I left off with moving out, after eight and a half years of marriage. Now we embark on the beginning of my new single life…
So I took possession of my new pad at (what I call) the Bachelor Arms apartment complex in Burbank (not as in “Beautiful Downtown Burbank”, but the region of San Jose) on December 15, 2004. I had the use of an inflatable mattress – which I had to inflate manually – a lamp, and my laptop computer. The next night, a group of my friends first learned of what was going on in my life when I told them of my new living arrangements. Everybody was extremely supportive – even those who actually knew my soon-to-be ex-wife.
One from this group of friends indicated that she was now (practically) a neighbor, and that we could car-pool to our Friday night movies. This would be a few weeks before we would start this, but it would quickly grow into one of those inseparable friendships – so much that people actually thought we were dating! Our first phone call lasted three hours, and over the following months we would gather almost nightly to watch television programs, as we discovered we watched many of the same ones (and started some new ones together!)
This particular relationship would last for nearly nine months (in that is a hint as to why it came to an end.) We are still good friends, but she has a new life in another state. She is definitely no longer a neighbor.
Though there was another friendship that took off at this time. It is still going on strong. While the first one gave me practice on socializing one-on-one with women, the second one gave me more tactile experience (get your mind out of the gutter…) She even got me out to dance for the first time!
Both of these friends went above and beyond for me, when they helped me to clear out all the stuff from – what I euphemistically called – the Pit of Despair. This was the clearing out of all of the soon-to-be ex’s property from the former residence (this was left to me through a series of mishaps that occurred in the first two months of the year.) It took pretty much all the weekends in March to do the job of moving stuff from the house to a storage facility (there was more stuff than expected, and a second unit had to be contracted…)
So, in the last quarter of 2005, the one friend moved and I decided it was time to get off my backside and start the actual “Dissolution of Marriage.” While this would finally end the marriage, it wouldn’t be with out a lot of e-mail, filings and money being exchanged.
But, as the Master Card commercials would say, the end result is priceless.
Coming Soon: Part Three…