Robert StGenis Voice empowered

Autumn ended up back with Dave for about 3 1/2 years, a time frame almost inconceivable. It is ridiculous enough when couples falsely try to be a couple but for the vast majority of their time back togetherAutumn was treated as the evil step child; literally. Cinderella needed to find her Prince Charming but she wasn't even able to date while living in the same house.  Dave would buy food and make food for the boys and himself and not share anything with Autumn. Dave and Autumn would argue about who bought coffee for the house, whether it could be shared and bluntly would throw it out on each other rather than share it. Autumn was not making much money most of this time and a portion of it she was going to Georgetown. Commuting almost 100 miles each day didn't help things. Partially at my suggestion, I encouraged her not to give money to Dave but rather to pay for things for the boys directly and leave him to handle the home. In addition, she was paying for her own car, auto ...

Autumn went crying back to Dave. We didn't speak for quite some time so I really don't know what happened in any detail for a while. They faked a marriage for a period on the surface, but Autumn was living in her one son's room. This worked perfectly well for Dave I imagine. I don't think he had any interest in being divorced unless he had someone else to "call his own."  Autumn went and lived with her parents at the beach for a period, waiting on tables. This sounded like it worked OK for the season and a little beyond. In fact, she was a waitress or hostess for a few years having no success finding work in her earlier profession. Dave believed this was her way of not contributing to the family. Autumn cared for her boys and wanted her own success but could care less about caring for the home. She never wanted to live there. One of my first memories the only time I visited was of a press board kitchen cabinet door that was half hanging on to the hinge. I...

I don't think there really is a rule of thumb on elevator etiquette. Probably the one thing most true for most everyone anywhere in the world is that it is, at least, somewhat awkward being in a very tight space with most often total strangers. My husband and I live in Downtown LA and travel a lot to various parts of the world. Whether at our own home, Asia or Europe, we are usually riding in an elevator with strangers. Our condo building elevator operates by key fobs. However, if one person taps their fob, they can press other floors for others. This seems to be known by all in the building. I get on the elevator one evening and this lady jumps on, probably in her late 30's, so definitively an adult who should by now have adult manners and she is so immersed in her phone she taps the elevator, presses her floor and moves to the back never looking up. This is simply rude! Almost everyone asks "what floor?", you tell them, they press it and you say "thank you...

It was fall when Autumn arrived at LAX. Autumn's life was a complete trainwreck now without her job there. She had now worked for the only 2 contractors in her specific field, so prospects were limited. I don't know where/how she could apply them elsewhere. I am sure there were probably some stones upturned. I knew that things with her and Dave were horridly toxic and it wasn't good for her or her children. I knew her side income was something that beyond disturbing and potentially leave her easily divorced, but without her children and in prison, albeit it stopped on it's own with the boy toy break up. I pondered and my husband, with great reservation (he is far more level headed generally) offered to have her come move out to LA; at least try to see if it could work. My theory was quality time with her children could be better than what she had been doing with less than 48 hours back and forth over the last year. Autumn and I talked a bunch of scenarios, but the ultim...

Autumn was left with virtually nothing following the storm. She was able to return to the apartment and recover some clothing and small items, but most everything was destroyed by the wind, rain and the physical impact of the tree and roof collapsing on our home. The whole situation seemed surreal to me, but Autumn's life seems to take many surreal turns. Autumn wasn't sure where to she was to live. Her apartment was actually a condominium and while the owner was, of course, going to get the place repaired, it could take months. It didn't seem the owner offered to do anything to help Autumn in the interim and I guess their lease didn't have any provisions requiring the owner to do so. She tried to crash for the short term on a couch of a friend and his wife, but she didn't buy into the idea. One night she slept under her desk at work, being discovered the next day. She dismisses this as not significant. I don't buy it. Add that she was carrying on a relation...

Autumn had worked as a government contractor for the same firm for roughly a decade. She had been able to work from home for most of this time, making it very plausible to maintain the position some 40 plus miles away in one of the nation's heaviest traffic regions and to give birth and raise her 2 begin raising her 2 boys. However, Autumn never really wanted to move this far away from her office. She didn't want to move far away from being "inside the beltway," not because of political ambitions, but just it was what she had grown to be comfortable with in the region and felt it best for her and her family overall. It was Dave that decided to move them further out. Ironically, Dave was also born and raised inside the beltway and his large family is mostly still there with whom he maintains regular contact. Autumn reluctantly moved after the birth of their first son for Dave. Autumn secured her work from home assignment mostly for Dave. Autumn sat without any advanc...

I have 3 female friends and family members presently going through or recently have been through a divorce. I want to share some of their stories. I am not using real names so they remain apart of my life and I don't potentially harm their children. First off, the divorce of Autumn... Autumn and I have been friends since high school. I don't really recall how she came to join our group that day, but she joined us on a day trip to an amusement park. It's the 80's, so 6 of us load up in my Oldsmobile and jump on the NJ Turnpike and are off to Great Adventure, all 14-17 years old. Our parents didn't have GPS tracking from the smartphones we didn't have and no adult chaperone. They just assumed we'd find our way home by around 11 pm that evening, two hours after the park closed. In this case, I don't recall our really doing anything that stood out in our activities, but I was new to the school, having transferred to public school from a private school in...