meet a good friend to walk for the first time in a couple of weeks, as she’s been visiting family in Puerto Rico. Both trying to improve our health, so didn’t want to let her down or miss the chance to catch up, so against my better judgement, I went anyway.

MISTAKE. By 6 last night I could only penguin waddle around anymore and I barely slept despite two Aleve and three ibuprofen due to the extreme pain shearing through my lower back. I’m currently weighing whether sitting or laying down is more agonizing to determine how to spend the rest of my day today.

Goddamn I’m a fat piece of shit.