Showing posts with label leaving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leaving. Show all posts

Sunday, June 29, 2008

On the Rocking Horse: Back and Forth

Friday, June 27th 2008 at 3:00pm


Indeed, Crusifer was upset about being denied the beer. However I think I’m making him look worse than he is. Then again (just as matter-of-fact) I always thought I was making Tre look worse than he was, but lets keep in mind that while I may have similar feelings now and again to those I had while I was with Tre that Crusifer is very different.

Crusifer is a logical personal when he’s not affected by conflicting emotions such as jealousy, indignation, defensiveness and feeling enslaved. These emotions make him behave completely inappropriately and illogically even to his own motives. He’s admitted that going out isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, but he hasn’t hit that realization that it’s not worth it the way I did. For me, the realization that having a bunch of friends and being popular wasn’t all it’s cracked up to be was like a smack in the face. I was in the midst of throwing a party and realized that despite all the people in my room I felt alone. Despite all the conversation nothing was being said. Despite all the drugs to make people happy, to me, it didn’t seem like a happy affair. All I could see was a bunch of pitiful teenagers making my room a mess and drinking the alcohol I paid for and mixed.

Over time I realized that not only was having a party not worth it, but attending one was equally useless. The process of attending a party is long and arduous. It takes two hours of dressing, phone calls, and preparing just to be ready including planning transportation there and back. Once you’re there you’re obligated to talk and engage in activities deemed “fun” by the mass appeal of the people there or you look like a “loser.” I’ve come to the conclusion that these activities (drug use, and talking to strangers about nothing) should only be for single people, stupid people, and couples that consist of two people who love to party together. I don’t fit into either of the three categories and if I have my way about it, I never will.

Crusifer however, like me, has never been popular until now and he’s still basking in the glory of people knowing his name, calling his phone and being interested in him. Women are paying more attention to him than they ever have in his life, and he’s flattered. I get that, because after all, I was recently just there. For me, the phase lasted about five months. For him, it’s lasted almost a year now, but I think he’s really coming out of it.

For one thing, when I was truly ready to give up on him he suddenly realized he had truly neglected me and I noticed a genuine change in his attitude. It wasn’t a “how may a please you so you don’t leave” attitude, it’s a “I love you to death, and you’re mine, and I want to marry you, so please, please, please, love me back and want what I want so we can have our lives together” attitude and it’s lasted up to this day.

Relapses are to be expected. I was able to bring him out of his sulking with lots of love and attention, and without prompting he told me how much he appreciated me cleaning the room. He’s reiterated several times this week that I will not work overtime or go out. He scolds me for what he’s done wrong by way of... Hm, it’s this funny thing he does... I didn’t get it at first when he started doing it a year ago. When I thought of something clever or remembered something that he didn’t he’d say, “Good thing I thought about that.” At first I would reply, “But... I just thought of that...”

Now I see that it’s a game, one in where he is filling up some ego with imaginary deeds even though he’s still keeping in mind I was the one who really did them. It’s like the bank having your money and you having your money at the same time basically. Now he’s say, “Good thing I thought about that,” and I’ll say, “Yeah! What would I ever do without you?” In reality, he’s saying, “babe, you rock,” and I’m saying, “no, you rock!” and we both know it, but you’d be damned to understand that if you were listening to our conversation. It works the same way for bad things, when he does something he feels guilty about he scolds me with a smile on his face. This lets me know that he’s sorry, and that he truly intends to keep himself in check and that I don’t have to scold him anymore because he already knows.

This is why I’m completely charmed when he says to me, “Babe you gotta stop working overtime and hanging out with bitch ass niggas. I miss you when you don’t come home to me!”

Sounds silly, I know.


Ashley,

I know it seems silly to be so confident, but I know he’s not cheating. For one thing, he’s the guilty-type, like me, and he’d have to tell me. He wouldn’t be able to hide it. He’d come home with his tail between his legs if he did. Also, if he were sleeping with “barbie gone emo” then why tell me about her at all? That wouldn’t make sense if he wanted to keep it from me.

One also has to bare in mind that we did have an open relationship, so cheating isn’t really my prime concern, even though it bothers me immensely when he’s around other girls. (Which is why we don’t have an open relationship anymore. Neither of us could stand the jealousy we ended up feeling.) He really doesn’t have time for a relationship outside of me when he’s working so many hours. Spending only five hours or so with some other girl wouldn’t keep her around. Also I sit right next to him when he gets the chance to read his e-mail or talk on instant messenger and all he really talks to is his brother or online friends that he plays games with. Sometimes I read his whole conversation, which generally isn’t of much interest.

On top of that, the only person who calls him all the time is El, and I’m pretty sure the two of them aren’t secretly bi and having sex with each other. El is the jealous type and Connie, his girlfriend, is prude, so I know Crusifer isn’t “running train” on Connie either.

All of that being said, Crusifer is rather obsessed with sex, but I can understand that, having been obsessed with sex for at least five years out of my life how can I not understand? Anyone who doesn’t feel that magical bond during sex isn’t properly in love or is busy resenting their partner and has issues to straighten out. Crusifer and I both happen to be rather addicted to that bond, which is why I can’t have him sleeping with other girls, I don’t want him feeling that with anyone but me even if he’s not interested in the female as anything but a body. I suppose that’s the realization that really kicked off my jealousy.

Anyway, you shouldn’t stop writing in your blog... That would be such a depressing event.


Tater,

His particular actions, like those I described in my last entry, are precisely what was driving me over the edge and making me give up. It took a lot of effort to rub Crusifer’s nose in the fact that doing nothing “wrong” can still be wrong just by it’s lack of not being right. As cold is just the absence of heat, wrong is the absence of good. Indifference is the absence of love.

I’ve come to see now that I have a way of wording things that hurts his pride, and that I also have a very controlling tone of voice that make him feel trapped or controlled. As a man, he can’t take it. It’s a struggle for both of us to not let our emotions get the best of us. I get needy and begin to cry at the slightest blow to my pride, and likewise he ignores me and becomes silent and the slightest blow to his pride. When we both hurt each other at worse it only escalates because we’re both sitting there waiting for the other to come to us, and comfort, touch, talk, give in and be sorry.

He behaves like he doesn’t care whenever he feels like he cares too much. He feels like caring too much might turn him into a “bitch ass nigga.” I’ve explained to him something he couldn’t argue with recently:

If a woman and a man are dating, and the man is so enthralled by her pussy and beauty that he does everything she asks upon threat of not getting laid, or upon threat or her leaving then he is being controlled. But if he is so in love with her that he does everything she asks out of choice, and she, instead of threatening him tells him what she wants so he can please her best, and also does for him all that she can out of love, how can you say that he is enslaved?

When I said this to him he couldn’t argue and said it was a very good point. I believe this is just another step into adjusting his perspective. Crusifer’s perspective was damaged by Brianna who made him feel like he couldn’t trust any woman. She became a symbol for betrayal and hatred and women all at once. He hadn’t been in a real relationship since her when he met me. He was afraid to become attached to me, afraid to love me, afraid to do things for me, and the fact that he’s come so far at all is really a wonder.

I pretty much do ask him just the way what’s wrong, and now (though I didn’t used to a few months ago) explain to him how his responses are part of what I base my opinion of him on, and that my opinion will be that he doesn’t care about me if he can’t tell me how he feels.


Sometimes I want to call it quits because of something he does, but then I remember how many things have improved. For one, he’s supporting me with his income. For two, he did quite smoking cigarettes for me. For three, he does rub me, talk to me, pay attention to me or do any other small thing I ask as long as I have not recently hurt his feelings in some way. Four, he’s separated himself from his friends more and more in the last six months even though the process is very slow in the happening.

When I consider the progress as a whole it seems like a lot. It only feels like so little because it’s taken a year and a half for it all to come about. But it was five months into our relationship before he wasn’t embarrassed of loving me. Love itself is frightening to him. Heck, he’s still a little nervous about masturbating near me. It makes him terribly self-conscious, but before he couldn’t do it at all.

He finally smiles when I tell him he’s beautiful instead of feeling like I’m “playing him” or some other silly thing. He’s stopped calling me a liar. He likes my parents and though uncomfortable around them he is trying to find more ways to be around them and me together. He’s become more open about discussing his feelings with me even though he’s still struggling with getting them out in a coherent manor.

I know it might seem like I’m just jumping to his defense, but honestly I’m not. Over the past couple weeks I’ve mostly been really happy. There have been about three incidents that have really hurt me, but even those incidents were repaired almost as quickly as they happened.

I finally got him to stop ignoring me shortly after writing my last entry and the rest of the day went rather smoothly and happily as a matter of fact. Actually, if I hadn’t written that entry I would have forgotten that I had been upset at all because we had so much fun cooking together, watching Taro the Dragon Boy together, staying up late, and digitally painting.

Rosie,

Which banner was that? I know a couple of my banners are a little frisky... I don’t think Andrew ever rejected any of them though...

I’m going through the same struggle to getting Crusifer “dry,” but we’re stilling struggling will the first step, which is realizing that there is a problem. Sometimes he admits to having one, and other times he says “but I don’t drink that much.” I think I might have gotten through to him on the fact that I want him to quit because I care about him at least though.


I hope that by our two year anniversary I can say he’s “dry” like you can say about your man... As for him leaving, the last thing he’s thinking about is leaving. If this clears up anything, when I tell him that I might as well give up, he pleads with me not to give up on him and to keep pushing him to improve himself. That at least goes to show that he likes that I push him...


Sunday, June 29th 2008 at 12:35am


Today was Asa’s birthday party. I had fun, as I always do at game night. I brought him two prints, three post cards and one magnet from the Phoenix’s Muse Creations vault, and he liked them a lot. I was so pleased that he liked the selections.


Sunday, June 29th 2008 at 1:49pm


Crusifer is supposed to go shopping with his mom today. Around three o’clock she’s going to come pick him up to go to the boulevard mall. He plans on buying new sneakers. I suppose I don’t really mind him going if he really is going to be back before seven. It’s just that though, I don’t really believe that he’ll be back before seven. Of course, I also don’t believe that she’ll really come without confirmation and he’s convinced she will call him...

In other news, I’ve been up for about an hour. I’ve been having odd hours lately... Much odder than getting up at 12:30pm. I went to sleep at about 8:30am which is becoming common for me, and I especially like being awake when the birds start chirping and during the middle of the night thunder storms and to see the light behind the curtains grow from pale to bright.

