One week ago, I got legally divorced.

Much needed comic relief.

It was supposed to be a procedural hearing and even my attorney seemed surprised I showed up. Apparently lines were crossed and I thought I was supposed to be there, even though I didn't need to be. Good thing I was.

Mich had decided that was the day she wanted everything to be over. Which made sense; it had been almost 6 months to the day since this whole thing started, and in Illinois, 6 months is the earliest you can finalize things.*

So, while I wasn't really emotionally prepared, I did everything I could to reach an agreement, and we did. I kind of wish we had pushed things until July, when the house would be on the market and the majority of the bits we went back and forth on would no longer matter, but she wanted what she wanted and I wanted her to have what she wanted.

So we reached an agreement and the judge legally split us up. There was crying on both sides. And even the judge seemed a little sad. I'm sure he sees this sort of thing a zillion times, but he truly seemed to take what was going on seriously. Which only made us cry harder.

If I'd written this a month ago, it would be filled with juicy details and observations about my take on various parties' involvement, and often obstruction or obfuscation of the process that got us here. And blah blah blah. But I'm different now. I'm clear headed. And I'm tired. And I've lost enough in the last 6 months to last me a lifetime. I've been stripped down to the bone. And the good news is that by being forced to rebuild myself, the guy Michelle fell in love with, and that my friends have probably long been missing, is back. It's ironic that it took the destruction of a relationship and a series of almost comically catastrophic events to put that guy back in the driver's seat, but there you have it.

So, what's next? I guess we'll just see what happens.

*Over the last few months I kept being asked why this was taking so long, but the truth is that everything ended just as early as it legally could. Illinois' no-fault rules are pretty basic, so anyone that tells you things "could move faster" are either lying or don't know what they're talking about.