I AM DIVORCED

I heard from Lisa, the lawyer, on Monday April 12, but, it turns out, the paperwork was finalized by the courts on Friday, April 9. I don't feel as sad as I did when we filed the paperwork, which hit me kind of hard. Instead, it feels pretty surreal, to be honest. I can't believe that long chapter of my life is over. But I am mostly relieved and happy that the process is complete. It's been frustrating and exhausting and sad. Maybe now I can focus on the future for real.

UPDATE. Even after this, his behavior continued to plague me:

Chicken debut

 

Finally got the chicken yard situated - took 2 late night sessions, after the ladies had gone to bed.

I had gotten some fencing, but it turned out to be smaller than I expected, so they were free ranging for the first week. 2 different neighbors complained while I waited for more fencing to arrive; one called the cops, who showed up to scold me (and ensure I didn't have a rooster). Yikes! I thought people would be charmed, I am continually charmed by them (and their poop is free fertilizer!) Plus, they're birds! People don't bitch about robins on their lawn (or the many cats who wander the neighborhood).

Oh well. Now they are contained and hopefully I haven't ruined my neighborly relations permanently...

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi

Not my favorite book ever, but had some great passages and some interesting observations about relationships. As with so many buzzy books (this won awards!), my espectations were too high, I thought it was just meh. I got kind of bored with the first section, in Sarah's voice, as she got more and more whiny as the story continued. Then a complete change of perspective, and then a third section, which again changes the reader's understanding of what is going on.

I liked the shifting points of view and I liked the author violating our "trust" of her by messing with our feelings for the characters. I was a bit disappointed that the book was ultimately about sexual abuse and Men Behaving Badly - I feel like that story has been told so many times already (does every teen novel have to be about that?) I thought a more interesting focus would have been HS relationships and memory and things like that.

Just to remember some of the interpretive pieces I read after the book:

https://www.vox.com/culture/21579367/trust-exercise-ending-explained-susan-choi

https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/trust-exercise-susan-choi-novel-review/

http://windingshelf.com/trust-exercise/