Happy Flat Tire Starbucks Day! Part 1 (a little late...)
A note from Sunshine: I actually wrote this post in the fall.
Three days ago, I celebrated the eight month anniversary of a date that forever changed the course of my life. I wanted to get on here that very day eight months ago, and write all about it, but time runs out... Life gets sad and then life gets happy. And then life gets horrible. And then life gets incredible.
Eight months and three days ago, my mom's amazing caretaker called and told me that my mom was dying. There's a long story here about my mom, and her illness, and I'm sure you will be filled in as I go along, but the main take away today, is that my mom was dying. Like that day. My mom lived outside of town, and it was a journey that I regularly made, but I couldn't make it this day. Too heart-wrenching. Too painful. I couldn't make myself get in the car and drive the hours it would take to be with my dying mother.
Mostly, I knew she wouldn't die without me there and I wanted to prolong that god awful horrific pain as long as I could. But also, and this is the really fucked up part, I had a date. With a married man.
Yep, I'm married. Yep, I'm 51. And Yep, I had a date at Starbucks with a married man whom I'd never met before. I know. Scandalous! and even more so because I met him on Ashley Madison. You know, the site for cheaters that was in the news this summer because they were hacked. Yeah, the one that didn't have any "real women" on it and the one where all the men were just "looking" but never followed through. Guess what? I'm not a bot, but a real live woman who was on Ashley Madison and I met real live men. The story of how I got on Ashley Madison is another long ass story that I will get to soon, but for now you only need to know that I met my.... what the fuck am i gonna call him?....lover? boyfriend? badass affair partner? best friend?.... well, I met John (as in Doe?) on Ashley Madison; we emailed a few times over a week, and then we agreed to meet at Starbucks on Sunday.
OK - I'm gonna backtrack here a little and give you some background information. I've been married 25+ years to my college sweetheart. Until Flat Tire Starbucks Day, I had never really considered cheating during our entire marriage. But, ya know, stuff happens. Husbands cheat. Moms get sick. Kids go off to college. And sometimes life needs diversion or you just. go. batshit.crazy.
