>>< For the record, these are the traits I like most --
>>>
>>>1. Intelligence
>>>2. Curiosity
>>>3. Sense of humor
>>>4. Ability to surprise
>>>5. Looks
>>>6. Horniness
>>>7. Commitment. (I think that should be higher but am being honest).
>>>8 (should be 1). That indefinable something that attracts one person to another. Everything else is just trying to explain the unexplainable.
>>>
>>>I will stick with that list. Maybe I would reverse 5 and 6, but I wouldn't move them up.
>>>
>>>Now all I need to do is meet a woman with traits 1-8 <g> (Oh, wait, I did, other than #7 anyway. And I'm still bleeding).
>>
>>
>>Maybe she wanted the same things but didn't find them in you..... :)
>
>
>Ouch, someone pull the knife out of my back!
>
>There is some truth to that. We were pretty simpatico on those items. The problems were elsewhere. As the daughter of an alcoholic she couldn't stand the thought of us getting together and then me relapsing. She said I just couldn't stand to see you like that. The other one was geography. My daughters are here and I am in no position to move far away until Emily finishes high school, which is four years from now. And she has her stuff in California (Bay Area) -- high level work position, home design business on the side, friends, etc. At one point she said she would come buy a house in the Chicago area. I said you're a Cali girl, you'll hate Chicago. She said actually I'm an island girl who hates California. And back and forth it went. We had periodic breakups and reconciliations and then early this year she said goodbye for good. She said I can't do this any more, Mikey, I have to take care of my heart. And you please do the same. We had gone through cycles like this
>before and it took me a while to realize she really meant it this time.
>
>I hope her heart is healed. In my crappy nightmares, in that dead zone between 2 and 4 a.m., I imagine it being way more than healed. She was the one for me. She sure was. I am doing my best to come to terms with the fact that she is gone.
>
>Well, there was probably a more honest answer than you expected <g>. We're all human. I only just wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. I will do my best not to speak of her again.


Geez Mike how did you two ever meet in the first place?
It looks to me that you should have moved to be with her... well at least that's what I think she wanted you to do, but she couldn't ask.
In my little world, your spouse takes presidence, yes even over your kids.
Kids eventually leave, but a couples... well "...'til death..."