Valentine’s Day: On This Day in 2012
I’ve never been a huge fan of Valentine’s Day. Naturally, I have, upon occasion, been sucked into the artificial hoopla. Years ago, I dated a woman with the last name of Valentine, and you better believe that attention had to be paid, or, perhaps more accurately, lavished on February 14. That is not a story for not another day.
And then there’s 2012. Depending on whose calendar you were working from, my wife and I were either a few weeks into a trial separation with the hope of reconciliation (according to my calendar) or we were in a holding pattern until it was legal to get divorced (that would be my ex-wife’s calendar). Of course, at this point, I was writing a daily journal of my experiences. So, as a tribute to all things VD, I give you my entry from February 14, 2012:
* * * * *
It does seem – as loathe as I am to admit it – that the best way to get along with Jennifer is to not have anything to do with Jennifer.
As I write this, she is working from her apartment. And she is logged into the virtual world/videogame Second Life as her avatar, Jennifer Simoni. She will probably remain on it for the rest of the day – and night. Multitasking on a video game for the whole day, two days a week? One can add her employer to the long list of entities and people that Jennifer says ‘fuck you’ to.
Last night, she called with no real agenda, but just to chat. Nice, right? Well, kinda. Her primary contribution to the conversation was talking to her cat, opining that her schedule was “same ol’ same ol’” (fucking really? didn’t you just move out of our home three weeks ago?) and talking about e-cigarettes. Her sole question to me for the duration of the 40 minute call was: “So… what else?” That followed a 30-second silence after I had drained into the conversation everything I had been up to (painting, new water heater, bunches of stuff designed to make her want to come home). I had to volunteer all this, of course, because at no point did she ask probing questions like “how are you?” or “what have you been up to?”
So, while I was not as emotionally beat up as I was from last Saturday’s talk, I still felt wildly uninteresting and unwanted. She’s not stupid, she knows what she’s doing. I guess I find it hard to believe that she’s that mean.
The link between Second Life and the chat with Jennifer, and this was admittedly a passing thought, was this: in Second Life, I have a female avatar named Madelyn. I enjoy the experience of being a woman, albeit a virtual one, because, I tell ya, you can be a real cunt and totally get away with it. In fact, I really like it when boys come up to Madelyn and try and seduce her. I let them jump through their hoops and try and impress me, for as long as they like. Then, after they have exhausted their supply of charm and cleverness, I ask, “so… what else?”
* * *
Happy Thursday, all.
