Getting Back Into The Swing Of Things
Something brought me back to this. By “this”, I am referring to getting back into maintaining some form of diary or journal. I hadn’t done any recreational writing for close to a decade. A lot of that has to do with Open Diary having shut down nearly a decade ago. I was well aware that OD had returned some months ago, but before today, I hadn’t considered getting back into the proverbial swing of things. Something brought me back to this. I just can’t explain why. Having said that, I’m just writing. I don’t have a topic in mind. I’m not following a theme or any kind of prompt. I’m just typing whatever comes to mind, as it occurs to me. I wish to apologize in advance should this particular entry not make any sense or not follow any kind of pattern or semblance of organization and forethought. I don’t know where I’m going with any of this.
Daniella changed jobs this week. She officially left our office this past Thursday. She’s en route to another job and will be living in another county in the same state. She may not have been happy, though I suspect that this unhappiness was unrelated to anything at work. From hearing her tell an abbreviated version of the story, she was having some problems with her living situation. I think she was living with a male cousin and another guy to whom she is not related. At some point within the last year, something happened and they all had a falling out. I don’t know what the nature of their problem or problems was. I didn’t ask. Maybe I just didn’t care enough to ask because usually, I tend not to involve myself in other people’s problems. What I do know is that Daniella figured that she had to leave her living situation. In anticipating a potential relocation, she also decided to seek a new job in her intended county of residence. As of 03/10/22, most of that plan came to fruition. About a month earlier, she learned that she had gotten that job. She was given a start date of 03/11.
She still hadn’t secured housing because apparently, housing in the county where her new job is located is far from affordable. Daniella is going to need to live with someone else, someone to whom she is not related. She already tried that and it didn’t work. As she ventures forward, she is going to attempt to live with someone she will barely know. Daniella was telling me and Maynor that she was trolling around a website or app, I can’t recall which one, where people can essentially be paired or grouped with other people of similar mindsets and tastes, who might like living with each other based on their preferences and other parameters. I suppose it’s like a dating app, but more with the intent of living together and not necessarily engaging in a relationship or even sexual relations…at first. Maynor and I were skeptical of finding a potential roommate this way. It seems highly questionable and almost an invitation for trouble. Daniella met her prospective roommate at least once. I think they had gone out for coffee and connected over caffeine. She said that she got a good vibe from him, but it all sounded like desperation. Daniella was hopeful that this guy wasn’t immediately creepy and from the way she worded it, she felt pretty comfortable with him as well as with the prospect of signing at minimum, a one-year lease somewhere. For at least the rest of March, Daniella will crashing with a friend in the vicinity of where her job is. I hope all of that works out for her. This is not even an age thing, as there is only a six-year difference between them and Daniella is adamant that she is not attracted to this guy. At 26, I’m hoping that Daniella knows what she’s doing.
Liliana turned 49 in late February. She is on the brink of her second divorce, this time from a former gang member and a current drug addict. From what I understand, when she married this man, his drug use had been dormant but she knew it was there, deeply hidden away. Still, she took the plunge. A decade later, she is looking to get out of her second marriage. Liliana has what I’ve heard many women refer to as a “bad picker”. Her first husband was a drunk, though he may have developed alcoholism during that marriage. I don’t know how long that marriage had lasted, but that one ended in divorce as well. He died some years back. Liliana never said how or from what, but I’m confident that it was somehow related to his over-consumption of alcohol. Liliana is one of those women who experienced a considerable amount of struggle while married to a drug addict, being that she was the only one working and he used to verbally and emotionally abuse her as he felt was necessary. Even though she claims that he never hit her, she had to get out. Liliana also has a 7-year old to raise and she expects to be doing that all by herself. She claims to have been the perfect wife, taking care of her husband and their son, all before the drugs really did a number to her husband. She cooked, cleaned, and went to work, presumably while their son went to school and her husband got high. Now, she’s a single mother and a soon-to-be two-time divorcee. I know she can do it on her own, because frankly, she’s going to have to, but I often wonder how her life would have turned out had she married differently, at least, the second time. Maybe she had hopes or changing this man for the better and seeing those changes last a lifetime? I still wonder what might have been. She and I do not talk anymore, so I’ll never know the aftermath of her pending divorce and beyond. That’s probably for the best and I’m at peace with it.
Life can take many twists and turns. Sometimes these are unforeseen. Sometimes we see what may lie ahead and we move forward anyway. In the end, I’m sure that Daniella and Liliana will both be all right. I mean, hopefully, right?