My wife says that I'm having a Mid-Life Crisis. Her evidence: (1) Unhappy with my job; (2) Loss of my best friend; (3) Uncontrollable depression; (4) Cut my queue (ponytail); (5) Colored my hair; (6) Bought Contacts; (7) I've started wearing jeans; (8) I bought a biker's shirt (black with dragon) and black jeans; (9) I have lunch with more than my usual set of girlfriends; (10) I searched out an old friend (female) and called her up; (11) I traded phone numbers with an old high school classmate, we met at the movies; (12) Bought two new suits ..... and if I don't shape up, she's leaving me.
We won't discuss why I'm unhappy with my job, that's outside my control for now.
Loss of my best friend is the result of verbal abuse toward me for the past several years and betrayal of trust. Like most of those abused, there's nothing I can do for my friend until she's ready to admit to the abuse. Currently, she's going through a divorce and is very vulnerable. Naturally, someone takes advantage of the situation, making use of her abusiveness to set us both up and cause her to betray our 19 years of trust. Nothing I can do there.
With just the 1st two items, it's no wonder I'm depressed.
I cut my hair on the grounds that no wannabe employer wants a middle aged hippy as an employee. Likewise for the hair coloring (there's still some gray) and new suits. Papa needs a new pair of shoes ... also.
I wore contacts (non-gas permeable) in my late teens (19 - 20). They became scratched when I left them out during the spring pollen season and I could never afford to replace them. Likewise as I grew older, the Optometrists told me there was nothing on the market to take care of my astigmatism (and later, bifocal then trifocal vision). This is my year to remedy that situation. It has taken 4 different fittings so far, but I may just be there. Not that lack of glasses will hurt the job market.
I wore jeans on casual occasions until about 10 years ago. I came to feel uncomfortable in public with a 46-48 inch waist and a 29 inch inseam, so I changed to coveralls (farm hand type). Now that I've lost weight and inches, and expect to lose more, it's back to jeans as cheaper than khaki during the change.
About the black shirt and jeans: Friday is casual day at work, but regular "blue" jeans are not permissible. The shirt was just a "hearkening" back to my biker days, when I wished I had such a shirt but just never got around to getting one. I do wish I had noticed the skull the dragon was wrapped around, I would have gotten another dragon pattern.
As for lunch with other than the usual, the normal pattern was my best friend and others. With my best friend gone, I fill in with other friends. Ok, so they are female. I've always had a better than 9 female to 1 male friend ratio. I like females better than males. I'm not into sports, hunting, fishing or chewing. Currently all my close male friends have moved out of town to better jobs.
The old friend I searched out, was my now ex-best friend's predecessor. It has been 15 years since I last saw her, but I needed an unbiased perspective about things in my life from someone unrelated and whose opinion I trusted. My wife's perspective is definitely biased in regard to what's going on. My friend is having problems in her life and needed to talk as well. Worked for both of us.
The high school friend? Why not? She and her sister have been family friends since high school.