Phone A Friend

well, here we go. Not in a million years would I ever think that I’d be sitting in bed drafting a story to post online. But, here I am! And if you’re reading this, that’s pretty amazing. I hope you’re able to gain a smile, laugh, reflection, point of view or maybe nothing from this. But...I love this picture. Who out there needs to phone a friend? I know I do!

For whatever reason, 2020 put me in my place. I wound up so over stressed in life that I put myself into a crippling mental state that brought on extreme fatigue that I couldn’t function in areas of my life from Sept to the new year. Why? Well, I feel like telling a few stories. I just need to figure out where to start. Haha.

A little about myself and then I can tell some stories that go more in depth later. I’m a mid 30’s guy from Canada. I got married at the young age of 20 to a girl I worked with and dated since I was 17. We had a daughter a year into the marriage and things were okay but stressful as I worked and she didn’t. She was a stay at home wife from day one, so money was tight, real tight. It seemed like every two - three years, the company I worked with transferred me into new roles. Work was good, but I felt like I wanted to finish my engineering degree, so with our 3yr old daughter, we picked up and moved to the States so I could attend a university there. One year into school and we had our son. Luckily, I only had a two year program as I had credits that transferred. But to be honest, school is easy for me, so I had no issues with having a newborn and attending school. I didn’t study at home or have that much homework. So it was just family time in the evenings.

Back to work after school, I was transferred to work in Houston, TX. We spent about 5 yrs in Houston. Loved it! Although, this is where my marriage fell apart. A lot of trust was lost, stopped talking to each other and essentially, I told myself if we moved back to canada, I’d divorce her. Which came true a year later. I did try to make it work after the move home. But, no love equals an unhappy couple.

Separated and 2.5 yrs later, I find myself with a girlfriend who was long distance for a while, although we knew each other prior. And she has just moved back. But now, we need to figure out how to date when living in the same city. She is very independent and I prefer companionship. I can get into that later. She is an amazing person and I love her to death. She has met my kids, the kids love her, but it’s still complicated and has stress associated with that.

There’s still so many layers to that short bio, it almost seems normal when it’s so high level. Throw in some jail time, domestic violence charges...oh, against my ex wife, not me. Let’s add a sexy flirty neighbor, rotating around the world for work, and going after my friends sister to the mix and we’ve got some excitement. Well, we can add some different levels of addiction if needed. But I think we’ve got a good start.

I hope someone out there could use a friend to talk to. Because I don’t think my situation is very far off from a lot of people. And I’m more than willing to discuss and offer some advice on what worked and didn’t work for me. I just hope this reaches the right person when they need it.