One Year...

Photo: © Stan Banos

Been a year now since The Wife and I went our separate ways. I suppose it's been... "a learning experience." I used to think, that at very least, I'd be fortunate enough not to end up that embittered old guy at the end of the bar going on about his bitch of an ex wife- no matter how funny his quips might be.

When together, I thought us invulnerable to the common faux pas that doom most couples. And no matter how bad the day, I always knew I had her (and our trusty one eyed cat) to come home too. I considered myself one pretty lucky guy!

Early in our relationship, she once said that if we let our differences define our relationship, all would soon be over- sage advice, advice I took to heart. And yet, towards the end, every time I disagreed or thought otherwise, it was but another point against me. How it got there, I'm not at all sure...

Not to say I'm faultless by any means. I could have said, and showed and demonstrated just how much she truly meant to me a lot more often, in a lot more ways. I got lazy, complacent- understandable perhaps, but not without consequence, and inexcusable nonetheless. People ultimately deserve better, I needed to make the effort.

That said, and acknowledged, it was very much a two way street. Even had I made the extra necessary effort, as I well should have- she wanted out of San Francisco. Can't say I much blame her, the state this town is in, the very disparity of its bipolar existence.

But at my age, my options are now considerably more limited, my economics even more so. So much for "better or worse," so much for growing old together...