I’ve never been a morning person in terms of waking up, but incidently I love the feel of about seven in the morning. It’s quiet and peaceful and the air seems to just smell good. The sunlight seems so beautiful after hours of a dimly lit room and the birds singing makes it seem like some sort of reprieve from life, a song in honor of the earth. I wonder what a different world it would be if we got up and sang to the glory of the earth every morning.

In other unrelated thoughts... Crusifer just got a phone call from some dude. He’s becoming so fucking popular and I can only see it as a hindrance to our life together. “Barbie gone emo” is named Kara which is, of course, one of his new friends. Sam has gotten tattooed by him now which is a long-time friend of both him and El since before he knew me. And Sam... When, he’s had thoughts of fucking her since long before he met me. El has called him twice today so far, and some other guy who is a “new friend.” I swear I flinch every time his phone rings. It’s actually silly of me because he never spends more than ten minutes on the phone really.

I’m wondering if I’m pregnant. (Really random, I know.) My period was only three days long and I’ve heard of having short periods when early on in a pregnancy. I’ve even heard of never losing your period at all during pregnancy in rare cases. I’m ten pounds over the weight I was a week and a half ago, and during my three-day period when I was seven pounds over the weight I’ve been for two months now (120lbs) which I considered usual since I was on my period. But since I’ve actually gone up another three pounds up to 130lbs which is what I was for a long time before I suddenly lost another ten pounds, so I’m not worried about the weight, but it does set me to wondering.

So that’s the physical signs: the short period and the weight gain. There are also two intuitive signs. During an argument I had with Crusifer during my period I had this sudden vision of myself sitting on the toilet screaming in tears. It was clear to me that in the vision I knew I was having a miscarriage and was deeply distressed and also in a lot of pain. I thought the vision was odd, but I had this very strong energy coming from my stomach and I felt that trance-feeling that I get while in a meditation which is also odd to have out of the blue. And on top of that, Mary said over dinner the day before yesterday, “I’m getting that sick feeling... Someone is pregnant.”

Now, not to discredit Mary’s abilities, but sometimes she jumps the gun a bit with her inclinations. I think her spiritual connection is very high, but her interpretations of what her impressions are... Those are questionable. She’s too easily influenced by her own feelings which is often what hinders us from seeing truth, whether were getting truth intuitively or through physical signs.

If I were pregnant now and held it for full term that would mean having my baby in March, one month before our tentative wedding date. That would be highly inconvenient for a number of reasons, one of which being the making of the dress. How could I be fitted for it and try it on when in full bloom? And beyond that, it would be hard to say my final size because I’d be nursing so my bust size would be different than it is now. So if I was pregnant, a miscarriage would be ideal... Even in heart-wrenching.

I felt like the vision was three-months into it, so at that point I’d be sure I was pregnant, and I would have told my mom by then that I knew. I just have to hope I’m wrong. Because even with the vision I can’t keep myself in denial if I was pregnant. I can’t just say, “well, I’m going to have a miscarriage so I won’t worry about it, or get attached to it.” Hence why, three months in, I would be so distressed emotionally as well as physically to have one.

I suppose I’m jumping the gun to be thinking about it this much, but there is a lot to be considered if I really was having a baby in nine months. There is still so much work to be done first. If Crusifer and I are really getting married and are really having children the earliest time I’d prefer to get pregnant is the month of our wedding., but more preferably in June or July or even August of 2009. Then I’d have a spring baby, though if I did get pregnant in April I’d get to have a January baby, like myself.

Speaking of birthdays. Crusifer’s birthday in July 20th. I’ve made some moderate plans, but nothing final, and nothing extravagant as of yet. I believe his birthday lands on a Sunday... Yep, the third Sunday of July this year... He has no requests in particular, so it’s up to me to do the best I can at pleasing him.


Angel Writes:

I like the sound of that, Atara =]] maybe (just maybe) we could very well be sisters in spirit.

Yeah, the whole "split personality" feeling is driving me insane... at least a little bit. I'm really just trying to not get caught up in everything lately.

LOL well I can send you some pictures of me if you want me to...

I'd love to stay over there for an entire month because I need time away from this reservation. People are getting more insane by the minute! But I asked my parents and we all agreed that one week is much more suitable like you suggested. So, the ticket is about $245 I think. I AM GOING TO SEE YOU!!!!! =]] Ha, I'm uber excited. When do you think is the best time for me to come? I was thinking, the last week of July or either the week before. I'm so thrilled! :)

Oh cool, I never heard of SFX convention; so I'm stuck wondering what that is... but hey I'd love to tag along!

Hmm... well, I think Crusifer and I can become friends... but I understand what you mean. I can be a bit quiet but I try not to be.

...

Sorry for not writing much but I feel like shit right now..... I hate feeling so lonely. Times like these I wish that I had real friends (offline not just online) so they can be here when I need them. The thing is, I'm the girl everyone comes to when they feel low. They come to me for advice which is strange because I don't have all the answers. Nobody does, eh? You're pretty much my inspiration though. I felt like mentioning that.............. but yeah it's kind of hard when you're the friend people turn to . I don't mind really because I love helping them out. It's just, what does the girl who people believe have all the answers, doesn't know what to do and has nobody to turn to, what does she do?


I write angel back:


Sister-spirit Angel,

I would like to see what you look like. I met Pete (an online friend from when I was very young who I still talk to from time to time... Which reminds me I need to call him back...) Without seeing a picture before hand and was rather surprised at his appearance when I met him. How can you be anything but surprised when you make up some image in your head with no physical facts to go on? For example, knowing that you’re native-american prepares me for a standard native-american look, but I might be a little surprised if you had bleached your hair blond and might not even believe it was you for a bit while I sorted out the complete wrong-ness of my mental image! Okay, anyway, I just wanted to say that just because requesting pictures sounds so stalker-ish.

In terms of when I’d like to suggest either the 14th to the 19th or the 21st to the 26th. I suggest those two because I think it would be best if you were not here on a Sunday because Crusifer doesn’t know anything about you and he might resent spending both his days off (Wednesday and Sunday) with you when he usually spends them just with me. Also, the 20th happens to be his birthday and it wouldn’t be prudent to have someone he doesn’t know there, which also happens to be a Sunday this year. Since I have no obligations the rest of the time when he’s at work, which is most of the day (noon to 11:30pm) every other day of the week we’ll have plenty of time in those six days to go out and explore Buffalo and talk and stuff. Perhaps we could do some crafts – I don’t know how much you like crafts or how much you’ve done of them but I have all kinds of paints, pastels, markers, block-crayons, colored papers, glue-sticks, a glue-gun, tape, designed-tape, designed-papers, and probably more things I’m not even thinking of... Like the charcoal pencils and graphite stick.

So do either of those sound feasible for you? The fourteenth is a Monday and the nineteenth is a Saturday, and the same goes for the twenty-first to the twenty-sixth. Incidently, I did ask if he minded you coming down to stay with us for a bit. I didn’t mention how long or anything like that. I only mentioned that we’d been talking via e-mail for a long time and that I think you’re really cool. He said, “as long as she doesn’t steal my shit I suppose I don’t mind,” and I said, “well, she’d probably be sleeping on our other bed,” and I pointed at the futon, “so that’s why I thought I’d ask.” He shrugged and said he didn’t mind.

You ought to know (from reading my blog) that he’s a bit one-minded sometimes, so of course he also asked if you were hot and if you wanted to sleep with him. Don’t worry, he wouldn’t make an unwelcome advance on you or anything like that, but well... If you wanted to... Well, things might be able to be arranged, but that’s probably getting ahead of myself and I don’t have any idea how you’d feel about any sort of thing, and well... You know, how we were looking for a girl-friend in the past. We pretty much gave up because we never meet a chick who is both intelligent and hot and on top of that likes both of us and not just one of us.

I never even thought to ask if you were bi... Maybe I did and forgot your answer? I’m sure if you told me you were bi I’d remember, so if I did ask then you’re straight. Anyway, nothing for you to worry yourself about, there is no sort of expectation on that level whatsoever and as I said, Crusifer would never make an unwelcome advance, but I thought I’d mention it just in case you would be interested, just so you’d know it was an option and all. After all, I know you’re love-life hasn’t been very fulfilling for you in the past, especially recently...

Anyway, I hope none of that makes you uncomfortable or anything. That’s the sort of thing that generally makes people shy away from me. I’m too honest, and too out-there with too many things for most people to handle. But after everything we’ve talked about... I just feel like we’ve “been through” enough things to warrant being able to say anything to you, you know? I’m slowly starting to believe you really won’t forget about me or shy away from me just because of something silly.

Anyway, I of course know what you mean about not having offline friends to talk to. Since I’ve never had an in-person friend that I could tell anything to I’ve never even felt like I had a real friend. I’ve become close to a few people, even if for a short period of time, but there is never anyone I could say anything at all to except for those I’ve dated. What’s extraordinary about Crusifer is that there were even deeper things about me that I couldn’t fully share with Jeremy or Tre that I have been able to share with Crusifer which is probably why I’ve felt even more attached to him, which I hardly thought was possible before I met him.

Perhaps we can be the sort of real friends that we’ve never had before and outlast all the silly changes in life which tear people apart. Hm, after saying something that “dramatic” I feel a loss for further words to add to that...

Anyway, let me know if either of my date selections works for you, and if either of them works for you then you may go ahead and make any and/or all preparations you need without any further confirmation from me. You have the welcome of my mother and I both and Crusifer’s permission, so that’s all you need on this end. The plane ticket price you mentioned is a tad higher than I expected. You might want to check around online as see if there is a better deal out there. Is that a round-trip price I hope? Considering that I don’t expect you’ll be bringing a lot of spending money with you, which is fine. There isn’t tons of special stuff to buy in Buffalo or anything, and an extra person’s worth of groceries for a week shouldn’t be a problem for us, and you’d be going with us on our weekly trip on Wednesday so you’d be able to pick out a few things you’d prefer.

I look forward to your reply. I hope you feel better. Perhaps you will cheer up as the prospect of visiting me. I know I let out a happy squeal which made Crusifer look at me out of the corner of his eye when I read that your parents said you could come, which is when I explained to him about you and asked if he minded at all... Anyway, write back soon.


And I suppose I might as well include a list of things you should bring:


- Obviously all your bathroom stuff. You should make sure you have your own "bathroom bag" so that no one mistakes your stuff for my stuff and uses it. (My Dad and Crusifer go ahead and use my stuff without asking all the time.) Don't worry about towels or wash cloths unless you have something against using ours.


- A swimsuit just incase we decide to go to Darien Lake or to the beach.


