The awkward level is permanently stuck on a lot

The new custody schedule is a work of calendaring voodoo that is not easily explained to anyone who holds less than a double Ph.D. in astrophysics and quantum scheduling. But I am fairly certain that this is the kids weekend at their mom's house.

I base my assumption this on the empirical evidence that there is no noise here other than Van Morrison shuffling through his entire catalog. Generally, the kids veto decent music in favor of crap some other noise. Also, the Xbox controllers have not moved in a few days. Weird.

Anyways, I am trying to figure all of this stuff out without setting off too many landmines, so after a pep talk from a friend, I decided to go to an event that The Oldest was involved in this morning. I hadn't been specifically invited, but it was a public event and The Oldest had mentioned it to me on Friday at school, which is just like an engraved and gold foiled invite in Middle School circles.

I don't know how soon it gets easier to be in the same space as my former spouse. I know it hasn't started getting easier yet. I went. I cheered on the kid. I hung out with The Youngest for a few minutes. It was nice. Kids are cool. Adults are awkward and odd.

This was a group of people I have known for almost 10 years. Some of them for 20. It was tough to stand aside and have no interaction with the crowd. Then I remembered, that reaction was one of the reasons I didn't want to carry on a relationship with this herd. When things got really tough and nasty last spring, these were not they friends that I needed, I found those at work and within my family. I have never been accused of being man of few words, so I don't really understand it, but a friend told me this summer that these people just didn't know what to say when times got tough.

Evidently they still don't.