Girl Meet Boy Act I've Lost Count...

When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hold on.

~Thomas Jefferson

It's amazing when life gives you light bulb moments. You know those times in cartoons when the main character has a brilliant (or not so brilliant) idea and the image of a light bulb pops above their head? That's what I got one morning. I woke up and realized I was wasting life.

I had this kick ass education and skills to boot, and what was I doing? I was working at Victoria's Secret for $7/hr part time hoping for a minimum of 20 hrs a week. I had a best friend who cooed her daddy into buying a condo and moved out on me taking that touch of income away. I had a boyfriend that didn't remotely deserve the title. Creditors were calling on the hour and I had spent the night before hysterically laughing into the phone at one of them while smashing my head against the wall. Literally. There is no metaphor in that. I was literally trying to reenact the scene in One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest minus the helmet.

So what did I have left to lose? My house was in foreclosure and all my fancy talk in court papers was stalling the inevitable. I couldn't afford it. The only payment I could keep up on was my car and I had $600 in tax return coming. I had nothing holding me in place. It was time to move on and hopefully get better. I called my tech school and demanded a list of every dealership in the Midwest that was hiring. I was going to get back in my field. I didn't care how far away it was I was going to make it happen.

I got the list made a call and was asked when I could come for an interview. I answered that if I could get the gas money I'd be there in two maybe three hours. That was how long the drive would be. I called Dad and he loaned me the money; because I have the most wonderful Dad in the world and because he believed in me even if he didn't agree with my choice in mate. He had every reason not to on both accounts.

I made the drive and had an interview. Then I sat back and waited.

Notice what most this post has circled around? Me. Where was the boy? He had decided to try for work back where we had moved from. He had conned a friendship and money from a woman who he had met online. The two of them went to Las Vegas to pick up the car that he had left there. She paid to have it repaired and they drove back. Took her husband a few weeks to think they may have been screwing around while I had thought it the moment the plan was mentioned. Funny, I really didn't care anymore.

Part of me wanted to claim to still be in love, but that was just a naive part that was too stubborn to give it up.

A week passed and I got the call. The job was mine. One problem, I had no money to move, nor in the time of my two week notice to VS did I find an apartment down there. In partial luck, my mom worked for a Super 8 and I spent a week living in a hotel on the employee discount rate. Paid for by my parents. The $600 was finally in the bank and that was moving money.

Part of the agreement of Dad's help was I was done with the boy. No contact was to be had. I should have left it at that. I received a call of needing money. The tax return was in a joint account. He would use it and have it back in place by the time I needed it to move. How stupid was I? He took the money and it wasn't return when promised.

I made the move thanks to a furious father who pleaded that the repayment a complete removal of interaction. I agreed, but there was one last act to follow...