To the Sir or Madam Who May or May Not be Reading My Blog

I've attempted several posts meant to catalog my thoughts about the universe, people, voyeurism, mass transit, so on and so forth, but have failed to complete anything. Like sitting in a theater behind someone who has giant hair or a tall hat (And really, when was the last time THAT happened...sitting behind a man in a tall silk top hat?) I can't see the screen in front of me. I must either move my position or ask the patron ahead if they would remove the hat (if it's hair, though, that's another matter all together. Its not as if I can ask them to kindly remove their hair, can I? At any rate...enough of this foolishness).

So, the hat in front of me, is the fact that my today my husband and I decided to separate towards the end of getting a divorce. There. I said it.

The email I sent around earlier today was this:

Hello everyone,

Some of you have already received phone calls or have spoken to D. or myself in person. We would certainly have preferred to speak to everyone face to face, but with all of our busy schedules, that would be impossible.

After much painful discussion, D. and I have made the difficult decision to separate and divorce. This may come as a tremendous shock. Neither D. nor I have been very public about our private lives.

We are very saddened by this. It would almost be easier if we hated each other...but we don't. In fact, we love each other very much which is why we are doing this now. We want to try to preserve our friendship in some way if we can.

This will be a tough time. Many of you work with us and there is bound to be a level of discomfort no matter how we try to prevent it. We will certainly do what we can to keep the discomfort to a minimum. Some of that may include spewing gallows humor...as we both have discovered, that seems ease the tension, if only a bit.

Many of you are bound to have questions. You are welcome to ask them. I can only speak for myself when I say I may or may not answer them. But you certainly won't be chastised for asking.

Thank you for your friendship and presence in our lives.

That is the hat that I am staring at instead of the movie...which is probably a really good one with big explosions and scene chewing and a special effects budget that rivals the GNP of Belgium.

I can't see much of it right now...because of the hat. In the coming days/weeks/months, I know that I will muster up the courage to tap the guy on the shoulder and ask him to remove it (and ask him what on Earth he's doing wearing a top hat in August, or, for that matter, at all.).

And by then, perhaps I will have lost my taste for metaphors that refer to stuff that doesn't even happen anymore...like guys wearing top hats to movie theaters.