- A nightgown (or two) you wouldn't mind wearing around me or Crusifer. A robe might very-well be useful too.


- Any particular night stuff you prefer to have is welcome, but we have plenty of extra pillows, blankets, sheets and other such things if you'd like them so unless you have a certain preference you won't need them.


- Slippers if you have them. You'll want them for going up and down the stairs to the attic since they are not well-swept generally and your feet might not take a liking to them bare as Crusifer and I usually go.


- A laundry bag of some sort might be a good idea. If you have a flexible fold-up laundry-bin-thingy that would be preferable. We have a zillion of them in this house, but usually they’re all in use at once and I’d hate to have to mix your stuff or put it in a plastic bag or on the floor or something. Whatever you generally use if it’s easily portable would probably be best.


- A laptop if you have one. Any PC games or PS2 games that you have and like to play.


- A notepad, book and sketch pad are three things I’d never go anywhere without so I’ll suggest those as well.


- One outfit you feel dressed-up in (in case the occasion arrives) and one outfit you feel very comfortable in. I’d also suggest bringing the warmest outfit you have as well as the coolest outfit you have because of the unpredictable weather. Considering all the rain you should bring a rain coat too. In terms of other clothes, whatever you feel comfortable in or whatever you think would be fun to wear is probably fine. Nobody in this house will look at you odd if you have any fashion quirks, after-all, consider all the weird things I wear.


- Digital camera if you have one. If not, you can take all the pictures you want with either my mom’s camera or Crusifer’s and I can send the pictures to you via e-mail, or just upload them to photo-bucket so you can save them from the internet. In fact, I’d even be able to print a bunch for you before you left.

- Cell phone assuming you have one, and don’t forget your charger! If you have a lot of little electrical gadgets, like a cell phone, lap top, digital camera and a PSP you might want to consider bringing your own power-strip since our outlets tend to be rather full. We have generally about four empty spaces, but that’s like one empty space per power-strip. If it’s only one or two things, don’t worry about it though.


- A hat and a scarf. The rain makes it windy and I’d love to take you don’t to the water front where it’s very windy.


- Identification, perhaps even including your birth certificate if you wish to visit Canada while you’re here. The peace bridge is only about eight blocks from my house so Canada isn’t far at all. But border crossing can be a pain without proper ID. I think you need both your social security card and your birth certificate, or perhaps just two forms of ID, one of which being your birth certificate. If you’re not interested in visiting Canada, I suppose it doesn’t much matter, but it’s always good to have ID just incase of something happening. I suppose you’d need it to get on a plane in the first place come to think of it.


- Any cosmetics, hair brush, jewelry and other girly stuff you can’t live without should be a must bring. Also, just as womanly advice, always bring pads, because you never know, and it sucks to use some other woman’s pads who wears some odd shape you’re not used to. Believe me, I know that from experience. I’ve had to deal with tiny panty liners that wouldn’t do for more than an hour as well as huge pads that felt like diapers because I didn’t have my own. Also, you might want to make your choice on which dates to choose based on your period in case you hadn’t thought about that.


- An extra luggage bag with nothing in it, or with food in it. You’ll probably end up taking more home than you came with. It’s kind of impossible to go an any trip without bringing new things home. If you pack a bag with food then an empty one won’t be needed since it will be empty by the time you’ve eaten all of it.


Whew, I come off as a travel expert don’t I? I suppose I’ve learned a lot about it from all my poor travel choices in the past. I suppose my only last bit of advice is to consider what you normally do to entertain yourself. We won’t be out and about and doing something together for a full six days, so you should consider what you’re going to be doing when you’re by yourself. You’ll be able to use the computers, and we have plenty of crafts, but nothing will substitute whatever makes you feel comfortable in the first place. Hope to be meeting you soon and reading your reply much sooner.


Sunday, June 29th 2008 at 10:00pm


Let’s see here... I know his phone isn’t dead because it was fully charged right before he left. I know he’s not having service problems because he’s not at work. I know it isn’t a work obligation because, well, he’s not at work, and the shop isn’t even open today.

I whole chest aches. If he can’t give me a phone call now I can just imagine going into labor and not being able to get a hold of him. He just doesn’t understand the full implications of his actions, otherwise he wouldn’t tell me he’d probably be back shortly after six o’clock when the mall closes but not call me since five o’clock.

At five o’clock he called, and I excitedly answered (even though I had just fallen asleep, but I decided not to tell him that because I want him to call). He said he was about to leave for the mall with his mom right then, and I said, “Babe the mall closes in an hour, why didn’t you go right away?”

He said, “Some niggas don’t get to see their mom’s everyday. I’m spending time with my mom right now, I told you that!” Could he have been any more defensive?

Trying not to get angry I said, “Why are you getting so defensive. You told me you were going to the mall with your mom and that you were going to buy shoes. So why would I be wrong to wonder why you’re not there?”

“Whatever. I should get going. I’ll call you later.”

“Okay. I love you.”

“I love you too.” He hung up before I can give him a phone-kiss like we always do. I wanted to scream and made a mental note not to expect him before eight o’clock and went back to sleep within half an hour. At eight o’clock my mom called and woke me up telling me there were potatoes downstairs. I ate them with a good enough attitude, but by nine o’clock (after calling him several times) my spirits were down. I watched the last hour of a movie called Rain. I just finished watching it before this entry, and called him again. No answer.

I’m trying so hard to put my full energy into him. In fact, I am putting my full energy into him. I’ve been braiding his hair because he likes how it looks when he takes it out in the morning. I braided his whole head just to give him the pleasure of it being braided, just for it to be taken out a few hours later. I’ve been putting him to sleep every night. I’ve been having sex with him every night. I’ve been doing every little thing I could come up with to do for him besides!

I don’t deserve this shit. There is at least one man out there who would appreciate me more... But I don’t want to give up on him. I feel so trapped in my own emotions. I get so emotional about him that I’m not sure when I’m trusting my gut, my heart, my spirit or my head. It’s all mixed up when it comes to him... When he pulls stunts like this my whole flesh and spirit scream at me to walk away before he causes me anymore pain, and then my entire flesh and spirit screams back that I can’t!

If I do get a hold of him and he’s as defensive or worse as before I don’t know how I’m going to hold myself together. It’s time for the annoying repeatedly calling... That’s one ring through. When I say annoying, I mean annoying for me, not for him. I can feel my heart pounding and I’m sitting still. Redial for the second time... Deep breaths... This is no cause to be getting so worked up.

But it’s ten-fifteen! Come on. When he was here this morning he spent the only time with me fucking me. Yes, he brought me a cup of tea and gave me affection for about ten minutes. Then it was back to his computer which is giving him a hard time... (End of the fifth ring through... Redial.) I understand that he wants to get his laptop configured to it’s maximum capacity and everything and that he’s mid-process and it’s not functional again yet... (Redial.) But for him to spend his only two hours with me on his computers, then leave off with his mom, get defensive on his one phone call, not call when staying out later than expected... (Redial.)

It’s infuriating. Oh! This time it didn’t make it to voice mail! He ignored the call! Now my heart is really pounding... With pure anger. (Redial.) I’m shaking worse than a leaf. I don’t care what his excuse is. (Redial.) There just isn’t an excuse. (Redial, redial, redial, redial, leave a heart-broken message and repeat.)

I don’t even know which one of us is being immature. Well, like he said: Whatever! I’m done calling, seven straight minutes of non-stop dialing isn’t good for my health. I don’t how I’m going to keep from being bitter when (if ever) he gets home tonight... Probably won’t get home tonight.

I know he’s not going to be at his mother’s house this late. Nah, he went out with “da boys” and he’s drinking right now, and Cav won’t answer the phone. You know what, he wants to play this game, then he can forget it. He can forget all of it. One of these days the straw is going to break my back. (Fuck the camel, I’m worried about me here.) I’ll keep forgiving and forgiving and forgiving and one day I’ll be convinced he’s never going to change and then it will be over. Otherwise I’ll just settle for being supported by him despite my loss of love for him, but I doubt I could ever settle for that. I’m too used to being so deeply in love.

I want to scream and shout and throw a hissy-fit all over the place. How stupid, stupid, stupid can I be to really believe things are changing? I know by tomorrow we’ll probably have this worked out all over again, but surely his words will stop soothing me. Just like one day it didn’t matter how much Tre cried or promised. One day (at this bloody rate) it won’t matter what Crusifer says, and I’ll throw everything away to find real love again. I know I’m not at fault this time. I know I did absolutely nothing wrong, and all the more the pitty because I won’t blame myself for any part of this and therefor he’ll get the full score of blame in my memory for this one. I couldn’t have done a damned thing better for him in the entire past week short of taking him a sandwich at work everyday. And hell, most of the week I didn’t have time for that away.


Janeane,

You’re completely right and completely wrong at the same time. I’d like to start out by saying you can’t anger me with honesty, especially not heart-felt honesty. And your point about him being not great, and not nice is a well-taken point though not completely on the mark, but after all, if you only read one entry, of course that would seem to be the case, and many times it is regretfully the case. I should point that out to him.

I like that you pointed this out: “I'm really not digging his going out with other girls so late at night and getting drunk twice in one weekend.” It’s not just that he’s out with other girls (his customers) it’s also how late at night it is. I don’t think 2am until 4am is a reasonable time for him to be hanging out with anyone other than me. It’s disrespectful just by itself. Not calling me makes it three times as bad. It being with a girl and the fact that he was smoking weed with her makes is so bad I can’t even use a multiple. Coming home and “bragging” about it is downright contemptuous and disgusting. That stunt, and then this today... I might as well go hang myself, or at least hang my dreams.

The communication isn’t the best, but it’s actually not that bad. We do talk about things. The real issue is that he’s not very loyal to his own words. He says things like “I don’t need my friends.... I don’t enjoy going out most of the time... I want to improve myself... You are the most important thing in my life... My goal is to get you in that wedding dress,” and more similar things and he also says, “I just want to have fun and have a drink with the boys... I work sixty-fucking-hours a week and if I want to go out with my friends then I’m going to go out with my friends... I don’t have a drinking problem, what’s wrong with a couple drinks here and there? It doesn’t cause problems in my life.”

The real problem is that he’s the biggest fucking hypocrite on the planet. An explosion is warranted, but wouldn’t be helpful. I have exploded and all that does is make him more defensive. I look at our relationship as being deseased, and somewhere there is a cure between the two of us, and that cure is based in loving mutual compassion. And that is my goal in life. I do not have career aspirations, and I do not have other friends, and I do not go out and do anything without considering him because I consider that to be a good woman and a good lover and most importantly what a good wife does, and also what a good husband should do. All these men and women out there are living separate lives from their spouses, and all these married people are getting divorces. Perhaps because they spent too much time apart and not enough time connecting with each other and loving each other and doing things together.

