I signed up for a little writing encouragement group and now I am having all sorts of dark spiraling thoughts about my ex. They have managed to alienate me from almost every single person we both knew in writing, and through those connections, alienate me to a fair number of Names in the genre. Every year I find another acquaintance who will no longer talk to me. Every year I mark off another author I admire to whom I can never introduce myself. Why do I even bother?