Validation

I got it today.

Validation.  We all need it and we all seek it.  From wherever.  From whomever.  Even if we don’t think we do.  Even if we are adamant that we don’t.

Today was my last day on the NU gig.  A handful (well, actually, all but two and the boss) of them and I went to Chili's (a 13 second walk from our front door) for some food and drinks (chicken nachos to die for - well, not THAT extreme! and good onion rings too!).  The same co-workers, save two, that maybe I’ve had a few paragraphs of conversation with in the nine months I’d been working there.  Hugs all around at the end (even the Asian ones…is that just not done in China and Singapore?  Second round of awkward hugs for the day.  Sorry, but I’m a hugger).  And then my JY walked me to the train and we both started crying. 

I had pretty much just thought she had been putting up with me and listening to me chatter along because I was the best of all the evils that were there.  Come to find out, the love I had for her was actually reciprocated.  I felt good.  Validated, I guess, that I can be a good friend. Validated because the taste I have in picking friends is WAY better that my taste in men!

Men.  When will I learn.  Just now, hubby #1 pulled the ‘same old same old’ via text.  He’s a button pusher, that one.  But I was on a roll and I shot him one right back.  Blessed silence.  Validation there?  That I made the right decision removing myself from his equation (which remains a very weird equation with many many tangents!)  Can’t regret the first hub though…gave me my oldest and gave me access to an amazing group of friends!!   

Self-validation.  Patting yourself on the back.  Being able to wear lycra tights in public. 

It’s all a boost in confidence J