Meeting Again

Not long after the one year anniversary of our breakup, Chane and I started texting again. That was strange in a couple of ways. One being I did finally get to the point of believing that was just not going to happen. The second was strange in that it mostly didn’t feel odd talking with him at all. (I believe I’ve mentioned on here that being one of the things I had been missing the most.)

Dirk and Chane have not been texting. I don’t know why. I do know that Dirk rarely texts. Even with me. And I generally initiate it.

During our talks, it came out that each couple had plans to go to the same establishment for St, Patrick’s Day. I don’t know about Chane, but for me that brought up s few questions. Would we all actually keep those plans or would one of us make new ones? If we all did keep the plans, would we see each other? By chance? By intention? How would it go? Awkward? What?

We did all keep the plans, we did see each other by intention and we did hang out together for the evening. It turned out just fine and I would repeat the experience. In particular, seeing Dirk and Chane together was uplifting for me.

Thought Question #715

I’ve thought about this and I think I just keep coming back to this one thing.

RESPECT

If you have that for whomever you are in a relationship with, I feel the rest of what’s needed follows. Regardless of the type of relationship it is.

I actually have three guidelines or criteria for a romantic relationship: respect, trust and integrity (love is a given in this situation I suppose). If you have those for someone, I truly believe that it can work.

One Year Mark

Well, today marks one year since the breakup. It took me a remarkably long time to get any kind of closure on that. And I still find I think of Chane (and Arwen too at times) more than may be normal. I don’t know. I’m never sure what normal really is any longer.

Dirk thinks of them and does miss some of our fun times but he really misses Chane. He doesn’t have many friends like he was with him.

Chane’s birthday was particularly rough for me and I’m not sure why.

Our oldest son even misses them at times and has re-established contact with Chane. I’ve very thankful that Chane has talked with him. I don’t ask about what just in case any of you were wondering. 🙂

Dirk and I aren’t in other relationships at the moment. Life has just gotten in the way of that. We are too busy surviving by working all that we can to have the time or finances to get out and about. It seems every time we think we are going to get at the least caught up, something else happens.

I’m a little at my wits end about that. A couple of things have gone right so far this new year so I keep telling myself that this is our year. That is will all get solved this year.

I do hope that I am not as bad as one friend has told me…otherwise, I’m headed for a hospitalization from a breakdown. Some days it does seem too much but mostly I just think we will make it through.

Back on topic….there are times I wonder how Chane and Arwen are fairing in life. Hoping things are going well for them and their family.

Dirk and I don’t avoid mentioning them to each other at all. We have some great memories of them.

There are times I wonder did I do all that I could have done to make it work.

There are times I regret how I ended things.

There are times I know I did the right thing and times I question it.

All these times are fewer than they used to be. But I wonder if they will ever completely go away. I’m starting to doubt it. Chane was a very important part of my life. You just don’t forget that and never think of it again. At least I don’t.

 

Thought Question #696

10 years ago? I have to really think about this. Long term memory is not my strong suit and, even though this isn’t a huge expanse of time, I have so much going on in my head right now that sorting this all out made me really have to think.

First, we weren’t non-monogamous in any way. Not too many years from it and the fantasies of group sex were there in our lives just not a realization yet. Polyamory wasn’t even a thought or an awareness of its existence. Pretty vanilla in most ways.

We were still rather active in organized religion though the organized part had begun to pale for us. But we were a mainstream, mostly normal couple at this time.

Still 2 years away from being grandparents at an early age. Started the hormonal thing with the boys pretty heavy with the oldest son.

Very busy with extra curricular activities for them. On the go constantly.

No health issues due to age. Eyesight was still about the same as my young years (nearsighted). We took that for granted. The being in fairly good health and able to get up and go with out making bone cracking noises. 🙂

It was a good time for our marriage. We had gotten past the general problems of the earlier years. We were starting on the ones that all the work had made possible. Though we communicated rather well, it wasn’t what we would later be able to do. (Even now, I find that we don’t discuss things as much as we were while in multiple relationships. When something isn’t absolutely necessary you let it slide.)

