import datetime

def difference_to_then(event_time, tgt_time=None, make_absolute=False):
    """
    measures the difference between {tgt_time} and {event_time}. this function automatically converts the datetime.timedelta object to seconds. 
    tgt_time defaults to {now}, if it is not specified.

    Note: using divmod(time_diff, interval_duration) may be interesting to determine, how many units of {interval_duration} have passed.
    e.g.,
        divmod(time_diff, 3600) returns a float of hours. This will then return a tuple

    options:
        make_absolute: bool. Whether to return an absolute difference

    Returns: time_diff (float)
    """
    tgt_time = tgt_time or datetime.datetime.now()
    time_diff = tgt_time - event_time
    if make_absolute:
        return abs(time_diff.total_seconds())
    return time_diff.total_seconds()