Frankly, I don’t care how clingy that sounds. Other loving men out there will agree, and if Crusifer can’t wake up to the type of life I’m trying to give him, then he needs to leave. I do center my life around him, and that is what I want from life, and that is where you’re completely wrong. But you are right that I won’t settle for someone who ignores me. He keeps this act up and he’ll be history very quickly. I need to quit thinking marriage and babies and start thinking in a girlfriend/boyfriend mind-set. I’m trying to be his wife and he’s trying to be my lover. The two don’t go together, and that is that.

Thanks for being honest. I hope you stop by again. Your input is valuable to me.

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

No Weed For Me, Thank You

Saturday, May 31st 2008 at 9:42pm


I experience a deep connection with my writing. It’s not a simple connection, but rather, it’s a soul connection. Mort Fertel just explained this to me in the fifth CD of the marriage fitness program. I’ve finally arrived at step four of the marriage fitness plan. Step four is to “save yourself” for your spouse. Save your soul for them, that is.

Mort Fertel explains that you soul is your “I” and your character is your “self.” He explains this by demonstrating statements we make like, “I want to change myself,” and “I like myself” and “I needed to find myself” and “I wonder who I would be if my mother had married a different man.” These statements make your self both the object and subject of the statement. When you make a statement like this, you’re acknowledging that even though your character changes, your “I” does not change. Mort Fertel calls your “I” your soul, and I couldn’t agree more. Even for people who don’t really believe in “souls” this makes a good explanation for what we mean when we say soul.

Mort goes on to talk about your soul’s connection with your spouse. This is the key to making your relationship last he says. And I believe it with all of my heart. The question is: how? How do you connect your soul with your partner’s soul? He gives us four steps. Step one is put your spouse before everything. Before work, before children, before friends, before hobbies, before anything and everything. I already do that for Crusifer, but as I’ve revealed, he does not put me first, he does not even put me second, but rather, he puts me third. This expresses one of the deep disharmonies in our relationship despite all our “compatibility.”

Mort could probably spit on compatibility, though he’d never do it publicly. His entire book is about dropping all your thoughts of compatibility. Stop trying to make yourself compatible for your partner! Stop trying to make them compatible with you! Instead, focus on becoming lovers again. Focus on becoming the soul mates that you were when you met, before the love burned up. Mort speaks truth. He is to relationships and emotional health like Dr. Mark Hyman is to physical health. My two heros. They ought to meet.

The fourth step of the marriage fitness plan is to save your soul and the connection it offers for your spouse. Don’t give it to your sister, your friend, your dog, your hobby, your work, your parents or your children, because while you may love them, you are not their soul mate, and just like they are not first on your priorities, they do not belong in your soul. Your soul-mate belongs in your soul, and only your soul mate. I realize from this that my mother may not leave space for my father in her soul because of the way she connects with me. And my father most certainly doesn’t put my mother first. And while they both give, they don’t give their presence in their presents, and if they do, it’s most certainly not often enough.

I realize now that I connect to my writing with my soul. I write more beautifully and more often when I’m in pain because I’m using my connection to my writing to ease the lack of connection with my soul mate. Writing calms my pain, but it also uses up all of connection that I could be giving to Crusifer. But he doesn’t have time to receive all of my thoughts and all my love and all of my passion. His time and effort and passion is all put into his work. He comes home empty. It makes me feel like crying at just the thought. I want the relationship, and the marriage that Mort prescribes. If I do all of his exercises for several months and can not receive the same love and priority and presence from Crusifer, then I will not be able to marry him, because I have such a clear vision of what I want now.

I want a soul mate, and nothing else with satisfy me.



Sunday, June 1st 2008 at 12:07am


It still feels like Saturday night, even though it’s the very beginning of Sunday morning, according to my digital clock, which reads “am” instead of “pm.” That’s something that never ceases to amuse me. Surely it’s night, and not morning. I’m awake every morning if this is morning. Morning to me is distinctly between sunrise and noon. That time of the day has a very particular feel, especially if you’re outdoors during this time. Midnight feels nothing like what I consider to be morning. Midnight feels distinctly different from the rest of the day as well. I start to feel lazy, though my brain still remains active and alert, if not more active and alert. I love to play video games, write, read and watch TV after midnight. I especially love sex after midnight, being aroused and having sex that is...

Cripes! There is a sore topic with me these days. Sore being just the word to bring up how much I loath the cruel twists of life. I can’t get over what a sick twist of plot my life has when it comes to sex. It drives me insane with grief, anger, stress, guilt, and yearning, all of which to be left unsatisfied.

From age nine – horny, naive, desperate, and depressed. To ten – my early yeast infections, hornier still, just as naive, continual desperation and depression, getting my period, my breasts budding and painful. To eleven – internet sex, inability to orgasm and not understanding why, phone sex, more depression, more desperation, continual suicidal thoughts, beginning to awaken from how naive I was only to be further flushed with how little I knew, and alienation at school at an all time high. Twelve – my first “boyfriend” who was more like a guy I agreed to make out with, touch on and let feel me to appease his curiosity and my ever-growing hunger and lust, with more yeast infections getting worse and more fierce all the time, keeping me from peeing because I was so afraid of the burning blinding pain, even getting a urinary track infection at the same time as a yeast infection, and finally losing my virginity to a six-teen-year-old boy but still never achieving orgasm, not finding love, not finding any satisfaction or happiness, and further alienation from my classmates.

Thirteen – my father gives me a vibrator and I discover the orgasm. The yeast infections continue. My raging hormones continue, but it’s almost a year before I have sex again. I meet Jeremy though it takes me a long time to fall in love with him. I sneak out of my house for sex, and I once let a random guy pick me up, which turned out to be a mistake but I escaped with nothing damaged but my dignity. Depression still loomed, and the press for love, for companionship, for sex only getting heavier and harder to bear.

Fourteen – madly in love with Jeremy I strive to make myself a better girl for him. But I was still wild with hormones, and instead of just making love to Jeremy I flirted all over the place because I didn’t know how to contain myself. I was less depressed at fourteen for the most part, until the fire. More yeast infections, and they came around at all the worst times year after year, especially during vacations. They stopped “just” burning, and starting burning and itching at this point. I couldn’t achieve an orgasm during sex, but I enjoyed it none the less. I still was yearning for something though, and nothing could explain what.

Fifteen – Jeremy leaves me, and I’m left heartbroken. I become more depressed than I’ve ever been. I become genuinely suicidal, I did more than just think about it. I was livid with my lust for escape the constant ache in my heart. Anything to save me and I would take it. Travanti was the first thing that came along that I deemed a suitable escape. At first I treated him like just an escape, and his rescue transformed into love.

Sixteen – I finally find orgasms during sex with Tre, but then he turns out to be a gangster. He turns out to not be the person I thought I was going out with at all. He turns out to be violent, and constantly so. A modern version of a beginner ninja with way more knowledge than a boy six months younger than me ought to have. He’s scary, and I couldn’t leave him sometimes when I wanted to from fear. I was abused verbally constantly and mildly physically as well. My emotional state completely fell apart. Ironically I think I had the least infections during my relationship with him, but then again, I might have had the least sex. My fear of him, and often my anger with him, or disappointment or depression and in the end my resentfulness and distantness caused me little desire for sex with him. Though I had smoked weed a bit and drank a bit from the age of fourteen, at sixteen I did it on a weekly basis at first, and then a daily basis. (The weed daily, and drinking weekly or so.)

Seventeen – My senses numb to Tre. My heart seals it self off. I leave my second love, my second two-year relationship. I feel elated for a short time with my new found freedom. I meet Crusifer, and after a few times of making love I think I’ve caught an STD. I have the worst yeast infection to date. It lasted the longest, was the ugliest, was the most painful, etc. I saw the doctors about it, and they reported me clean. Not only of STDs, but also of a yeast infection. They didn’t know what was wrong.

Eighteen – Madly in love with Crusifer we have the best sex I’ve ever had – passionate and loving. I orgasm nonstop, and unlike the orgasms I had with Tre they are really fulfilling. I quit weed and shortly thereafter quit drinking. My health improves, I loose weight, five pounds at first, then ten, then twenty, and then thirty total after a year since my diet and lifestyle changes. The only catch? The mystery pussy problems. My continual yeast infections switch from burning when I pee to itching so terrible it keeps me from doing anything. In addition I get a new sensation during my period that makes the inside walls scratchy and painful to touch.

Nineteen – The infections continue at an increased rate. Instead of one or two a year, I’m getting infections every two or three months. The period pain extends to all the time. The spot that causes pleasure is often dead to me. I go off birth control hoping it will help; which made my breasts stop swelling and hurting but everything else continued. My relationship with Crusifer is the best I’ve ever had, and yet, and yet, I’m still seeking that soul mate in him, in my relationship. I’m seeking continual and strong love. Now I know what I’m after at least. But of all things, I finally have a horny and passionate man, but my infection rate has skyrocketed and on top of that my sex drive has vanished. I find it terribly difficult to become aroused. I’ve practically forgotten what it feels like.

Fantasies surely are playing a joke on me. I no longer fantasize about anyone but Crusifer, which is fine of course, but nothing I conjure in my mind really arouses me. Thinking of Crusifer makes me feel warm and fuzzy, but it doesn’t make me want sex. Nothing seems to make me really want it. Candle light helps. Being nude helps. Being affectionate and receiving affection helps a lot. But I think what it would really take for me to experience really being horny again is for Crusifer to touch me specifically for the purpose of arousing me. For some reason he doesn’t like to do this. I think talking about sexual things would help a lot too. We used to do that all the time, the infections seemed to have killed that sort of conversation, that in addition to my sudden jealousy of other women.

Thinking about sex makes me miserable, and perhaps that’s why I don’t get aroused anymore. All I can think about is all the problems sex has caused me. It’s driven me to madness when I was very young. The plagues of infection. And the quest for orgasm. The disappointment when I’m unable to please my partner, which seems to be always. Of course I can please him, when I don’t have a damnable infection! It’s so bloody frustrating! And why does having sex during my period feel like having sex with fire as a lubricant now? It never used to, but now it always does. How is that logical?

