Ugh. That sucks.

In other news: my ex grew a beard. No one's ill advised facial hair has ever made me feel so validated about my own life choices.

Wow, you are more patient than me - I might have given him three months and then I'd be calling some strong friends to throw that crap out.

In other news: I have no idea what happened to my ex, and that's just fine with me.

Also in the "more patient than me" category: I threw away all of my ex's stuff that he left behind the day after he moved out. I still claim not to "know" what happened to it.

Divorce is ugly.

Our break-up was not so ugly, just fizzly. And then, we were both out of the country for long stretches. He has stuff in the garage and in the basement. Get it out! *STILL WAITING*!!!

I still have a few pieces of furniture that my ex- left in 1996 and never reclaimed.

My ex was an arsehole about coming to collect some furniture he wanted. In the end I took what I could fit in my car over to him and, after he missed the deadline to collect the rest of it, gave it to charity.

Idiot just emailed. Flaky and inconsiderate. Typical. Well, at least I have no fuzzy-warm-regret feelings.

My ex lives around the corner and works in the same building. We've always been quite amicable, but (as happened in our marriage) he always likes to imply that he is way smarter and more financially savvy than all the rest of us plebes.

So he has been trying to sell the condo he bought after our divorce since... oh, about six months after he bought it (in 2007). In January, he quit his secure job with awesome government benefits to take a 9-month project position in the same office. He assumed that he would both sell his condo (after 24 months on the market) and get a new job within that time, even though the economy is in the crapper and his condo is only 450 square feet. (With one bedroom, it's 100 square feet less than my old post-divorce studio. His parking spot is two blocks away.)

His project position ended last week, so now he works 25% while doing some online test prep thing from home. He owes a shitload of money on his student loans, which is what happens when you take full financial aid for ten years of graduate school and get kicked out after five years of avoiding the department even though it's across the street from your office.

His longtime girlfriend, who lives four hours away but rarely visits down here because "she gets carsick when she's not driving," is 42 and just moved back in with her parents because she is somehow incapable of holding a job. She has decided to move to an Air Force base in Germany for the foreseeable future to take care of her niece.

Mr. Carless just bought a car last month to make the booty calls easier. After years of him whining about fuel economy and hybrid vehicles, he drove five hours out of his way to buy a Lincoln Continental for $1100 (from a coworker). Now he wants to sell it again.

And me? I just got underground parking, and we're talkin' babies :)

My other ex had my bundt pan for several months, but I made a fuss abut it because I knew that it would be exactly like typewriter mentioned. It's the PRINCIPLE, man! The PRINCIPLE!

And me? I just got underground parking, and we're talkin' babies :)

Ha! Yes! Solidarity! Getting married and baking a babby is all totally validated when seeing exes doing dumb things (like buying Lincoln Continentals and growing beards). Not that we needed validation... but it's nice to have.

I'm still trying to sell Barbies that I either purchased and/or acquired as gifts from my first ex and now don't want anymore because one of the things I wanted to leave from that relationship was the toy collector's "Must have shiny toy now!" mentality I picked up from him. Mind you, this relationship ended in 2000.

The best part of doing many of the sales about three or four years ago on eBay is that in the description after the nuts and bolts (condition of Barbies, style and type, smoke-free home, etc.) is that I spun out a story about why I was getting rid of them. In return, I got two or three very nice comments/questions from bidders about how nice it was to see someone making the most of a bad situation.

And of course, the ex (whom I really do wish well and Facebook search for from time to time) will never know.*

*Hopefully.

One of the first things that I did when I separated from my ex- was to grow a beard. I hadn't been able to have one for seven years and it felt great to not care anymore.

Hmmm. I am also recently split, and wearing a beard for the first time in 15+ years. What's with dudes breaking up and growing beards? I do hope that mine is not ill-advised. I hope it's advised, at least.

Same thing with women when they break up with an S.O. and stop shaving their legs and or underarms (if they're the kind of lady who shaves).

