As the Seasons Change

Wow, how time flies - whether or not you are having fun.  It is hard to believe that the end of this month marks one year since Casey and I broke up.  So much has changed. I have now almost been through all four seasons as a divorced mom, a parent who does not live primarily with her kids, a person trying to make it outside of the security of the small family and home that had been built over years.  What else?  A lawyer -  I passed the bar about a year ago.  A partner of a new person in a relationship that started 8 months ago. Wow - looking at it that way, anyone should wonder what the heck I was thinking, getting into a relationship just a few months after my marriage ended....but it wasn't that way. I was not looking at all. Neither was Vicki. The relationship found us.  The mother of a child with difficulties adjusting to school - yes - Casey has shouldered most of the burden, and I guess the fact she has been job-free and able to do that is sort of a blessing in disguise.

Much of this year has been fun and exciting....being out on my own, experiencing the world in a new way, traveling, meeting new people, doing new things.  Other things have been hard though - being the "outside" parent, the one not kissing the kids goodnight every night, struggling to figure out the right ways to interact with Casey and how to be good co-parents and ex-partners, being forced to work part-time in a job I'd had for over 7 years, not finding work in my new chosen profession, living without my dogs,  and living in a small apartment after being in houses for most of  the past 20 years.  I think that will be hard this winter. It was fun being in a trendy, fun neighborhood during the warm weather, but once the cold sets in, walking outside to do my laundry, taking groceries up the outside stairs, being confined to a very small space will probably not be nearly as amusing.  Oh, well, as with all things - there is good and bad. Without the harder things, we'd not appreciate the easy ones, right?  There are good things ahead.  Can't you feel it? I can!