FWIW my mom’s second and third husbands were 56 and 52 respectively when she married them.
My good friend married at age 38 to a man aged 46 first marriage for both.
My brother married two weeks before he turned 38.
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does @japhroaig believes in soul mates? I hope not
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Last one for today–love did find a way 
. I wouldn’t trade those good times for anything. Considering how amazing kind, patient, contented love is–and how rare–i will probably need to be patient and content myself (see what I did there? 
) and count my blessings.
(But going to Sunday brunch alone is bullshit. Does anyone wanna go grab brunch with me in like twenty minutes!?)
Edit
Damnit @JemmieDuffs, I just took my Concord in for repairs otherwise I’d be right there 
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Waiting for my brunch companion to show so we can go to Cora. I’m guessing there aren’t three letters in your post code though, else I’d offer a seat.
(Correction: if your zip code starts with 982 you could still have a shot)
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The preparation you have to ingest to prepare is MUCH better than it used to be, so there’s the “glass half full” for you!
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Happy Pulaski Day to you!
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I could eat, but BART today is out of the question.
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It’s a really good idea! You can market yourself as the Uber of seat sitters. Easy money for people and there’s a huge need.
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Wouldn’t Bool be a better name for you?
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I hope you can enjoy all the photos. I have a grand total of five of Toby. I wish I took more.
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The third step is: “take time to masturbate”. There are better alternatives, but stepping away from the goddamn problem that makes you want to murder the goddamn problem and everything else and dealing with physical realities in an ultimately relaxing and productive way is well worth the time.
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Wish me luck… we’re off to family court and mediation today to try and resolve the issues for the two kids we’re guardianing for.
It’s going to be a shitstorm… there are five lawyers and two judges involved. (Each of the kids and the mom have a court appointed lawyer, paid for by us taxpayers. We [the RatsClan] has our own lawyer. CPS has a lawyer. The mediator is a retired judge. And there’s family court judge who has to bless whatever plan we all come up with. We all want different things, and nobody agrees exactly what they are.)
Update later.
Oh, and RatWoman has been having what I hope are Braxton Hicks contractions all night from the stress.
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I hope that humanity, love and kindness win the day in court, and that the contractions are just Braxton Hicks.
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I hope so too, since that is what you are hoping, but considering this is not her first (or second, or third!) pregnancy, it’s probably worth keeping a packed bag with you at all times.
For my last kid, I was convinced it was B-H until my friend on the phone pointed out that I had to stop talking every 5 minutes. Got to the maternity ward 45 minutes before the baby was born. Just saying!
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This is how my brother’s wife ended up accidentally having her second kid at home, in the bathtub.
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Good luck, RatMan & the entire RatClan! And best of luck to RatWoman on maintaining an even strain. 
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Hopefully, later on you can post an update over in the victory thread! Good luck with ALL of this!
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Most important first: RatWoman is not having the baby yet. She was still having the Braxton Hicks contractions after court, so we zoomed over to the OB/GYN. She did a quick exam and said “nope, not even close yet.” That’s good, because her due date is still six weeks away. Hopefully she’ll have a better night tonight.
Now, as to the shitstorm: fucking lawyers. Basically they kicked the can down the road a couple of months. Mom is out of the inpatient mental health program, and going to an outpatient program five mornings a week. She can have all the supervised visits she wants, but she does not get unsupervised time with the kids until CPS signs off, which they won’t do until she has six months clean on the outside and stays on her meds. RatWoman and I retain “temporary permanent guardianship” until the next court hearing in mid-October. My eldest daughter is the backup in case there’s a problem.
Our own plans were discussed, but mom’s lawyer and the mediator did not believe that we really plan to move to Europe this winter, so the longer-term plan was not addressed at all. They simply refused to discuss it, and the family court judge said we’d address that at the next hearing.
Mom declined our offer to set her up with housing here on the ranch. She has a Section 8 voucher so her short-term plan is to look for suitable housing for her and the kids.
During the mediation, RatWoman went off on our lawyer, who took it upon himself to change our own stated goals during the hearing. Basically he volunteered us to house mom in our house, and supervise her directly, which was absolutely not an acceptable option. Anyway, RatWoman ripped him a new one. I was so proud of her.
I’ll probably post some more tomorrow, but right now, I’m exhausted. Half an hour until the last two kids are in bed, and I’m way past ready for a pint and a bowl.
It has been a very long day.
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I delivered RatBoy the Younger mostly by myself in the waiting alcove at the ER at Kaiser. She was having full-on contractions, and they didn’t have a bed for her in the women’s center. The ER was busy and nobody was paying any attention to us. She went from contractions five minutes apart to crowning in the space of 25 minutes. The OB/GYN resident wandered in just as I was delivering RatBoy’s head. It got kind of busy after that. 
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She’s always had them in the last month or so of each pregnancy. And she tends to have very easy (and fast) labors. We’re ready when the time comes.
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