quick check in/update

Apologies for my recent lack of posting. While the first draft of the thesis got finished, I'm still working on edits and grappling with final papers and projects while still trying to maintain some semblance of a social life--you know, this whole being a student thing always feels a lot more difficult than it should seem to be. I mean, on face, all it is is getting academic work done and partying. How difficult can it be? (Very, apparently)

Most recently, though, I've been occupied with worrying about a very close friend of mine (lets call her C), who is currently dating someone (E) with an ex who has a tendency to exhibit some really disturbing behavior. Aside from constantly sending E vicious emails about how much she hates and wants to hurt him, she's been similarly harassing C (including signing her up for a lot of weight loss spam mail) and has even tried to justify it by claiming that she only does so because it's the most effective way to hurt E.

In the last week, things have escalated to the point where the ex has stolen and smashed E's property and, completely unprovoked, dumped a coke on him when they happened to run into each other. I'm really starting to worry about E and C's safety, and I'm hoping that they resolve things soon by getting a restraining order. While they have tried in the past (this behavior has gone on this whole semester) to just ignore her, I think it's becoming clear that this is just not enough to make her stop. She's clearly unstable and completely irrational...and at this point, it's much better to be safe than sorry.

In any case, this whole business has made me think a lot about love and expectation and the (dare I say proper?) ways to deal with disappointment. In late December, a relationship that I thought would last for the rest of my life ended and, putting the ridiculousness of that sentiment aside, I was completely devastated. However, since then, I've been so grateful for the time we've had apart. We had been together for two and a half years, and by the end, we became completely different people (in a negative way) because of the relationship. We constantly got into fights (both verbal and physical), and it was really difficult for us to have positive interactions with each other.

We're still regularly speaking, and to be completely honest, we're both committed to getting back together once we've resolved our issues. However, that means working through our issues in civil ways while still continuing on with our lives (instead of planning our lives for each other). I think this has done heaps for both of us, and I'm beginning to believe again that we can end up with each other. That said, he's coming to graduation in about a month, so I'll reserve any more final statements for when I can see how things go when we're actually face to face.