Irish Eyes Aren't Always Smiling

Last night I had a dream about a guy I dated several years ago (obviously). He not only broke my heart but he ripped it out, stomped on it and made it hard for awhile. He was a widower with two children, two jobs and--I later found out--two other girlfriends. That news really threw me considering we saw each other about four times a week and he worked at least two other nights. How he juggled the three of us is still something I can't figure out.

He's an Irish guy who I met while in an Irish bar. My friends loved him and I did, too. In hindsight there were things I should have questioned. Once I was home with his daughter while he and his son were at a baseball game. His ex-girlfriend who I found out wasn't really a former girlfriend at all called. When I asked Boyfriend why she would call, he said that she got close to the kids while they dated and sometimes she watched the children (mind you, she never watched them when we went out). One night another woman unexpectedly stopped by and seemed very shocked to see Boyfriend, two children and me eating dinner together and nervously mumbled something about his son's school. Later I asked Boyfriend why she stopped by and he said that their children attended school together and that she's a little over-protective. Okay, so maybe I was just blind or stupid but it didn't occur to me that he was having relationships with these twowomen.

He broke up with me while we were away on a short trip together. It's fun to fly home with someone you're no longer seeing (where's that sarcasm font?). When I arrived home, I called a friend and she asked if we got engaged while we were away and I had to tell her a few times that we broke up. She didn't believe me so I finally said, "Listen, I was in the room, I know what happened--he dumped me." I was devastated. For a time I was upset about all things Irish: my last name, U2, Van Morrison, good beer, Notre Dame, etc.

So...in my dream I'm in an Irish bar and Boyfriend came up the steps behind me. Someone bought two rounds for the bar so I had two glasses of wine in front of me (but I guess because it's an Irish bar I had two pint glasses filled with wine! Yowza...). We chatted. I asked about his kids. Oddly enough, even in dreamland I did the math correctly and realized his son is now 22 and daughter is 20. He told me his son has four daughters and the whole gang is now living in the states (he had moved back to Ireland). It was a rather long conversation (for dreamtime) and I think I met a new girlfriend/wife but he never introduced us (even in my sleep he doesn't mention women in his life!) and shushed her when she tried to join in the conversation. While we were talking I was thinking he hasn't inquired at all about my life and it's been more than 13 years since we've seen each other...but then it occurred to me he never really was interested in me, was he?

As I reached for my pint o'wine, I noticed there was a snake in the glass and woke up as the snake was hissing at me. My first thought this morning was "yes, Boyfriend was a snake" and was very happy to see Donnie at my side.