I want to be horny again. I want my pussy to stop hurting. I want to have sex with Crusifer! I want to please him. I want to feel that intimacy. I feel like shit. I’m nine-fucking-teen, and this is just blazing ridiculous and preposterous! I hardly have a good word for how much it outrages me!

I feel like no one understands, after all, who do you know who gets infections that are not STDs but are not yeast infections? Anybody? If you do, please tell me what they do to remain sane.


Sunday, June 1st 2008 at 1:57am


Two in the morning. This doesn’t surprise me. Crusifer said he might go out tonight. I have already pre-consented to all Fridays and Saturdays. It’s just that he won’t answer my phone calls. This worries me. And after how distant he was this morning... And how long it’s been since we’ve had sex... I feel like my relationship with him is on this rocky road of issues and struggles, and like I keep getting my foot stuck in a crack of the rocks, or stumbling, or even falling and hurting myself, and then thinking I’m alright again... But never quite losing that uneasy feeling anymore, like I’m always balancing on one of these frustrating rocks.

I wish he was here. I feel so distant from him that I’m starting to really ache.


Sunday, June 1st 2008 at 3:00am


It’s taking all my will not to be angry with him. No phone call to confirm he was going out or anything. And he can’t just pull that classic “my phone is dead” because other people have phones. He can’t honestly say that wherever he is there are no phones. My most serious concerns are for the fact that he has his lap top with him and his paycheck, but more importantly I worry about what he might be doing. I pray he’s not drinking, but I fear for it badly.

I’m afraid that if he drinks again after writing that letter... I’m afraid that it would be the end of us. How could I forgive him for it now? I don’t know if I could forgive it again.

I’m so dreadfully lonely. I’m kinda tired too, but I don’t feel like sleeping much. I watched some music videos and the end of some movie.

Writing makes great company when I can think of things worth writing. It’s not such a great companion when I just feel empty. Not even so much a painful empty. Just empty. I could read, and I like reading, and I like the series I’m reading, so it’s not a bad option... It’s just that... I feel this tingling at the end of my emptiness striving me to feel something more. Perhaps 90% empty... 1% sad, 2% worried, 1% hopeful, 2% anxious, 1% tired and 3% lonely... *sigh*



Sunday, June 1st 2008 at 5:00am


When I was little. Something about something... It has driven me to type. Oh, what a gastly action is... This writing I’m doing. It’s so blazin hard to remember what the damn hell I am typing about... I fell like I’m makin such a racket. My hair appears to be drawn in brown hatches... Brushed from my face reveals a more painting version of my bangs.

Clearly I’m mad... Insane that is. Not out of my mind per say, but perhaps bent and twisted round yonder. I have to pee... My feet are so cold that I’m reluctant to touch their bareness to the cold floor. My heal jammed under me to keep it warm. I am listening to the birds, the way I never do when sober.

Seems a different sort of trip. The time when I can write. I have never written this way I believe, that waraboats are unknown. Shit, I seem to be losing my spelling.

I am frozen. The birds grow loud and I struggle to figure out how to spell words. My eyelids are growing so blasted heavy. This surely isn’t my tree self.

I explained something deep earlier. No I mean deep, this isn’t a delusion. I know it was deep, but unfortunately I don’t quite comprehend what I’m doing. Oddly, sounds like tears. Can’t be tears can it? Why is it so quiet other than? Could he really be making no other noise? Is my keyboard that loud? I feel stupid. I am stupid.




Sunday, June 1st 2008 at 4:35pm


He’s gone off to his mother’s house. I’m torn between wanting to be there and “good riddance” to it. My head is still throbbing from all the times I banged into the wall and floor. I can’t believe it’s almost five o’clock, but then again, I can believe it since I was awake until nine o’clock in the morning.

I became very desperate. I have not felt that desperate in a long time. As I’ve said before, Crusifer is nothing like Tre, and yet this relationship is on a sure path of making me feel the exact same way. We’re going to try again... But my faith is draining, if not drained.

As Isadora said, after a marriage of desperation that didn’t work, and a dead marriage that didn’t work, and then a marriage of two separated souls united didn’t work... Who is to say that any marriage will work? Then she goes on to say that only those who are so deeply romantic can become so deeply cynical about love.


Crusifer,

I’m tempted to call you right now. I keep thinking about it. I keep running my fingers over the buttons. You’re probably engaged in a conversation though. You’ll probably ignore my call and I can’t take the pain of feeling ignored right now.

I’m sorry to ruin last night and today. I’m sorry to be so blithe in my tears. I’ve gotten so desperate that I’m losing myself. This feeling that I have now is what I have been afraid of since I met you...

Can we figure this out... Together? If not with you, then not at all.

I seem to have lost some sense of myself. All I can think is that I have to act. I have to do something. I have to say something... I want to say that you don’t know how I feel, but maybe you do...

Mort says to accept the good and the bad. The Cav and the Crusifer. Rachel and Laya. There is no other way, and there is no escape... But I fear for you. I feel like you do have a problem, and I want to help, but I feel shut out. I feel useless. I feel and feel and feel... Until I feel like bursting.


I’ve been thinking I should use my writing as a way to connect to Crusifer by writing all of my entries to him... Maybe it will help, maybe not. Who knows if I can even do it.



Angel writes me:

First off I would LOVE to come and visit you sometime but you’re so far away and well my parents probably wouldn’t approve of me going across the state alone. But I did ask my mother and she sort of gave me an “okay” answer. I’m guessing that I’ll have to fly there so I’m wondering how much the ticket would cost…. I promise I will come and see you one day though! I LOVE the idea of us two cooking some tasty organic foods! I also want to see this oh-so famous Buffalo place though it probably looks the same way as it does here. But like I stated, I will come and see you so we can tour everywhere and have fun. I’ve been wanting to meet you for awhile now because honestly you’re the coolest, most amazing and of course most intelligent person ever. I know that’s a lot to say about someone who you hardly know but that’s how I truly think of you. =]] Oh yeah and I don’t think you’d want to come down here. There’s nothing attention-grabbing about this reservation. All I do is stay home with my mother all day because everything else that people do is not “my thing.” Trust me, you’d be bored. I want to meet your family too.

Wow Buffalo sounds like a HUGE place. A million people??? Wow, here’s only less than a thousand! I don’t think it’s even a thousand; it’s probably only about 700. Yeah, it’s so puny. Here’s a sad fact: did you know that parents are so careless these days (from here at least) that the youngest drop-out I’ve known was a kindergarten student! That’s not a lie. His family is drug users/sellers so I’m guessing that’s why they don’t care about anything. Their only daughter used to keep the house clean and everything but now she’s into drugs so she just goes out and parties like her parents.

I love the fact that people are making an effort to at least try to ‘save’ Buffalo. I lecture every one of my younger online friends and they listen. My friend told me its okay to lecture her because her parents never preach to her so she thinks it would be a great idea. I’d love to make a change in the world and even though I can’t make a global change I can always make small changes right? Besides, small changes can lead to big differences.

It’s tough for me to find gluten-free food here. There’s this cooking class that they invented over at Mesa which is about 100 miles away from me so I can’t go there but I’d love to. They cook up all kinds of natural meals and when I saw it on TV I automatically wanted to go but of course I can’t. Yeah I made lima beans and I loved it. I probably cooked them for an hour; it was taking forever! Ha but it was so worth it. Hmm, I never tried butter with them, maybe next time.

I would love to discuss our religious beliefs in person as well. I have wanted to read the entire Bible for so long now but every time I try, I lose my focus. So, now I’m waiting for the “right” time but sometimes I fear that I’ll be too late.

School ended for me on May 20. I took the finals and hopefully I did well on them. I never did well in my Economics class. I hope I pass because I don’t want to be a sophomore again. I am taking summer school though so I can earn extra credits for next year. I am taking these online classes again next year so I get to keep my laptop. I may do this for another semester and then return to my previous school even though I don't want to. I've been trying to convince my parents about sending me off to California next year because there's this boarding school that takes place there for Natives. :]




I write Angel:


Angel,

Clearly if I came out to where you live I wouldn’t be coming to see the reservation, I’d be coming to see you! I’ve been a lot of places all over America and in terms of what they look like and what there is to do, it’s really all the same. I mean, sure, if you’re on a beach, you can swim. If you’re on a mountain, you can climb. But there are beaches and mountains everywhere. (Obviously my point is not that there are beaches and mountains, but that there is everything everywhere if you know where to look.)

The things that are really unique is the individuals you meet along the way. The same place can be very different in atmosphere depending on who you have with you. Like sometimes your home is a prison, and sometimes it’s a safe house. We have a reservation here too, which I’ve been to a couple times. You might find it interesting to see the one we have here in comparison to your own back home.

I feel like you’re my long lost sister. Every time I write to you I feel like it’s been too long since I wrote you last, and too long until I finally meet you, and always nagging me is the feeling that I’m going to lose you, even though I never “had” you per say, if you know what I mean? Everyone I care about except my parents has always drifted away, and I always felt like that was completely out of my control.

For example, there is this girl Marie, and she used to comment on my journal often enough. I met her in California before she moved. We sent each other Christmas presents, and we wrote each other a couple letters. She was amazing in person, and since we were both bi we were all over each other. I really liked her, but I feel like I’ll never see her again – not that I couldn’t invite myself to her new place in Chicago, not that I couldn’t go see ger again, but I feel like I didn’t make the same sort of impression on her that she did on me. I feel unimportant to her, and like nothing could ever change that. Like at some point I felt like I was a special friend of hers, and now I feel like a very distant acquaintance.

But even with Marie... I hate being so mushy sometimes, but... Even with Marie I didn’t feel this sort of connection I feel with you. Like we’re on the same wave length or something, like your chakra connects directly to mine or something... Do you see where I’m coming from, or have I jumped off the deep end?

Perhaps all these things I’m writing and feeling right now are a direct result of the unfortunate events in my relationship... Because I’m scared of losing my relationship with him, perhaps that is turning into general fear of loss? That would make sense. So perhaps that’s why I feel this urgent compelling feeling that is telling me I need to meet you now, like if I didn’t, you’d disappear. Or perhaps it’s because I always felt like Crusifer was the only other person really like me, but I have this suspicion you might be “like me” too, which would mean that perhaps I don’t have to cling so tightly to his existence to prove that I have a right to be and feel how I am.
It’s certainly not a magical place here. It’s just that there is so much variety. That’s what makes this place special to some people. Those who move away and come back say there is something pulling them here that they can’t escape, and usually they can’t explain what it is. Perhaps it’s just that other places seem to uniform by comparison. Buffalo is like a myriad of different opinions, races, cultures and ideas all mushed together in a several mile radius.