We were on the cusp is seems of some life changing decisions. Little did we know.

A Great Christmas!

Even my children have said this was one of the best times they’ve had at Christmas in a while.

It was favorite one for Dirk and I. Not much stress over who to spend the time with. When it turned out our youngest and his GF could travel with us then that was the end of that.

Of course there was some stress over making sure I spent some time with each of the boys and my mom and sister. It worked out but I am tired.

Tired mostly I guess because the drive back was long and late. Getting behind wrecks on the interstate causes that. But I couldn’t get upset because I was thankful it wasn’t us involved.

I couldn’t rest on the trip back as I planned because I was requested to bring a puppy back for the sister who lives her. Good pup but still time consuming.  She was happy. Even though doing so meant I didn’t have room left to bring her gifts back and she’ll have to wait on them to be mailed.

I’m really up in arms about my oldest. He is so homesick right now. He is missing us badly. He hated to see us go. I miss him too. But I truly think he needed the time with family more than the rest of us. I was happy to have had to opportunity to give it to him.

He’s met a girl and spent some time with her around us and her family. I hope he takes it slowly. She appears the type that would do that but I’ve been fooled in the past.

Then there’s not quite a family gathering unless someone pisses you off in some way. It wasn’t my stepfather. It was my BIL. Long story but it ended in him invading my son’s privacy on his computer and we had some words. Not a lot and not bad. We did well in getting our feelings across without a blown out deal. But it added to the true holiday package didn’t it? 😉

Oh and no snow 😦 but colder weather was nice. Too much food and homemade candy though.

P.S. Nothing was mentioned about our alternative lifestyle. That may have helped with some things.

 

Blessed

I’m a blessed woman.

Hubby had a motorcycle wreck but is healing up fine. I won’t go into details for autonomy’s sake but things could have been much worse. He kept his head. So, lucky he is going to be ok.  So, is the bike (he was worried).

But what I’m also blessed  in is my husband. I’m tired. He’s able to take care of himself mostly now but with doing all I had to for him in the beginning, trying to work some because so much of what I do is in my head and stuff like that, and then doing it all at the house, I’m even more aware of how much he contributes to that household in terms of work.

We don’t particularly have his and her chores. A few because we each do have our strong suits and some are obviously done better by one than the other.

He does so much. I listened this morning to one woman complain about working all day and coming home to having to cook by herself at night. So many women have to do that. I don’t. I can’t really think of anything he doesn’t help with other than checkbooks and such.

He’s great. I know this. And I do try not to take it for granted at any time. But, him being out of commission just makes me really take stock.

Nice Lazy Days

Dirk and I have been on vacation. Nice lazy days at the river.

I’ve needed this but wasn’t aware of it until I was there. I would have loved for us both to have had a whole week off but I’m thankful for the long weekend we had.

Just he and I. The woods and a bit of hunting for him. Crocheting for me but on things I was wanting to try and not orders I have. (Bad of me I know but as he said, you are on vacation.) Watching old TV shows that it’s been years since we’ve seen. Eating nothing fancy or special at all. Sleeping. The days just flew by.

A little of a crisis in one child’s life we helped deal with but not too much.

I’m off three days this weekend and was wondering about the possibility of staying longer but the logistics of work may not make that feasible at this time.

It’s been a while since I’ve wished I had a solid week off from work. It’s just not often a possibility and I accept that.

I’m in a good place this morning though. 🙂

 

Talking With My Children

I had one child confront (?) me a little while ago about not being open about seeing others. That he thought we had come far enough in things that I wouldn’t keep it from him. Truth is, we aren’t dating any one. He was talking about swinging as well. And we aren’t doing that right now.

We just do not have the time or finances for much right now. When we do get time, it is usually because we have set aside one night a month for US to go on a regular date. Our relationship needs that. Call me crazy but I can’t cancel that one date we get to go on another one with someone else. We don’t have internet at home right now so, meeting or searching out others isn’t so easy either.

