That sounds really painful, Laura, sorry.

Good luck with the job and job search, msbelle.

I'm helping a friend of my daughter try to find a new job by using my network. It still feels weird to think I have a network and I can use it for things like this.

Speaking of my daughter, I have entered a conspiracy with her. She managed to break the outside of one of the side-view mirrors on her car and she asked me to keep it from my wife. I have a replacement on order, but I'm still not sure how I'm going to replace it without my wife noticing what I'm doing. Guess I could say I'm doing something else to the car. I don't like lying though.

My mom has said she doesn't see herself ever dating anyone again. She was either married to or dating Dad for her entire adult life, which made for a very soulmate-y situation. I'm of the mind that if she does meet someone who makes her feel good, she should go for it, though I did look askance at the guy from her congregation who asked her out a few weeks after Dad's funeral. I'm not worried about having to call a new beau "Dad" in my fifites.

My mother is trying to date online! And it's kind of hilarious since she's having all of the experiences we have all had -- the guy who just says "Hello beautiful," the guy who wants to have extended email correspondence before meeting, etc.

The two-year anniversary of my father's death was yesterday.

I started dating DH 4 months after my husband died. The grief was still horrific, and will always be present the rest of my life, but Brendon's compassion and understanding of my random crying episodes was part of what made him appealing. I made the transition from 'never again will I set myself up for this kind of pain' to 'being a couple is kind of a natural state for me' fairly rapidly. My family, both on my late husband's side and mine expressed concern for me moving forward so quickly. Loving concern. In my mind he was just so clearly gone that staying alone didn't serve any purpose.

I don't like lying though.

Sometimes it's the less bad option.

But customs doesn't open for three more minutes so they can't let us off the plane yet.

Oh, that's pretty silly.

Babushka ended up dating and then marrying a guy she had known in Elementary school in China - the reconnected quite a while after my grandfather died. Their wedding was 15 years after, I don't remember how long they were dating before that but my dad was just so pleased at how giddy and happy his mother was ("like a teenager" he would say, which seems funny to me now remembering that he had two teenage daughters at the time and we were not giggly about our dates but she apparently was). My other grandmother never, as far as I know, dated after she was widowed, but I think that was more about her being really invested in her own independence than anything else. Which is where I find myself, pretty much.

tl:dr I'm sorry you are caught in the middle of that Consuela

Dad started dating about a year after mom died, and a year later his nail tech (he gets acrylics so he won't gnaw his nails down to stubs) said "I need to introduce you to one of my other regulars". That's how he met Patty, and they're still together and "living in sin", which makes me so happy.

Thanks, all. It's just stressful, and they're all very strong willed, so that's a problem.

I guess basically I think your nieces should get over it. Can you just stay out of it?

Timelies all!

Tired and stressed...in other words, life as usual.