Dinner With Lovey!

....and then there is Bedtime for Bonzo!

I digress.

Yesterday was my day off from the office and I spent it trying to get the house in order after I dismantled the Christmas Tree, removed the Christmas decorations, and tried to deep clean the wood floors and get everything back in order.

I had just returned from getting my hair cut when the telephone rang.

It was Lovey.

My first thought was, "Oh God, what have I done now?"

Immediate, my mind raced through a checklist of things of possible concerns:

Alimony?

Check.

Reimbursement for software?

Check.

Children okay?

Check.

All of Lovey's stuff returned to her?

Check.

I picked up the phone.

"I'm on my way back home and I need to talk to you briefly. Can you meet me at the church parking lot just down the street from you?"

"Uh....ok..." I said.

So, I put on my coat and headed the few blocks to the church.

There she was with her black hat.

I swear, that hat makes her look like Ms. Gulch on the Wizard of Oz.

She then proceeded to bend my ear about everything in her life.....and all the stuff she is doing....and how busy she has been......and her church work.

Blah....blah....blah...

But then, the main reason for seeing me was to remind me of the several items she wanted me to give her to carry down to see #1 in El Salvador when she goes down later this month.

I said sure...I'll have them ready.

Just then she realized that she was in the midst of rush hour traffic...and would never get home in a timely manner. Did I want to go with her to a nearby restaurant...and get caught up until the traffic died down.

I paused.

But then, I decided I had absolutely nothing to lose.

So I went.

The meal with her was very telling. She brought up the fact that she was having a very hard time of things and getting over the divorce.

I listened.

After her long dissertation about her therapy....and her many physical ailments....and her emotional wounds.....she finally asked how I was doing.

I said that there were still some bad times..... But that I had been told by four professionals that such bad times were to be expected....especially given the fact that 25 years is so long a period...and how it just won't heal overnight.

I then was a bit bold....and told her of Jane. I told her about Jane in such a way so that she didn't know who she was. I embellished it a tad....only to paint a picture that I was doing well....and that I was enjoying the attention from others.

I gave her lots to ponder as she drove back to her home 90 miles away.

When I got home, my dog gleefully jumped onto my lap.

I sat there in the stillness of my house.....thankful that I am here.....and that she is almost 100 miles away in her own world.

In some ways I feel so very sorry for her....and the fact that she seems so empty. But another part of me jumps to the forefront and reminds me that she has brought all this onto herself.

And, as a I pondered this, I developed a bad migrained -- such that I had to take my power drugs to knock it.

It seemed like old times.

Gosh am I glad that it's all over.