I have already started to slack on this whole blogging thing... but... with good reason. My mom's computer is soooooo slow that it's torture to use it.

I just arrived in Norfolk to go through all of my earthly belongings and send most of them to auction. On the 4 1/2 hour ride here, my emotions swung wildly between joy that I'm moving into a new (and I hope very happy) phase of my life and utter sadness and regret that my ex-husband and I are no longer together. I assume these are normal emotions, but I have to say that I'm really dreading tomorrow when the auction house's moving truck drives away from me with all the things I collected with my ex -- Christmas ornaments (just can't keep these... too many memories), the couch we bought with wedding money, the glass cocktail table that my husband was so proud he found for only $35 and about a million other things that I'm inordinately and irrationally attached to.

But before all of that happens, my friend Cherise has promised me some fun out on the town tonight. I can't wait to let others serve me for a change.

But before I end this blog, I want to briefly reply to a comment I received on one of my posts:

I would never "sh*t" all over my friends' choices and their lives. Ever.

As I said in the original post, I'm very happy for them. They seem to have fulfilling and strong marriages (built on some characteristics I hope to emulate in my current relationship), beautiful kids, comfortable homes and good jobs. I did not use the word "traditional" derogatorily. I'm not making a judgment that my life is better than theirs or their lives are better than mine. We're just different. That's all. And that's the source of my hurt about my friend's comment. (which by the way, since I know her so well, I think I know in what vein it was made...) But it cannot be denied that they are living more traditional lives in comparison to my own -- marriage, mortgages, babies, etc. I mean, isn't this what's expected of us as we become adults? Isn't this the path that 95% of your friends have or are striving for? Or the opposite -- for example, you meet an attractive 35 year old woman who's never married and you think "hmmm... I wonder what's wrong with her?" Or the couple who's been married for 10 years and hasn't had kids yet "hmmm.. I bet they're having trouble..." For most people, it's still unthinkable that the woman is choosing not to marry and the couple is choosing to remain childless.

So when I said that maybe my choices made my friends uncomfortable or somehow "commented" on the lives they're living, it was just me ruminating and considering that maybe sometimes they wonder what it would be like to live my life the way I sometimes wonder about what it would be like to live theirs. And maybe even putting yourself in that place -- wishing for something you don't have and may never have -- can make you feel a bit unsettled. I know I've felt uncomfortable (for lack of a better word) over the fact that I may never have kids, that I'm no longer with the man who knew me when I was really young, that I have 10 years worth of pictures that I can't display. And maybe they wonder what it would be like to be single right now, to travel to China, to move to Europe. Who knows?

Anyway, so much for a short reply. I'll stop now without even finishing my thought because, well... I have cocktails to go consume.

Oh and HVR... don't think I don't think about you when I write these blogs. I do.