Despite the fact that I'm managing to hold my own at work at present, I find that when it comes to non-work-related issues, I'm terribly brittle. I find myself rather close to tears - of frustration, sadness, anger - when I think about the sorry state that my love life is in. And this only serves to further reinforce my already-dangerous belief that I can't let myself get involved with anyone because all my strength and energy is already taken up by the impossible task of just trying to survive work; I simply cannot cope with anything else. The one lesson I'm taking away from this is that I was foolish to let my guard down with these two seemingly funny and charming but ultimately local guys.