Forgiveness

So it wasn't all my fault. I know that. But as Dan Savage says, say you've got two friends:

One gets hit by lightning, and the other plops his sopping-wet ass down on a third rail. Do both friends—presuming both survive—deserve your empathy and understanding? Of course. But one friend was electrocuted while the other electrocuted his damn self.

I think I fall somewhere in the middle there - more like I decided to walk next to the third rail (rather than on the platform) and someone pushed me onto it.

Someone pushed me - that's the bottom line. When someone does something bad, it's their fault. I blame the sailor and the bouncer for the drugs, which, incidentally, is why I feel so much safer off base in a foreign country than I do on base, surrounded by U.S. sailors. I felt safe in New York because I was married, and because I was part of this Navy club and surrounded by men who wear the same uniform as my husband every day, who are supposed to have character and honor and protect one another and our country. And they betrayed me.

So I smartened up, and I kind of don't trust anybody now, anybody I don't know well, I mean. I haven't had to learn too many things the hard way in my life, and who knows? Maybe this incident prevented something worse, or writing about it will make a couple people a little more vigilant and save some lives.

Thanks for all of your comments and emails and support. Tomorrow I'll write about dinner parties and all-day shopping trips and sweet little girls who don't like my black bean chocolate chili. For now I'm going to spend a little time with a hot cup of coffee and maybe some mac 'n cheese, and I'll get to feeling better.

Oh, and also? Turns out a friend of a friend of mine was drugged AT A FAMILY WEDDING. It's not safe out there, folks. Watch out for one another.