Epilogue and Miscellany

I have the best readers on the PLANET. You guys have left some really great, really kind comments during this whole saga that took SEVEN parts to complete. That’s, like, four more parts than I anticipated it to take. Once I started telling the story, I kept backtracking with the thought, “Well, I can’t explain about THIS unless I tell them about THAT. Oh, and I can’t talk about THAT without mentioning this OTHER THING…” Fifty-seven million words later, and you have a rough script for a made-for-TV movie on Lifetime (nod to Taoist Biker, who is currently doing a series of 80’s music themed entries that you guys should, like, totally check out, oh mah gah).

Now. To answer a couple of questions you guys had.

“Why the heck didn’t you write about any of this before?” Eight years into having an on-line journal, an excellent question. And I have no answer. I guess it was just time to write about it. I didn’t expressly, specifically not write about it. There just seemed to be more interesting or fun or relevant things to be writing about. I guess? Really, I just dunno. Perhaps I just like writing about the present and the future, more than writing about the past.

Yes, my former sister-in-law still works for AcronymCo, but on a different campus. Our paths do not cross (I do sometimes have business at the other campus but I’ve never seen her, AcronymCo is a Very Very Big Company), but if they did I’m sure she’d be perfectly civil to me. There were a couple of occasions over the years that we’ve had to talk or e-mail with one another, and she was always perfectly polite to me. Perhaps she went home and bad-mouthed me to my ex and the rest of their family, but what I don’t hear won’t hurt me. By the way, I didn’t report her giving my ex my unlisted number because, well, I kind of understood why she would. He (and their mother, I’m sure) probably pestered her to DEATH. And it didn’t really end up hurting anything, since he dropped off the radar shortly thereafter. Plus, I’m nice as HELL.

Yes, the whole story about how Calvin and I came to be will be forthcoming. Suffice to say he was in the background during a lot of the crap I went through with my ex, and in the foreground a lot after my ex and I separated. Obviously, our friendship progressed to something more than that, despite the two of us inconveniently being in relationships at the time. You’ll get the full story, rest assured. Calvin did want me to mention, that tattoo I talked about getting in my final installment? He was there with me getting HIS first tattoo at the same time. I believe the words he spoke as he read that part of the entry were, “Hey. We did that together.” Accompanied by the cutest little pout, impossible to ignore.

Now, the reason that I kept the description of Calvin’s role during that time of my life to a minimum was because I wanted to keep the story about just what was going on with my ex. Truly, my friendship and subsequent relationship with Calvin had nothing to do with what was going on with my ex. I would have left my ex under any circumstances; Calvin was NOT the catalyst that made me leave him. He just happened to be wonderful and supportive and a priceless friend during that whole part of my life.

Come to think of it, he’s still wonderful and supportive and a priceless friend. And he’s dead sexy, too.

I will write more about what happened during my life as a Witness (and the more recent times, Jen, that they’ve unsuspectingly knocked on our door). Perhaps it will whet your appetite when I state that I pretty much completely blame them for my Grandmother’s decline into senility. I’m still angry at them in a way that I’m not even angry at my ex anymore.

So, the Epic Entries of Doom brought all of you up to February 1998. There were two and a half more years between that time and my very first entry in my very first on-line journal.Two and a half years of romance and drama and step-parenting 101, before I decided to regularly blurt it all out onto the internet for all the world to see and judge. So, yeah! Plenty of more stories to come.

I welcome any other questions you guys may have, I’ll answer them to the best of my ability! Thanks again for all the positive feedback and support.

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On a completely unrelated note, Darkhorse is now featuring Rockband every Thursday night. These dudes come and set up their stuff (and WHAT a setup it is) and the folks in the bar (the drunker the better) try their hand at it. Calvin and I had never seen it being… ah… performed before.

You guys, it was totally TITE.

So! I enlisted the uber-geek skillz of one Miss Jen. She is savvy in all things gaming - video and otherwise. So she helped me pick out what we needed (completely gleeful that she had helped “convert us” to gaming), I ordered on-line, and at lunchtime she and I drove down to Circuit City and picked it up.

Calvin doesn’t know about it yet, but he’s on his way home and will surely see the GREAT BIG BOXES on the loveseat. I anticipate a phone call any minute now.

And now you know what WE’RE doing this weekend!