I stopped shaving. But that's because it's August, I have a steady man and I can't be arsed. Neener!

I don't understand the beard thing. I like beards.

With my particular ex, if the beard is in response to a break-up it's not from our break-up as that was three years ago. Many beards are fine, and advised, but this man has the facial hair of a 13 year old boy. This beard is an abomination.

Of course, he's a writer, so the beard might also be emblematic of his struggle and not a break-up beard.

Conan did the beard, too... what is it about great loss that leads men to buffer themselves from the world via longer facial hair?

There's an espresso-jockey at my local that has the ossomest beard ever. It's thick, well combed, full, blond, and cut just so with a twist on the moustache. I go in there just to swoon at it a few times a week.

My SO's beard? Not quite as impressive. He's got the scruffy kind. Very kissable, since it's soft, but won't ever make a thick perfect beard. Dad had a beard. Grandpa had a beard Well groomed beards are "manly man" to me.

Now to bring it back to craft... BEARD CAP!

A toast to moving on and living well.

Re: beards - I think it's the notion that if no one else cares, why should I? Beard trimming gets tiresome, and letting it go is a way to give up on something without having it turn rotten or smelly (as they would with household work and bathing).

Heh, 'my ex is late' brought a whole different scenario to my mind at first.

Mine too. Maybe I'm a dude.

My partner had had a just-slightly-more-than-patchy beard for several years by the time I met him. He, too, was newly divorced and looking to move on. So I was poking around the internet for pictures of him, and I saw a pic of him with really cute glasses and clean-shaven. I think I mentioned it to him once over the phone, and he showed up the next week looking like that but with better clothes than the picture. And he looked gooooood.

He's still rockin' it two years later. Only shaves once a week, but that's way better than the weird beard. He really did do it of his own accord, but I like to think he changed it for me :)

My ex shaved his mustache and gave it to me in an envelope after we split up. I'd hated that mustache. My niece, five or six at the time, used to laugh and say he had two mustaches, one on each side (no hair grew in the middle). I've seen pictures and he has a goat-tee now. He's substantially balder, though (of course, I'm substantially fatter).

I like Jon's facial hair. He had a goat-tee when we met. He's growing the chin part long now (I told him it looks like a pussy -- naturally, he just smiled and stroked it thoughtfully). My favorite is the fu (Jon had one for awhile when we were watching Deadwood. I loved it. But it's his face.) He's promised to let me braid his chin.

My beard usual re-appears sometime around November and then goes away in March or April. I hate shaving but can't deal with the beard in the summer. Lately though, the beard is started to look less rugged and more Santa so I'm not sure if I'll be growing it back this year.

octo- don't believe the liars who say only dark beards are hot. FWIW. ;)

I'm friends with nearly all of my exes, most of them on Facebook too. *shrug*

It's almost time to start growing my winter beard.

Oddly, this beard showed up in late spring. I have really debated shaving it, cos I've gone 15 Canadian WINTERS without a beard, why would I grow a summer beard? But, people seem to like it, and I like the change, and part of me even likes the white in it. But, yeah, it's not well trimmed, etc. I keep it short, but that's it...no shapes!

Anyway, I'm sort of cheered to hear that it's not just me.

Come to think of it, I am planning to put together an 1870's outfit for the Xmas housetour this year and big Andrew Carnegie beard would work great with that.

I like beards, moustaches, goatees. And bald heads, love bald heads. X1 never could grow facial hair, both our sons seem to have gotten facial hair genes from my side of the family (my brother has had beards etc. in the past). X2 had various forms of facial hair..last I knew he just had a patch on his chin, two toned (it turned gray from the first cancer drug, then the second drug brought back some color. It's very distinguished and sexy, damn him). And back to the origin of this post..when I threw him out, I kept everything but his clothes and personal items. He never asked for his vast CD collection back, or anything else, so I think of it as a win.