Angel writes me:


Hey Atara,

I know that I wrote you an e-mail but I have something on my mind and I just feel like I can tell you anything... So, you know that my ex asked me for another chance?? I feel stupid for even thinking about it.... I don't know why I am considering it. I know what homeboy did was wrong but yet it's like I cannot bring myself to accept that.... He talks about how he changed and that he's a different person. I don't believe him... This e-mail is pointless but... I just need to vent. I don't know, can you tell me not to go back to him? I know that sounds strange but it's like you're the only person who I'll listen to or something....... I know that I won't go back to him but it's my thoughts that think differently. He won't change right? Once a cheater, always a cheater... That's what my friend told me.... He makes me hate myself......... I just feel plain stupid and ......... like i'm paranoid or something :/


I write Angel:


Angel,

Did you know I cheated before? I think it’s different for men, but then again, it also depends on the man. And generally, no, people don’t change much. But they do change in some ways.

For one thing, if he makes you hate yourself, then that’s not love. Loving someone makes you love yourself and everyone much more than you normally would if you were not in love. And there is no point in going to an ex you’ve already been with unless you truly believe that you love them and that they love you.

However, sometimes giving things another shot can help align your feelings. Right now, you’re not sure, but if you “gave him another chance” for like a week or so, he’d either hurt you again and you’d be much more sure of your conviction that he’s an ex for a reason, or you’d discover that he’d change. I think that the key here is not to put your heart in the hands that have crushed it before, unless of course, you’re completely convinced that those hands have genuinely changed.

Another trick in all of this is how much someone has really changed. Their perspective might change without really changing their actions. For example, he might decide that you’re a great girl and that he really would like to be with you. In his mind, that may very well be the truth. However, that might not keep him from cheating on you, because perhaps he doesn’t understand deeply enough that you don’t cheat on someone you’re trying to be serious with. It’s possible he has self control issues. Simply deciding that he’s sorry and that like does want you after all would not change his self control issues, or his judgement issues, or whatever issues he may or may not have.

It’s hard to accept that someone you were obsessed with, or in love with wasn’t as crazy about you as you were about them. It’s even harder to accept when they talk as though they are just as crazy about you but then act in ways you know someone who loved you wouldn’t act. That’s what I’m going through right now. Crusifer tells me he’s nuts about me and that I’m very important to him, and yet he doesn’t call me when he goes out late, and sometimes he ignores me when I cry. Does that sound like someone who is nuts about me? He’s in constant contradiction... I don’t know what to do because I’m so in love that detaching myself is more painful than living with the problems we have. It’s a difficult situation, and it’s also a paradox.

You see, if I held back from loving Crusifer then he would feel me holding back, so he would hold back, and if we both hold back we won’t stay in love very long if at all and we’ll break up. If I don’t hold back anything and throw myself completely into the relationship and invest all of time, energy and other resources on expressing and maintaining my love for him then I’ll be brutally wounded if he leaves me or shows that he doesn’t feel the same way. That’s the paradox we’re in. He’s afraid to throw everything in, and I resent him for not throwing in everything when I have. I resent him holding back from me.

The chances are that this boy you were with will never give you a good relationship. Even if he’s capable of giving you a good relationship, he probably won’t anyway, at least not for you. If he was willing to hurt you like that before then that shows a lack of compassion and respect for you as a person and as a soul. For him to act like a different man he has to have that respect and compassion and love for you, and because he hasn’t in the past, he probably won’t in the future. The only real flipside is that trying things out is the only way to sort out how you really feel sometimes. If you need to be sure, try it out for a while.

Saturday, April 19, 2008

The brink of Summer or Doom?

Thursday, April 17th 2008 at 10:51pm


I’m back around to this again. All this time and I’m still coming back around to friends. I don’t want to go through the effort of creating and maintaining friendships when I could just be with My boyfriend, but I can’t just be with My boyfriend all the time. He wants to have friendships and go through the effort of maintaining them. It’s worth it to him.

According to what he’s explained to me (partially in the past, but more throughly today) is that when he was with Brianna she didn’t have or want friends in the beginning. And then she changed, and she started going out with her friends and leaving him behind. He says he felt the way I feel, and that’s why he hasn’t been going out as much... But he still wants to go out.

I just don’t comprehend why. I can’t understand it. He says it’s just because I’ve never felt it. He says he felt this way too, but he changed, and says I’ll change too. I don’t want to change. I want to just be with him, and leave it at that.


I just want the world to swallow me up. Swallow me into the ground, and then devour me instantly and painlessly. Then this ticking would stop. I can’t honestly say I want to die, that’s not the truth. I’m just so tired of exploring myself. I’m so tired of wanting anything. So needy for affection, do desperate for creation, so down on the world, so up when he is up.

“There used to be such happy banter between them, Josh and Isadora,” says Erica Jong in parachutes and kisses. And there is happy banter, there is, there is, there is. And that’s just about to describe it: happy banter. Joking, and laughing, prodding and poking, giggling and snorting, talking and kissing, fucking and making love. All of it is so wonderful that it leaves everything else to be dust. Everything else just melts away in “maintenance.”


Why does it hurt so much to watch him leave? What’s underneath everything that makes it so painful? I don’t want him to get frustrated with me.

“I can’t leave you when you cry like that,” he says.

“Not now, but eventually you’ll just call me a big baby and storm out on me anyway,” I say, on the verge of tears for at least the fifth time.

“Nah, not even. It was hard today, but I can’t leave you when you look like that. I really wanted to go out, but after that one time I left when you were crying, I can’t do it again.”

This cheers me, but I’m still afraid. I’m afraid I’m going to make him snap someday. I’m afraid I’m asking too much, and that I can’t give enough.



Friday, April 18th 2008 at 1:37pm


Nathan,

I happen to believe that Elijah is gay not because anyone says so, but because I’ve seen footage, her dialogs, and listened to my mom’s testimony, and read blogs which all point out and show a large number of facts about Elijah. Personally, I don’t care if he is or isn’t gay. But I do believe that he is, and that he doesn’t want anyone to know because it could (and probably would) ruin his career. Furthering the argument doesn’t really have much purpose.

Tater,

My father has helped some with the bathroom, though not a lot, but he does work during the day and morning when my mom has the most energy to work on it herself. When my father gets off of work she picks him up, cooks him dinner, and sometimes they watch TV together. From what I can tell, that pretty much sums up their relationship.

As for being controlling... I can see more and more clearly how controlling I really am, and more and more clearly I can also see why. My own psyche is probably my favorite thing to study, and I usually do this in the form of talking, writing and mentally asking myself a lot of questions and then trying to answer them as fully and completely as possible.

My sex drive (incidentally) is rising at the time being. Not at all sure why. My diet and my emotional state seem to be related, but not very directly it seems. My moods are certainly directly related to what I eat and the events in my day, but if the sex drive is just as directly related then it’s in such a way that I can’t comprehend it. It used to be I couldn’t stand morning sex, now three days in a row I’ve had morning sex with My boyfriend and found it to be the most pleasing sex in months.

I have realized however (just as you have) that I don’t want any sex while resenting my partner, just as you said. And I like that you used that word, because usually I’d say “upset” and that wouldn’t be completely true, because sometimes I’m upset with him but still want him. It’s specifically the resentment that makes me not feel in the mood for sex.


Hallie,

Nurture versus Nature is probably the oldest argument of psychology. Since I believe in souls, I think that we’re born with some of our soul’s natural instincts and understanding. For example, some children listen to their parents and are very obedient from birth, and some take much more harsh discipline – even siblings with the same parents often have a drastic difference. People can of course argue that this was a difference in how those two children were raised, but often twins come out with very different personalities, even conjoined ones.

That said, I think that our environment can completely change us from our initial inclinations. If our initial inclinations prove to work against us at a young age, I believe they can be completely wiped from our personality.


Friday, April 18th 2008 at 2:00pm


I can’t believe I haven’t written about this dream yet, since I had it probably a week and a half ago. Perhaps because the dream disturbed me so much? Well, here is all that I can remember at this point.


I was carrying groceries in with my Mom, and My boyfriend was leaving for work. The door was open for long periods of time as my mom and I were in the kitchen, and this bothered me. What if the cat got out? What if something got in? I’m not sure if I went upstairs to check if someone was there, but I went upstairs and into my parent’s bedroom and Tre was there. Oddly, in the dream, this didn’t startle me.

I laid down next to him and we talked. I didn’t tell him, but in my mind I was guilty that I had let him in by leaving the doors open. I felt more and more sick and upset and desperate as I talked to him. This anxiousness was overcoming me. (I don’t remember a word that was spoken.) I told him that he should go and I stood up, and I hugged him, and then my father beckoned me. He told me that I needed to bring Tre downstairs because it had to be done.

He didn’t specify what needed to be done, but it’s as though I felt that they were going to do something awful. I felt trapped though. I couldn’t sneak Tre out, because that would make it look like I purposely let him in, that would make it look like I wanted him there. I couldn’t let that happen, so I led him by the hand down the back stairs. When we entered the dining room my heart began to sink. I remember my father said something about paying people, and how it would be a waste if I didn’t cooperate.

So I walked into the living room tentatively where there was a number of people gathered. There was some sort of filming equipment. I caught a glimpse of someone hidden partway behind a large chair. Something was in their hand, something deadly. I grimaced, not knowing what to do. Tre seemed to take this for some sort of party and tried to get people dancing. Dad seemed to go along with this idea so I began dancing too. And then someone says that they need to do Tre’s hair and makeup for the movie, or whatever they were doing.

Tre kneels on the ground for this, for some odd reason. The moment he’s down someone leaps out with a huge syringe filled with black fluid and stabs him at the base of his neck and then quickly pushes the black fluid in. Tre looks shocked for a moment, and then slumps forward.

In total shock I scream, not really expecting him to just die in front of me. Who can ever expect someone to just die right before their eyes? Shocked that my father would hire people to kill someone, shocked at seeing murder, shocked at the harsh reality of how flesh and blood is just a shell we hide in for a time I dash into the dining room screaming, collapse to the floor, and begin kicking wildly. I smash through the legs of the table with my feet, and my arms shatter boxes full of things (totally unlike real life where such antics would only leave me bruised and a few things displaced) and the world seems to whirl around me.


Of course I wake up at this point, sweating and freaked out. I feel like the dream means something deep. What it means is completely up for debate. Usually the feeling of a dream is more relevant than anything. If I break it down into feelings I felt guilty, then anxious, then scared and then horrified and disgusted.

