Marriage Proposals, Weddings and Divorces

On a slightly similar topic, I absolutely despise these showy mom/dad-comes-home-from-Afghanistan-to-surprise-kids displays.

We've been at war for 12 years, fuck face. You ain't special.

 

The beat guys in my first press box used to joke that my then-boyfriend (who they'd already interrogated like a bunch of big brothers/dads) would have to propose on the scoreboard at halftime... and I'd miss it because my head would be buried in my keyboard.

I'm not a fan of that sort of public proposal, but they were oh so right.

 

About three weeks ago now, in the open-letters thread.

Long story short: Mrs. Stain sat me down and informed me that the she had been having an affair with a man who is both her co-worker and her best friend's husband for six months and they were now moving in together. I wasn't completely surprised, because I had warned her several times that she was becoming too emotionally attached to him as a friend and acting in ways that weren't appropriate.

The breakdown of people involved and how they are taking about it:

Her friend/boyfriend's wife: Completely devastated. Kept trying to convince him to go to counseling, then forbade him to move out of their apartment or spend any of their money, and finally hired a lawyer and filed for divorce when he refused. Trying to take him to the cleaners pretty good, and rightfully so.

Their 18-year-old son with Asperger's for whom I've been sort of a friend/mentor: Moved in with his grandparents, dropped out of college and refuses to talk to anyone but me.

Her boyfriend: Don't know, don't care, assume he's happy.

Her: Miserable and fretful as always, but seems to be doing well enough outside of that. Living up to everything she said she would do, and we've had no problems agreeing to custody and financial splits so far. We're honestly on pretty good terms. The transition to co-parenting/acquaintanceship was really years in the making and this just makes it official.

Me: Happier than I have been in five years. I didn't really think about how bad things had gotten, because I was raised to shut up and try to be a good husband no matter how unhappy you are. It was a bad match made at 19. We didn't fight or abuse each other or anything like that, we just had nothing in common and she didn't really care about me. I feel like a millstone has been lifted from me.

Our 4-year-old autistic son: Is going to be staying with me full-time. She doesn't want him, and I would crawl over broken glass to keep him. Honestly, doesn't seem to notice much that Mommy doesn't live here anymore, because most nights she would stay at work past his bedtime and be out the door before he got up.

 

I'm with you on that one, too.
Too many people think everything special should be a performance and a show.

 

A-Freakin'-MEN

 

And this, ^^this right here^^, defines A Man.

 

I liked them at first, especially when it'd be something within normality of life, such as the parent/soldier surprising their kid at school or something like that. Now it's become so contrived, with parents pretending to be referees at their kid's HS football game, or the catcher at an MLB game to their kid throwing out the first ball.

Whatever happened to just walking through the door of your home?

 

Shit, man, I'm sorry. Sounds like a big mess, but you're handling it pretty well. Good luck.

 

(Edited to remove giant quote string)

Damn, dude. What Baron said. Good luck to you, and I'm glad to hear your son is staying with you.

 

Good for you, Rick. Uncontested, or minimally contested, divorces are a godsend.

Is that enough detail for Versatile to take your side? I'd have to think so.

 

Well, I mean he's still only getting my side of things. I'm pretty sure I come out of this looking like a #$%@# saint no matter how much info you get, but it's reasonable to assume that others may have a slightly different POV.

 

I'm no expert*, but yes, this is correct.

* -- Oh, who am I kidding.