The Holidaze

Friends,
I met someone in June, he was a nice enough fella, we enjoyed each other's company until well, we didn't anymore.
We continued a friendship through the summer and fall only to have a slight falling out at the first of November.
Before the falling out...I gave his business contact information to a friend- to see if he could get some work started as he's new to Texas.
That friend did indeed call him and the job panned out.
Whilst on the job, that person that was my friend, met a woman- the homeowner of the residence getting the work done...he was attracted to her and he began to get to know her. This made no difference to me, really, you see, because I have been enjoying my new found single-hood- and have never stopped putting out the I'm meeting new people vibe. I didn't wish that he would either, but I was quite fond of our little casual friendship.
Things progressed positively for him and his lady-friend....to the point that he wrote me an email explaining that our friendship was being put on the shelf a bit- as he didn't want to be a burden to me while I sort through a major personal issue.
The struggle I am dealing with now is that after receiving the email I attempted to keep in touch- very casually and not very often, but it did take a couple of weeks for me to adjust to the new boundaries.
My friend did not respond well to my reluctance to accept the changes and it led to our falling out.
The friend of mine that offered him the job, the job that led to his meeting the woman, the woman that led to the demise of our nice little casual acquaintance, that man, and his wife are having a holiday party this weekend on Saturday.
My friend has also been invited.
He is going. I am going as well.
I have five days to wrap my head around what this situation may be like, maintain my current weight to look atleast as good as I do now in the strapless black cocktail party dress that I will be smashing the party in- and I have to come up with at least three go to stories or conversation starters that I can use to mingle and avoid eye contact with former friend or his date- whom i'm already assuming is generic, shallow, uninteresting and a complete waste of space.
Well, I am.
So, moral of the story- irony. And, dating post-divorce is a royal pain in the arse, but still not worse than marriage.
Ciao

It's like the most I can do to create a new station on Pandora

Cyclical motion, not the worst I could imagine but not desirable in the least. I'd like to think I was constantly moving upward but I can't fool even the newest of acquaintances at the moment. So, I will own it. My life is facing a decline unless I make some vigorous conscious changes.
I am still having sporadic thoughts of slight genius inspired by something I'm able to focus my mind on for half a minute. As they come in I am trying to make note of a few a day.
Wow. I'm so bummed about the way things are going I don't think I have it in me to be less vague about it.
I've got my chin up. I'm chipping away at this day by day.