The other thing to analyze is the main characters, myself, Tre, and my father. I think my father holds a large significance in this dream. Perhaps he’s representing some sort of fucking up heartless justice, and Tre is representing a past I’m afraid to remember wholly, afraid to admit is mine wholly.


Friday, April 18th 2008 at 2:27pm


Angel writes:

“I’m sorry to hear about you and My boyfriend’s relationship. I have to point out something; you once told me that you have to find a partner who is not different from you. From my viewpoint, I’d say that My boyfriend and you are very different but I’m sure you know that already right? For example, he’s more socialized and you’re not so socialized. He likes to party, smoke and drink (though I don’t know how anyone could take such pleasure in something so horrible) whereas you are not into it at all.”

>

I reply:

That’s the funny part. That we are so much alike, but from that perspective is sure doesn’t look like it. And what’s even more ironic is that if we both go out together I do 80% of the talking between us. I behave more social than he does, but he enjoys being around people more than I do. He tells me now that he doesn’t want to drink anymore, but that he misses the sensation sometimes. And I did used to want to party, smoke and drink, I just quit all of that. What’s funny is that he used to never have an interest in doing that stuff, but after his last relationship went bad he got into it.

The reason My boyfriend and I get along as well as we do, and are as happy as we are (when we’re happy, which is probably 85% of the time) is because of how many things we both enjoy doing. Reading, digital painting, drawing, web design, video games, goofing around with each other, anime, cuddling and sex and grooming each other. We both are very passionate about sex in a way that a lot of people are not. We’re more affectionate than other couples. We cook together, and then we watch shows we both enjoy together, whereas many couples can’t agree on what they like to watch. We disagree about what video games to play, but we agree on playing them in general. We both love all forms of art, except for writing. I love writing, and it doesn’t interest him very much.

The only thing we disagree on besides going out, drinking and smoking and socializing is music. I can’t stand gangster rap, and he loves it. But we can agree on metal music and anime music. So we’re really not that different, but our small differences are enough to cause a lot of arguments.

However, personality-wise there are some things that need to be different. For example, two quiet people in a relationship can make a relationship spoil because of lack of communication. Two loud people in a relationship can cause arguments because of cutting each other off, always waiting to speak, not listening because of having too much to say, and so on. In that way, My boyfriend and I compliment each other. He’s quiet if I’m quiet, but I’m usually talkative, and I can get him talking. If I was quiet too, it wouldn’t work as well, and if he talked as much as I do, that also wouldn’t work as well.


Angel writes:

“You also once told me that the next relationship I jump into, I should inform the guy that I do not want to be with someone who wastes his life on alcohol and drugs, it makes me wonder why you didn’t tell My boyfriend that in the very beginning of the relationship. Unless you did tell him and he couldn’t manage to stick to his compromise (if there was one) In that case couldn’t you predict from that moment, that there’d be problems? (I feel like I’m making no sense here…… but I hope you understand me.)”


I reply:

Actually I didn’t think drinking and smoking weed were a big deal when I met him. I didn’t quit until about four months in our relationship actually. However, I did make it clear that I wouldn’t date him unless he quit smoking cigarettes, which he promptly quit and has not turned back to since.

When I went on my road trip with my father (and left My boyfriend for an entire month) there was one night where I got very drunk and fucked another guy (mostly just because My boyfriend said I could, I was testing the boundaries) and it was bad. The sex was bad, the night was bad, how I felt was bad, waking up with bad, and on top of it I vomited over and over and over again. I have not drank even one little sip since that night. And over the next month to come I gave up smoking, trying it again on and off for a while before I just quit entirely.

However My boyfriend’s drinking is a more serious problem because he becomes so dramatically different when he’s drunk. He’s not an violent drunk, but he’s an angry drunk. The more he drinks the more irritated he acts, even though he feels good, so he says. However he hasn’t gotten drunk in months now, and he hasn’t drank anything at all for about a week and a half, which goes to show much he’s cutting back. And a week and a half ago he had one beer, which really isn’t much compared to the six beers I watched him drink towards the beginning of our relationship.

But you’re right, I couldn’t predict how many problems the drinking and partying would cause. When I met him I believed that I was the party person, and he was the quiet indoor person. Funny how that reversed so quickly.


Angel writes:

“You know when I was younger, I always told myself not to give out advice until I learn to follow my own but as I grew I always wondered that just because I’m not capable of following my own advice doesn’t mean that I can’t help someone else. Who knows they could be a lot stronger and wiser than me, which means they would do a lot better at taking my advice and doing what I couldn’t do. Then they would be my inspiration. Are you following this?”


I reply:

I completely agree. It’s great to follow your own advice, but not always possible. And when other people do it when you can’t, it can be inspiration. Honestly, I’d advise all young girls to go out with a lot of guys while they are young, but not to have sex with them until being in the relationship for at least one month. One month gives enough time to prove the man actually likes you, and doesn’t just want you. It gives enough time for you to stop looking at his body and start seeing the guy for who he is. Going out with a lot of different guys while you’re young helps you develop your preferences before you get old enough to make a serious commitment. I think a bigger mistake than sleeping with too many men is marrying your first love only for it to all fall apart because you didn’t know what you wanted yet.


Angel writes:

“Anyway, when I fall for a dude, I fall hard. And I fall harder each time. I don’t know why; I hate it but that’s a cycle I never seem to break but so far I’m getting a better grip on it. What I mean is, you’re confused about what you really want from a man but I know what I’m looking for. It’s true, over the years my mind could change and I’ll end up running to someone who isn’t my type. I’m so aware of that.”


I reply:

I think more times we fall in love the more we realize how much we don’t know what we want. Especially when you find exactly what you thought you wanted. I thought I wanted a man I could have an open relationship with until My boyfriend and I tried it. Turns out we’re just as jealous as everyone else, but I didn’t know that until we actually tried it. I also always wanted an artist, and I do love it now, but at first it was hard for me to swallow that I wasn’t the artist in the relationship, that I wasn’t the talented one. It was a lot to chew at first, but now I love learning from him.


Angel writes:

All I know is I’m not going to get married. Ever. I made that decision based on a majority of the marriages that I’ve seen. The husbands usually beat the wives, cheat or suffer from some sort of alcohol/drug addiction; in general the husbands usually turn out to be bad guys. My father is a mean man; I grew up witnessing a father who I never f#cking asked for, you know? He’s the main reason why I choose not to get married. I think my greatest fear would be … me getting involved with a man like my dad. Someone who beats their wife (he doesn’t do it anymore), someone who fights with his children, someone who drinks obsessively, and damn the list goes on. I don’t want to make the same mistake that my mother made. She knows that he’s bad but she doesn’t want to let go because she fears solitude. She doesn’t know how to raise us on her own. She doesn’t have a job so she depends on my father on everything. When I grow up, I want to be nothing like her. In my past relationships I relied on my partner for my happiness. Once I realized that was a major problem, I tried to quit it. Each time I got a bit better but now I think it’ll be something I’ll always struggle with.”


I reply:

Relying on a relationship for happiness is still something I’m struggling with. In fact, I cry when My boyfriend leaves sometimes. I mope while he’s at work at other times. I wait at the top of the stairs for him to come home some nights. I call him obsessively at work.

In terms of marriage, don’t cast it away so hastily. Just because so many marriages go bad doesn’t mean yours has to go the same way. Some people marry two and three and four times, but eventually still find happiness. I know someone on their third marriage who is now very happy with their relationship. My mother might not be the happiest, but my father doesn’t beat her or anything else awful. If anything, he’s hard-headed and neglectful and a little distant. And this is my mother’s second marriage.

If getting married to the wrong man is a huge concern to you (as it should be, and is for most people I imagine) then I’d advise to not marry anyone you have not already been with and lived with for at least a year, probably two or three years. Once you’ve lived with someone for enough time you already know what their habits are, and how they affect you, and how you affect them, and then you can properly assess whether getting married is a commitment you want with that person. Chances are that you will fall for someone so hard that you’ll change your mind.

I don’t want to make my mother’s mistakes either. I want a more loving and romantic husband than my father is for my mom. I want a more considerate man than he is. And it seems to me that My boyfriend is. I want to marry him in April next year, one year from now... That’s the plan. I must admit that I’m not 100% sure that it’s the best idea to be married so soon, or that My boyfriend really is the best person to do it with, but I also don’t want to wait longer than I should, I don’t want to be too scared to do what I should, I don’t want to not do it just because of the risk of heartbreak. And I honestly feel like we’re good for each other, even when we argue.


Angel writes:

“Yeah that realization hit me while I was sitting in my aunt’s room thinking about life. If I were to beat the sh#t out of them, that would mean that I only cared about everything so I decided it wasn’t a good idea. I learned that those girls are all talk and no walk though so whatever. ROFL, I’ll most definitely use that line the next time someone calls me out because of my journal. Yeah I know what you mean about the whole karma thing. I don’t include anything personal in my journal anymore and when/if I do, I keep it private.”


I reply: I most certainly can’t seem to stop writing personal things in my blog, but I do try to careful.


Friday, April 18th 2008 at 7:48pm


Is this an imbalance in my brain caused by lack of b-vitamins? Why do I feel like it has to be more complicated than that. I feel so restless. I feel this burning ache to create something. But it can’t be just anything. I want to create something fun to create, something worth creating, and something that will be appreciated by people besides myself. I have this nagging feeling that I’m supposed to get a job or go to college, but that would being so much change to my life that I really don’t want. So much drama that would be for not.

My legs bounce as I sit in one place, my brain is bored as I attempt to dance, to exercise. Perhaps I have that womanly want of “excitement” or something. A little romance and excitement could sure go a long way... At least the romance part, we can skip the excitement and replace it with surprise. I love being surprised, so why does no one ever surprise me? How come Tina never drops by to catch up? How come Mom never suggests playing a game with me? How come my father never suggests doing anything, and worse yet usually rejects all offers to do anything? That seems more crushing than anything. Do I still have that missing-daddy syndrom or what? Perhaps my hormones tried to replace him too young, and he felt the push and he let me push him away instead of reeling me back in (boyfriend or sans-boyfriend).

I have this nagging habit (which I recently confessed to My boyfriend) of thinking to myself “I wish I would just die” which is such a bad habit. What a negative thing to think to myself! What could I possibly think to myself less productive than that? Is that an exemplar of my poor mental health, or my poor source of vitamins or of the actual condition of my life? But what on earth is missing from my life? I have time to myself, time with my lover, time with my Mom, time spent creating, time spent gaming, time spent learning, time spent working (though on household things.)

