Snow and soap (operas)
It's 11:45 p.m. on Saturday night and it's snowing big, fluffy flakes. I just heard the snowplow making its way up the road, and when I looked out the window for it I saw that the snowplow blade was throwing a three-foot-high shower of sparks the whole time I watched it going by. Fire and ice. Well, fire and snow, anyway, but that's not quite so poetic.
We just got home a little while ago. The refrigerator was pretty much empty except for condiments and the like, so I wanted to make sure to get to the grocery store tonight before they closed and the snow started (I go to Whole Foods now for almost all of our groceries, and they're open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, which is pretty good, but not the 24-hour thing I'm accustomed to with the standard places). Since Whole Foods is half an hour away, I persuaded Tom to go with me, suggesting we have dinner beforehand at Fitz's (in the Loop, on Delmar)--home of the famous Fitz's root beer, which is the only kind of soda I ever drink (and even then it's about once every two months). When we went into Fitz's, it was cold but not precipitating. When we came out of the restaurant, at 9:15, it was snowing. By the time we left Whole Foods, about 10:20 (yes, they closed at 10 p.m.; don't ask), it was snowing harder. Tom was in the parking lot with the car waiting for me when I came out of the store (he went to Borders bookstore while I did the grocery shopping, because grocery shopping gives him hives or something), but I don't think he was too bored because he was on the phone with one of his friends who lives out of town. He finally persuaded her to get off the phone and let him concentrate on driving in the snow when we were about two miles down the road. Getting home was a bit more of a challenge than usual, what with the snow coming down and obscuring the road markings, and the other drivers doing foolish things. Tom talks to the other drivers when he thinks they are being stupid, and tonight it was almost an even split between the time he spent telling me about his phone call and the time he spent talking to the stupid drivers.
Remember a few posts back when I talked about Tom's friends and their personal soap operas? Well, this phone call was from one of those. In fact, it was the fourth time today that she and Tom talked. This friend just started talking to her husband about a possible divorce on Thanksgiving weekend, and they've already filed the paperwork to make it official, less than two months later. Two weeks after the initial divorce discussion, her husband was dating around and she was already dating a guy who is seventeen years older than she is (which is more than half again her age)...and this guy is still officially married. I understand that he told his wife last week that he was leaving her for good. The current plan is for Tom's friend's soon-to-be-ex to be dropped off their joint mortgage and for her new guy (or old guy, considering the age difference) to have his name added to hers on the mortgage, and new guy will move in and soon-to-be-ex will move out (hopefully not in that order). And there's a bunch more stuff related to this whole fiasco that's too complicated to go into right now, but just take my word that it's a complete mess.
I can't believe I actually know people who do things this stupid. Honestly, breaking up two marriages and not just moving in together but actually jointly owning a condo, for what will probably be a temporary relationship? Knowing that they each cheated on their prior spouses, they think they can actually trust each other? I should be used to this sort of idiocy by now--Tom's had plenty of his friends tell him about the completely imbecilic things they are doing (usually in their relationships), as I described in my other post--but I still can't get over the "Doesn't this sort of thing just happen in scripts?" feeling. Sigh. Well, as Tom said this evening, if only everyone would just listen to us....
We just got home a little while ago. The refrigerator was pretty much empty except for condiments and the like, so I wanted to make sure to get to the grocery store tonight before they closed and the snow started (I go to Whole Foods now for almost all of our groceries, and they're open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, which is pretty good, but not the 24-hour thing I'm accustomed to with the standard places). Since Whole Foods is half an hour away, I persuaded Tom to go with me, suggesting we have dinner beforehand at Fitz's (in the Loop, on Delmar)--home of the famous Fitz's root beer, which is the only kind of soda I ever drink (and even then it's about once every two months). When we went into Fitz's, it was cold but not precipitating. When we came out of the restaurant, at 9:15, it was snowing. By the time we left Whole Foods, about 10:20 (yes, they closed at 10 p.m.; don't ask), it was snowing harder. Tom was in the parking lot with the car waiting for me when I came out of the store (he went to Borders bookstore while I did the grocery shopping, because grocery shopping gives him hives or something), but I don't think he was too bored because he was on the phone with one of his friends who lives out of town. He finally persuaded her to get off the phone and let him concentrate on driving in the snow when we were about two miles down the road. Getting home was a bit more of a challenge than usual, what with the snow coming down and obscuring the road markings, and the other drivers doing foolish things. Tom talks to the other drivers when he thinks they are being stupid, and tonight it was almost an even split between the time he spent telling me about his phone call and the time he spent talking to the stupid drivers.
Remember a few posts back when I talked about Tom's friends and their personal soap operas? Well, this phone call was from one of those. In fact, it was the fourth time today that she and Tom talked. This friend just started talking to her husband about a possible divorce on Thanksgiving weekend, and they've already filed the paperwork to make it official, less than two months later. Two weeks after the initial divorce discussion, her husband was dating around and she was already dating a guy who is seventeen years older than she is (which is more than half again her age)...and this guy is still officially married. I understand that he told his wife last week that he was leaving her for good. The current plan is for Tom's friend's soon-to-be-ex to be dropped off their joint mortgage and for her new guy (or old guy, considering the age difference) to have his name added to hers on the mortgage, and new guy will move in and soon-to-be-ex will move out (hopefully not in that order). And there's a bunch more stuff related to this whole fiasco that's too complicated to go into right now, but just take my word that it's a complete mess.
I can't believe I actually know people who do things this stupid. Honestly, breaking up two marriages and not just moving in together but actually jointly owning a condo, for what will probably be a temporary relationship? Knowing that they each cheated on their prior spouses, they think they can actually trust each other? I should be used to this sort of idiocy by now--Tom's had plenty of his friends tell him about the completely imbecilic things they are doing (usually in their relationships), as I described in my other post--but I still can't get over the "Doesn't this sort of thing just happen in scripts?" feeling. Sigh. Well, as Tom said this evening, if only everyone would just listen to us....
posted by Cheryl | 11:45 PM
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