aeneas

Well, the story has come full circle. I met her in a college writing workshop in August of 1995. I married her in February of 1999 shortly after she returned from a year in Japan. She announced that she wanted to leave in January of 2004. She moved out that summer and we removed her name from the mortgage soon after that. The divorce became final yesterday morning in a rather anticlimactic way as Judge White signed a piece of paper and told us to take it downstairs and give it to the clerk. I feel both sadness and relief -- mostly relief. The relationship has been over for so long that it's nice to finally close the book.

The dissolution was more amicable and civilized than any breakup I've ever heard of. We remain on very friendly terms.

Saturday night I shall celebrate the bittersweet emancipation along with my girlfriend Lisa, my friend Karen the romance novelist and her cop boyfriend Nate at a local strip club. (What better way to commemorate the occasion?)

New black silk tie from Dillard's - $45
Cash from the ATM - $65
Dinner at Rachel's - $210
Town car for transportation - $255
Partying with your friends as a newly single man - priceless.

Lisa, needless to say, is happy that she is no longer dating a married man.

Overall, I'm very happy and excited to be moving forward again. I know people whose lives have been crushed and shattered by divorce -- I defintiely got the easy way out.

One thing is for damn sure: I will never (NEVER) even think about contemplating the possibility of getting married again. I was a fool to ever do it in the first place. My ex-wife and I both would have been much better off if we had remained fuck buddies with the side benefit of political and philosophical conversations. That way, when she left she could have done so painlessly, with no complications or entaglements to work through. Lesson learned.