Featured Zones

I just survived my first shared weekend.
by: Helena
I did it. I survived. I did not argue. I just took a deep breathe and closed the door.

That's right. I behaved like an adult. I almost blew it, but I survived. Ron came over, on time to picked up Leigh. I let him inside the house. He sat patiently on the new red leather couch as Leigh ran back into her room to get Pinkie, her soft pink bear that she has had since the day she was born. He picked up Leigh into his big arms and proceed with her overnight case our the door. I waived good bye and closed the door. It was just so civil. When I was sure that the his range rover had driven out of the complex, I released my breathe and sank to the floor.

I was proud of myself. I did not cause a fight. I accepted his complement on my sofa with charity. I was such an adult. I am sick. I see his face and I want to scream. I see him taking my daughter and the look of hesitation on her face, like she not sure that she should show me that she's happy to see Daddy. I never want to put Leigh in that position, where she feels she must choose who to love. She should have the best of us. We should give her the best of us. I resolve to clean up the apartment

Well that did not take very long. At least my compulsion for cleanliness, keeps the messes down, but I now have 23 and half hours to go before Ron brings Leigh back.

I called my girlfriends, the ones who I had not completely blown off when Ron and I got married, to see what they were up to this weekend. Amanda was in between boyfriends again and presented me with a few options for bar hopping and dinner. Tanya, my conservative friend was doing home fix its on her condo. Not being that handy, the choice was clear. I would hop with Amanda but I peruaded Tanya to give up being a Tool Belt Diva long enough to clean up and hop with us too.

It was not so bad being out with the girls. We tried margarita's at the new tapas bar. I watched Amanda salsa with a wanta be latin lover. I laughed as Tanya picked at her food. This was just like old times. It was great. I hardly remembered that it was only 11 hours to go before Leigh would be coming home ending this shared weekend.

I got home around 1:00 a.m. with salsa music still wizzing in my head. I crashed on the satiny pillowed bed, too tired to crawl into to pj or under the ruffled comforter and just went to sleep. The alarm went off at 7:00 a.m. Luckly, I had not changed it from yesterday. It was enough time to shower, dress and have the house smell of hot cakes and syrup.

Eight o'clock came and went. Nine o'clock did the same. I was about to start calling the state police when the door bell rang. It was Ron and my little angel. Leigh ran in and hugged me. She then proceeded to tug her bags into her room. Before, I could even begin my rant, Ron stopped me and thanked me for letting him take Leigh to IHOP for breakfast. He said that he had expected me to complain about changing the time frame. He said that it was good of me to let him have just a little more time with Leigh. I told him he was welcome. My jaws were clinched so tight, I was surprised that it was heard. Motioning for coffee, I turned my back on him and went in to the kitchen, looking for the traitorous blinking answering machine. He had obviously left a message yesterday, but I was too tired to notice. I casually turned the machine off, to avoid the embarassment of admitting that I was going to complain and that I did not get the message.

Ron sat at the bar stool and I poored him a cup of coffee, black just like he liked it. We drank the coffee in silence as Leigh came bounding back into the room telling about all that they had done Saturday. He finished the coffee, hugged Leigh and left. It was interesting how two people who had shared so much could have absolutely nothing to say to each other.

Leigh watched from the window as he drove away. As she bounded off the couch, she smelled a faint whiff of sausage. "Did you have breakfast without me Momma," she said heading in to the kitchen peering up at the grey skillet. "I did, but I missed our breakfast time." I said with freshly loosened jaws. "Leigh missed you too," she said with her toothy grin. She gave me another hug and all was right and perfect in the world again.