Gettin the hell out of Dodge, wherever that is....

I'm going to tell you a story that is very true, and I'm so changing the names of everyone, not that anyone is remotely close to me to see this blog, just CYA....ya know?

Once there was a guy named Pete that was married but came home one day to a note on the door that said, don't come in, call 911. Yeah, his wife of X-many years had done the deal, and fast forward to Pete now getting into some therapy groups, online groups etc. Along comes Mary, who is an interested observer of these online chat groups helping people recover from loss. She is married to Larry a nd miserable, is his second wife, and also second to his full grown kids that keep their hands out for Dad to give them something, mostly cash. Mary has felt second best for a very long time, but has kept it to herself. She keeps seeing Pete in the chat room, and finally is brave enough to start a conversation up with him. The online attraction is almost immediate, and Mary feels such a connection to Pete that she has longed for for years. Fast forward, Pete is in love with Mary and vice versa now, and Mary starts to plan her escape. Each week, she packs two or three boxes of her most cherished possessions and ships them to Pete, seven states away. This goes on for almost four months, as Mary carefully rearranges things around the house just slightly, and Larry never notices anything moved, let alone missing. She also takes out the photographs around the house from their frames, and gets copies made and puts the copies back into the frames before Larry gets home that day. Mary only tells two people that she is closest to what she is doing (one is Super D) and finally departure day is one day away.

Mary goes to the bank, and takes out exactly half of the cash in all of the accounts. She writes Larry a long letter about how she has tried to make this work for years, and he has ignored her requests and for that matter, her. Larry goes to work the next day, Mary leaves the letter, the business card of the attorney she has filed paperwork with, puts the last suitcase in the car, and then she sees the dog. Suddenly she realizes that Larry will miss that dog more than her probably, so she decides Charlie the dog is going with her. Charlie, however, has never been in a car, only the back of a ranch pickup, so Mary opens the back door, throws in a piece of steak, Charlie gets in, Mary slams the door, jumps in, and heads to the airport where Pete is waiting to drive back to his home, seven states away, to start a new life with Mary. She sees Pete standing on the sidewalk, and her heart jumps out of her chest. She stops and gets out and Pete gives her a kiss that brings her to her knees, and she now knows that this is right and good and the beginning of her second life...