Moving Forward 2000 II

B made the statement one night, "I want you out." I found an apartment the very next day. That's how "done" we were.

I think one thing that worked in my favor was the time of year. It was April (April 15th, to be exact...tax day) and the nice weather was coming. I think that made a major difference in how I was able to handle it. I'd come from a big family, and was raising a pretty big family, so the solitude was pretty awful. But it stayed light later and later, so there wasn't so much "lonely nights" for me to deal with initially.

While there wasn't much in the way of selection of apartments in my area, I did manage to find a very nice place. The development consisted of garden apartments on very expansive grounds. A lot of grass, a great courtyard, like a big park. Plus, it had a private swimming pool for us to join up with. The Spring was looking promising!

I have an Explorer, which would allow for lugging bikes back and forth. I stuffed the closet with cool toys and games, and made a point of playing them with the kids. Sounds noble, but being honest, I must say kids are a good cover for a Dad who wants to play with some toys himself. Let's keep it real here!

The plan was, I'd have the kids Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and all my vacations. I had 6 weeks per year, so that would be fun too. The first few weekends of Spring 2000 were beautiful weather-wise. I caught that break.

So yeah, life wasn't great, wasn't perfect, but I was learning a new way to live it. And taking the kids along for the ride.