I know I overreact to a lot of things, but normally I can keep my overreactions internal. Last night this changed.

As a brief background, here's what's been happening; back in June my mother-in-law (whom I'm very close with and lives right across the street) heard from a COMPLETE STRANGER that Brent and I were getting a divorce. That stranger heard it from an antiques dealer the next town over. We don't know the dealer, either, though we know of the antiques store. We laughed it off, considering we've been together 15 years and friends for 17, and we're closer to each other than any other couple we know personally.

In July, we found out that an agent in his insurance office had been cheating on her husband of 25 years with a claims guy (who is also married). For the sake of ease, let's call her Jane and her husband John. Claims guy is just Claims guy because he's not that important. Jane blindsides John with "I'm leaving you for this wonderful Claims guy whom I've been having a sordid affair with right under your nose". John is devastated, Jane leaves to shack up with Claims guy (whose wife is... moved out? Gone to her mother's? I dunno).

Life goes on. The weird part about Jane and John is that they live right across the cul-de-sac from our good friends, Tom & Ava (their real names LOL). John is frequently talking with Tom about how horrible things are. Cut to last night; Brent came home and since our daughters were outside playing, he said, "Hey, wanna hear something funny?" This type of question usually leads to office-based hilarity where we get to pick on one of his co-worker buddies. Instead, I got, "Apparently I've been sleeping with Jane!"

Don't get me wrong; I KNOW Brent would never do anything like this, and Jane isn't exactly... well, I don't care much for the way I look, but she's somewhat... undesirable to most dudes (thinks she's hot but is rather large and dresses like a teenie-bopper). So, this IS something rather laughable. But when I ask who told him this lovely bit of information, he tells me Tom told him, and JOHN told Tom. John continued to defame Brent by saying "That asshole slept with my wife" and other untruths; Tom tried to back him off, stating that not only was that not in Brent's nature, but that if it had happened Tom would've been the first person Brent would have told. John then moved on to other guys in the office.

My husband isn't a "public figure" in that he's the mayor or whatever, but he's well-known in the farming community because he farms, and well-known in the business community because of his expertise in insurance with highly-rated customer feedback. I'm freaking PISSED that John, who knows Brent (John and Jane came to our annual 4th of July party last year), would slander the hell out of him and the other guys in the office and possibly damage their reputations. Why didn't he just whine about his soon-to-be ex-wife, who was OBVIOUSLY THE ONE AT FAULT?



Brent was upset with himself for telling me after I got angry; I'm not mad at him, obviously. He and I are always good; I just want people to leave us the hell out of their retarded gossip that they pull out of their asses.


If you read all of this, you are a superhero. I'm way too wordy. But I had to put it all down before I lost my mind.