The other child, who recently got a divorce, I brought up non-monogamy with. I thought this was the perfect time to see if he had thought about whether he wanted to  live monogamously. If he could live monogamously. That’s what he wants. Monogamy. Which is fine with me. No problem at all.

Neither or our children really “get” how we can be non-monogamous. And I’ve never found a way to answer any questions from them in a way that helps. But, it isn’t something they want so, why should they be any different than all the others?

The biggest thing is that they will talk to us about it.

A Somewhat Short But, Still Enjoyable Trip

I really need to get a picture or two of OUR actual setup.

Dirk and I went to see our youngest in his newest abode this weekend. We went because his computer was supposed to be fixed and he has been in need of it rather badly. Upon taking the bubble wrap off on our arrival we found that to be false. Not a wasted trip but not one we’d have made if we had known.

Still it was enjoyable even if a bit short.

We took the motorcycle to Pensacola. A six hour trip the way we went. No interstate and you have to stop frequently for gas on one of those things. It was our first real trip on it and it went well. We enjoyed it so much. Found some really great deals on a couple of things we had been looking for to finish out what we were wanting for it. Now we are just looking at a couple of minor things like foot rests for me instead of the pegs. I think I’ll get some benefits in comfort from those. And maybe a cruise control for the thing.

Dirk still needs some boots in the future. The ones he is using are not perfect for this but they are working. Priorities. We just had a list of some things we’d like and what ever came up first that was within out price range would be gotten first. This happened to be some new saddle bags with the sissy bar bags to match. Too great of a deal to pass up even if they were not the first on the list. We adjusted. And we actually found a couple of leather jackets we each liked (and they match…not like us) that was also at a price too good to pass up. We got them without patches of any kind because we want to be able to indulge our personalities on those if we chose to. I’ve been thinking about a Betty Boop one and a Breast Cancer one for mine. No hurry. We seem to be pretty set now for anything we could possibly need for a while in regards to the motorcycle.

The trip back was rather windy and we were happy to use the new jackets instead of what we had with us. They helped much better with staying warm.

I can see us making more trips on the motorcycle when the opportunities arise. Or even making the opportunities. Maybe we can travel with others at times as well.

I’ll admit that this was a bit more tiring than riding in a car but so worth it.

While there, we had a blast with our youngest and his girlfriend. We went to an Irish Pub and the live performance was interactive and they had a good time as well. And they got to see the kind of things we tell them we’ve done and enjoy so much. Good time, good food, good company. The things memories are made of.

 

A Little Quirk of Mine

I’ve started reading a new blog. It’s well written and illustrated by a talented artist. You can find it here at Matt Bullen. While reading it today a thought hit me that often does. So I’m calling it my little quirk. And it always makes me feel good.

Throughout my time swinging and in polyamory, I continue to get a warm, fuzzy feeling when I see SO so encouraging of their partners finding others to share their lives with. Whether that be in the form of helping them think of a perfect first date with someone, watching the children of the new interest while they are on a date, support when things may be going rough in the other relationship to holding your SO while they cry over the breakup of a relationship.

That’s all just so cool to me. And to know that someone has lived monogamously for a long time and struggled for a while with the changing mindset needed, makes it even more amazing to me.

Dirk and I were on a date not too long ago. At dinner our waiter was cute and attentive and appropriately flirty. I had a ball with him in that light setting. At the club later, one of the members of the band was more my style and I commented on taking him home with us to Dirk. He was just fine with that. Unfortunately, that was during the first stages of my back recovery. (If I had been thinking clearly, I would have at least gotten his number to call later. But I’m new to looking for others.)

The point for here is, how cool was that? I felt so comfortable with Dirk and telling him all this. I wonder how many other couples in that room could have done the same. I’m sure some but…though poly may be on a larger scale than ever, it is still a mono society by and large.

So, I get the warm fuzzies when I see such openness and genuine encouragement such as the post I was reading.