My co-workers shit a brick when I told them about my impending divorce.  They became outraged when I explained that my wife effectively left me during my surgical recovery, that my 12 year old daughter became my primary care giver at a time when I was too incapacitated to bear down to pee.

One co-worker, whom my wife and I had taken out to dinner and been taken out to dinner by her and her wife started to cry when I told her. 

Without request, somebody is looking for houses for me to buy in Boulder City, outside of Vegas where they live.  It's a tiny, family oriented, no gambling annex 25 minutes southeast of Vegas.

"Don't worry.  Just buy it before you get foreclosed on with the other house.  There's a house on the golf course down the street from me that sold for $400,000 that's on the market for $130,000 right now."

I had a couple co-workers trying to fix me up on dates with their single friends.

"Hey, Tom, how old are you?"

"I'm 56, I just look GOOD for my age."

"No, seriously, how old are you?"

"I'm 42."

Yelling down the hallway to another teacher "He's 42!"

"What, is there an office pool running for how old I am?"

"No, we're trying to set you up with somebody we know.  I thought you were in your thirties."

"Uhhhhh.... I'm not actually divorced yet."

"Yeah, whatever... We'll let you know."

With 25 teachers in my school, there are three men.  Most of the women I work with are close to retirement age.  I've got a hoard of biddies trying to hook me up.

I work with good people.  Public education is going from shitty to apocalyptic here in Vegas.  (Fuck you, tax cutting, teacher firing Republican assholes!)  But even with the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads, my co-workers are rallying to be there for me. 

I've been rejected and tortured by the person I trusted most.  She's going to fuck up my children because of her midlife crisis or infidelity.  I'm going to lose my house.  I've always been the person that people come to for help and advice, ever since I was little. 

When I really needed help myself, at first, I got nothing but crickets chirping.  But now that word is getting out, I'm reaping what I've sown.  When I let people know what was going on, people are there for me, even people I'm not particularly close with.

I'm still in a world of shit and my kids are going down with me.  But there are a lot of people out there with shovels trying to help dig us out.

PS:  Still very sad.  I don't handle rejection very well.