19 Months Later, You Told Me So.

I’d like to say thank you very much to those of you who contributed to this thread. I’d like to give a follow up on how things ended, and where things are headed.

Almost a month to the day after she moved in I was happy as a pig in shit, and watching Spiderman 3 with an old roommate of mine. Little did I know she was at a concert with some friends that brought along said ex-boyfriend. The next morning I woke up alone, trotted around the house, then proceeded to read an MSN conversation she’d had with the ex several hours earlier.

It appears she had been pining after him, and vice versa. He decided to whisk her away in the night, whilst I sawing a log in bed, to facilitate some horndoggery. All sense of down and rationality was drained from me and replaced with lead guts. I went to work that day regardless in a complete fucking fog, which resulted in a pair of accidents that I was lucky to walk away from injury free. I came home and she was lying in our bed reading a book, at the doorway I said very calmly in a monotone “I did something I regret this morning. I read your conversation on the computer. I think you should leave.” I left the house and drove to talk to an old high school girlfriend of mine that used to have a knack for seeing things right-side-up while I was down for the count.

She reckoned I needed closure and that I should go back and demand an explanation before getting her out. Good advice if I wasn’t such a bleeding heart. So I went back and we started to talk while she packed, she copped out and said she couldn’t explain it, I gave in and begged her to stay for one more week to see if we could work things out. Looking back I like to say I was giving myself time to come to terms with my newly recognized naivety. In reality I was probably just a sore loser doubling down on a long shot.

A week later after wringing out of her the tears I thought she owed me, she was picked up by a church friend of her’s, while I began the most self indulgent summer of my life. I like to think my behaviour was appropriate for a guy in my situation, but I wasn’t so much heartbroken as I was suddenly excruciatingly aware of how misguided and ill-conceived my good intentions once were (this is where all you readers can give yourselves a round of applause)… (okay you can stop now).

In my haze I met Bird (name changed to match mine). This woman, as pointed out by older friends of mine, was to embody the arrival of the good, honest, “someday you’ll find someone” that had been prophesied. Through three months of cunnilingus, a sex councillor, Gloria in excelsis deo, and massive time spent together I can truly say I love this woman. Having lost my virginity to her, baby stepped my way through an adult relationship, and arrived at a place that feels remarkably natural, I can say I greatly appreciate her patience and experience (three cheers for older woman – only a year and a half, but a far cry from three years my junior).

So THANK YOU Dopers, I’ve revisited your words regularly since then and I’m sure to ignore them once again in the future, then repeat them faithfully to those seeking refuge in my solace.

PS Bird and I are at 17 months, live together, and are working abroad together next summer.

I’m curious how your roommates did with it for the month she was there?

You lived with that girl in the prior thread for a month and didn’t end up sleeping together? You must have ungodly self-control.

As for Bird, everything sounds good to me. Congrats! Oh, btw you write nicely.

Turns out one roommate was a pilot buddy of mine, the second was a beaut of an English liver, and we had only two roommates while she was there (a third eventually moved in who so happened to be a buddy I didn’t particularly like but thought I was the bees knees, so he would have thought the situation cool if I told him to).

Or a very flaccid cock. Trust me I tried, but there’s nothing like a few years of evangelical programming to anchor down a libido.

I hear ya brother. As a Catholic, well, I didn’t have quite the same issue you did cough, but let’s just say it took me quite a while also to reconcile my libido with my church’s teachings :o

What was it that eventually threw your reservations?

Is this Guy Noir?

No bean in his martini.

Well, at first I just disobeyed church teachings without trying to reconcile my actions with my faith. The cognitive dissonance wasn’t very pretty. If pressured I would say, “well I love her so it’s ok” which wasn’t a very cogent argument haha.

I would go chaste at times, and my ideas on sex and faith were tumultuous for a few years. What really cemented my position on the side of ‘pre-marital is ok’ was a class I had called ‘spirituality and sexuality.’ It was a Catholic college so it was from a Catholic background. We read lots of authors, and many were liberal Catholics with progressive views on sexuality.

I found myself agreeing less and less with Lewis and Anscombe (on matters of sexuality. Otherwise I still adore them), and more and more with people like Whitehead and Archbishop Rowan Williams.

So, as things are now, I will have sex but only in committed relationships, barring any horny whoopsies of course. Lately though I am strongly considering experimenting with casual sex. While my faith is still strong, the older I get the less I trust my Church on any sexual matter.

Anyway, I’ve blathered on long enough. If you are still curious feel free to PM me.

Who’s Guy Noir? Am I being whooshed?

Good for you. I had a similar experience (sans the dopers and the religion) with a girl in college, and came out the other side a much better person.

Sometime you have to take your lumps the hard way in order to really learn.

Good luck to you and Bird.

Guy Noir