TL;DR: just getting started, felt great, got rejected, feel like shit.

Thanks to a friend i found SALSM a couple of weeks ago and have begun working on myself. I've been married now for about 17 years and mostly have tried to keep her happy by being a nice guy. I've spent those 17 years trying to figure out how to make love to her, and wondering what's wrong with me (or with her) that her interest in sex is so unpredictable. For the past few years, once or twice a month has been about the maximum.

After reading some of each of SALSM, MMSLP and NMMNG, I was feeling great. Joined a gym and started Strong Lifts 5x5. Started trying to keep frame, raised my asshole level from 1 to 2, started trying to do what I want instead of what I think she wants, and it felt great. Yeah i know I'm just starting out and have along way to go; haven't even finished those books yet, and 17 years of beta nice guy will take some time to undo. But i really felt i was making progress and it was awesome.

And we had sex twice last week -- a fucking miracle by usual standards.

Then last night I gave her a warm bath, laid her out naked on the bed, gave her a fantastic (i supposed) massage front and back, and somewhere along the way got shut down with "hey that tickles" and "I guess I'm getting old honey." (She's 47, I'm 44.) Jesus Christ. Not like it's the first time that's happened. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and I don't have a fucking clue.

How many of you more experienced MRPers saw that coming a mile away? Yeah. Smells like a covert contract to me, i guess.

So this morning I'm just so damned angry I can hardly talk to her. It's so frustrating to have her stretched out there naked on the bed in front of me, and I have no control over what happens next.

It makes me feel like it's not even worth trying anymore.

Isn't everything a covert contract? Am i ever going to initiate sex with her and /not/ be disappointed if she's not interested?

Am I ever going to have any say in when we have sex? I'm ready for it whenever she is (except for right now, TBH; i wouldn't touch her with a ten foot pole the way i feel now), but she's ready for it according to some black magic alignment of planets that I'll never understand. I mean really, what the actual fuck is up with that?