Questions and Answers

A few questions have been asked of me, recently, so I’m answering them in this entry.

Q:  How did Drew and Jenna meet?

A:  I had posted an personals ad on Craigslist.  You can read the ad in this post.  Drew was camping by himself at the time, so he was emailing me from his tent.  We exchanged emails for a few days, and I liked what he had to tell me about himself, so we decided to meet after he came back from his camping trip.
When he came back, we agreed to meet at Panera.  He ordered a salad, and I gave him a hard time for eating healthy.  There was something about his face that I just loved.  He made me feel safe.

Q:  How did you tell Drew that you have Herpes?

A:  It’s something I always put out there from the beginning.  I always figured that it was better to give him the opportunity to walk away before anything solid evolves.   With Drew, we were talking about the crazy ads people put on Craigslist.  There was a guy I’d seen on there for years whose headline was I Have Herpes!  So I mentioned that and said that I appreciated the fact that he put it out there from the start, because it’s not fair to expose someone unknowingly.  And then I just casually mentioned that I have HSV1, commonly known as “oral herpes,” too, but it’s not my opening line.  It’s not the first thing that I want someone to know about me.
Drew actually shrugged his shoulders and said, “I think something like 50% of the population has HSV1.”  That’s actually the truth.

Q:  Are you seeing a counselor to help you heal (from the trauma of childhood abuse and crappy relationships)?

A:  I sought out counseling after my ex-husband committed suicide shortly after our divorce in 1998.  I have seen a counselor off and on until I got a job here in 2017.  I think counseling is something that everyone should try at some point in their life, and I honestly believe that I have healed from most of my childhood and relationship trauma.  I think there will be sore spots forever, but I have learned from every relationship, and I believe those lessons are part of what makes me and Drew so good together (he learned them, too).  My family has an open dialogue about our past and the drug and alcohol abuse and violence.  We don’t pretend it never happened, and, at least for me, I can look back at where I was in my life when I was the age my mother was when X happened.  From that perspective, it’s much easier to forgive.  Again, there will always be sore spots, but I choose to love my family and not dwell on the pain.

And that concludes this Q & A session.  🌷