Yikes! At least Matilda's ex-bf has the excuse of being an idiot teenager—does this woman have a picture of Hannibal Lecter on her office wall?

Sorry the universe continues to pile on you and Matilda, David.

They'd been together for a while, right? Ouch.

She just spent $200 on their second anniversary present that was coming up in November.

She was completely blindsided.

So he managed to place the breakup exactly between her mother's death and her birthday.

This is not going to go over well at their school (where she was voted "Most Likely To Brighten Your Day" and "Most Likely To Put A Smile On Your Face"). Hell, his little brother is going to be pissed at him too.

Oh, geez, David, that's a ridiculous amount of crap to pack into a single day, especially on top of this year. Wishing you both a much, much better day today.

Oh, Matilda, that's so hard. Not good timing, ex. Good lord.

Not even going to try with your brother's ex, smonster. WTH?

And thank you, yes, we did make some headway over dinner at a really tasty Mexican storefront place. Not gonna lie, the nachos helped. As these things go, apparently, the underlying issues are still there, but we're in a better place about them today than we were yesterday.

My not having had a romantic LTR really at all before 49 has a unique set of challenges, I think. Who knew? (Probably everyone.) And other challenges are universal no matter how much experience one has had at relationshipping, I imagine.

And good vibes for you and R as things progress, too.

We had breakfast today with a new friend that DH met at the pool a few days ago. Neat way to start the day.

Oh, man, I was just wondering about M's now ex, thinking about their prom (was it prom? something) pics. That sucks. I am a little bit happy at all the people (besides us) who are mad at him right now. And smonster's brother's now ex is astonishing with the bad peopling!

What the FUCK, Matilda's ex?

My not having had a romantic LTR really at all before 49 has a unique set of challenges, I think. Who knew? (Probably everyone.) And other challenges are universal no matter how much experience one has had at relationshipping, I imagine.

All true. There are a multitude of great reasons to share your life with another, but anyone who claims it is all easy just isn't telling the truth.

I agree that the universe needs to stop throwing bullshit at David and Matilda. God DAMN.

There are a multitude of great reasons to share your life with another, but anyone who claims it is all easy just isn't telling the truth.

When people say that relationships are hard work, a lot (A LOT) of the time it sounds like they're equating it to enduring painful toiling for very little in return (like working in a sweatshop or something). And I don't know; maybe that's true for them, and that makes me sad for them. Because yeah, there's (at least for me) ongoing work in sustaining a relationship, and sometimes it's hard, but it's more like hard work doing something you love, like if you're into cosplay or historical reenactment -- making those costumes is hard fucking work, sometimes tedious and sometimes frustrating. But ultimately it's hard work in service of something that's incredibly fulfilling that brings you a lot of joy. So you stick with the hard tedious part because you know what's on the other side of it.

Excellent analogy, Teppy.

I would like to discuss all hard tasks over nachos. That sounds preferable to not nachos.

I haven't had lunch yet and now I want nachos.