My mom says my life is lacking in challenge and that this is why I seek video games for life sustenance. It makes sense. But this is what I opted for, a life free of drama. I hated my life back when I was working, in school, was around people and their lives full of drama, and of course the most difficult aspect was having someone as demanding, immature and lazy as Tre as a lover.

Speaking of Tre, he left me a comment on here asking if I wanted to meet up with him in person to say hi. Strange, the thought is mostly amusing more than anything. After a year and four months of dating My boyfriend (a year and five months since Tre and I broke up, a year and three months since I saw Tre last) I’ve cast away all remaining emotions towards Tre (except those mingled in my dreams which make no sense to me at all) and I feel like seeing him can’t possible hurt me or my relationship. All except for the detail of what My boyfriend thinks.

If indeed Tre actually follows through with coming to Buffalo and seeing me (which I have little confidence in looking back on his track record of following through on anything) I plan on seeing him at a park, probably Delaware park. I’m not so paranoid as to think he would actually try and kidnap me or something as insane as that, but I am paranoid enough to believe that bringing him into this house would be a bad idea. My parents and aunt would have a fit, My boyfriend would have a tantrum, and I would be even more uncomfortable than all of them combined in all honesty. I don’t want him to see what was “our” room that is now My boyfriend’s room. I don’t want his energy to mingle with the energy of my home. That is something sacred and something peaceful that he would most certainly rupture... Or maybe I’m paranoid on that one, but my own emotions about it are certainly the most relevant ones.

Of course then there is the major reason I wouldn’t want him there. I don’t want him to sit on the bed (even in the form of a couch) I sleep on, or to gaze at drawer with my vibrator’s cord hanging out of it, or to see the things My boyfriend has bought me. For some reason that would all be way to personal for an ex-boyfriend, and I know My boyfriend would agree.

Being in a park seems like a safe neutral location. There would be background noises that have nothing to do with me or my family or him or his life. There would be things to look at that have nothing to do with either of us. There would no temptations (mostly I’m worried about his temptations because I fully trust my temperament to not be fuddled by looking at him anymore) and there would be nothing to do but talk, which means that once we grew tired of talking there would be nothing to do but to both go our separate ways, which all in all, is ideal. As indifferent as I feel about seeing him, I do feel curiosity. What has changed in his life? Has he married Danya? Is he happy now or does he wish he never royally screwed up his relationship with me? And actually, what I’m most interested in is what he’ll notice about me. Do I look different? Do I speak different? Do I act more mature? Do I seem like the same girl that broke up with him? That would be very interesting to know just because for him I am only what he remembers from over a year ago, which means everything that has changed about me in the last year will stick out and be obvious to him. I’d like to hear how much I’ve changed. Validation always feels good, even when it comes from strange places. Will I beam from being filled with My boyfriend’s love? Will he feel My boyfriend’s energy mixed with mine? I hope he can, just because I want to be “My boyfriend & Atara” to the world, and he is one person out there who will always remember me as “Bante & Derly” – this makes me chuckle at the memory.

I look back on the person I was just a short year ago and I openly laugh. She was so confused, so misunderstood (aren’t we all, and aren’t I still?), so lost, so on the verge of transformation... Back into myself. Those two years with Tre will always stick out because of all of their oddities. I was high all the time, I spoke differently, ate differently, and listened to different music. (Then again my music taste has changed nearly ninety percent in just the past few months.) I had different sexual ideals, and different life goals. My entire perspective has shifted. I don’t view men and women the same way.

So I left a message on Tre’s phone saying I’d like to go for a walk in a park with him if that was along the lines he had in mind, and mentioned that he could not come here. I then called My boyfriend and told him about it (not wishing to hide this for even the length of an hour, because I need to make sure he trusts me and has no reason to doubt me) and he says he doesn’t trust me with Tre. This hurts, but then again, what did I expect? Did Tre ever trust me with Jeremy? No. So what could I expect? Perhaps that is just another reason why I want to marry My boyfriend next year in April and no later. I want to prove to him that he really is the center of my world. I want to express that commitment to him, to myself and to everyone. I feel it, but that doesn’t mean anyone else can see it. Marriage makes commitment visible, and over time, it makes lack of commitment a sore thumb in your life.

I really don’t see the harm in spending a few hours with Tre after it’s been over a year. It may be a small blow to My boyfriend’s ego, but only for a short time before he recovers and realizes that after all, it was only a conversation, and that I’m soon to be his wife. I wouldn’t stop him from seeing Brianna after all, not that he would ever want to see her. But I don’t hate Tre, at least, not anymore. Then again, it’s not like after all this My boyfriend hates Brianna. I’d be afraid for his mental health if he held a grudge on her for that many years.

Ah, writing feels good, but I still feel restless. Somehow I suspect the heat is getting to me. I’m sweating almost everywhere. Time to go wet my hair and chest in the sink again.

My boyfriend should be home soon. There has been a plumbing problem at work, and he got off early on Wednesday, and he stayed home all day on Thursday, and today they called him in to “help out” and he left here at one o’clock. He called me to let me know he’s on his way home now. I resent the fact that he’s been hanging out with El and everyone all day smoking blunts undoubtedly and has ignored all of my calls. I know he did that on purpose to get a day away from me. I feel angry about it, but I also understand that he feels he needs friends in his life, so I won’t make a fuss about it.


Saturday, April 19th 2008 at 11:50am


I feel like I’ve been kicked in the teeth by a wash of sudden icy realizations, amid a blast of humid heat allowing me to sit here in my underwear and bare feet.

Last night My boyfriend proclaimed that he didn’t believe that I really wanted to have sex with him, that I was just doing it to placate him. In terms of seeing Tre he reiterated that he didn’t trust me. And this morning he asserted that now that it’s summer time, there is no way he’s going out less than once a week. I think an icy kick in the teeth is an understatement for how I feel about that odd assortment of statements.

Of course we argued, of course I cried myself to sleep, of course he woke up and had sex with me, of course I didn’t feel better, of course he tried to comfort me (belatedly) of course I expressed my concerns that this is the turning points in my two past relationships where things went bad until they eventually ended all together. Of course he thought that meant I was breaking up with him. This is all a rumble-tumble game. Who can adapt? And who can adapt to what?

Who is stronger? Him to not go out? Me to cope with him going out? Who is going to make the bigger sacrifice? Will he quit drinking? Will I give up and let him drink, smoke and party? Will we compromise and get married and putt his in the past? Or will we fight it out to the bitter end?

These were not questions I asked myself a short couple weeks ago. Getting married was a sure thing, and so was him quitting his friends and his drinking. He has asserted to me that he will not give up “chillin’ with the boys” for me. He has asserted that I’m immature for not having friends, and that in the future I will have friends, and that he will not be the person left at home.

That’s just lovely. I want to duplicate myself so I can hit myself over the head with a shovel! I feel like such a blasted idiot. Either deal with him going out, go out with him, or go out and make my own friends, or try one last time to force him to stay home with me. I hate all options. I’ve hated all of those options from the moment they arose. I hate summer. I hate the heat. I hate myself for not seeing this coming. I hate myself for loving so goddamned much. Why couldn’t I just love myself for myself with the validation of some blasted male? Why couldn’t I stay single and hug myself to sleep?

Erica Jong has written three books about Isadora Wing, and how she wanted love and validation just as much at forty as she did at twenty-nine. So I guess since I’m still only nineteen there is no way in hell I can escape this burning need for love and companionship. Of course Isadora also has friends. What the fuck are friends good for anyway? Chewing up all your time? Making you feel guilty? Telling you how to live your life? Getting fucked up on drugs with you? Carrying you home when you’re drunk? Giving you bad advice? Calling you and using up all your minutes? Walking in and our of your life like it was a bathroom for them to shit in and leave without even spraying air freshener?

That’s what friends are in my experience and I have no interest what-so-ever in going and making my own friends. But who can live on socializing one day out of the week? He socializes all day at work, and with me on Sundays, and when I proposed once a month he socialize with his friends he agreed, but he never stuck to it, not even for one month. At least, if he did, it was such a quick and blissful month that I missed it in a blink of my life. And now, after already going out one a week, (sometimes skipping a week) all winter, now he asserts that he will go out once a week all summer like I bloody believe that. He’ll be gone on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays too if it’s anything like last summer. Last summer I didn’t believe we were going to make it to January. Now I’m having trouble believing we’ll make it to his birthday (in July) after last night.

All this time, and I have not told him a single lie and he still doesn’t “believe” me. All this time of trusting him despite everything and he has the nerve not to trust me.


Saturday, April 19th 2008 at 2:00pm


Tina’s baby shower is tomorrow. Her baby is due in a month. Since I agreed to be her baby sitter I guess that means I’ll have something to do with myself that feels meaningful. I just haven’t seen Tina in a while so I kinda forgot that she was pregnant even though all this time I’ve been keeping in mind that on 4/20 she was having her baby shower. What a funny date to pick for a baby shower, huh?

It’s only supposed to be for a few hours, and My boyfriend has previously told me that he would stay here and just listen to his music, but considering the heat, somehow I doubt that he’ll feel like doing that. I’ve progressed from sitting here with wet hair being enough to putting foil (shiny side towards the glass) on the windows, making damn sure the attic door is closed, putting both the window fans on exhaust, wetting my hair, stripping down into my underwear and putting a fan directly on me in order to be comfortable and it’s only April. I can’t bare the thought of June where I’ll do all of that in addition to laying nude on the bed with the air conditioner on high right beside me.

I hate summer.

This morning I thought I felt cramps coming on so I took two calcium-magnesium-zinc complex pills, which usually help considerably especially if taken before the cramps really start. I don’t want to even think about cramps in this heat. What’s worse is thinking about My boyfriend going out while I have cramps in this heat. That would just be so miserable...

I looked up some things, regarding how often My boyfriend really goes out. If I average the last 35 weeks together (since I’ve been tracking every hour of his life so that I can prove my points in arguments instead of being told that I don’t know what I’m talking about) which goes all the way back to August of 2007, then I get 2.6 times a week that he’s gone out. If I then average the hours out over the weeks I get 9.5 hours a week. Now this really isn’t a lot, but he works sixty hours, and on top of his working hours he leaves an hour before he has to be at work and he gets home half an hour to an hour after he gets out. Which means he’s gone seventy-two hours a week just on account of work. From midnight to one o’clock in the morning we spent an hour together, from eleven in the morning to noon we sometimes spend an hour together, but other than that, there is Sunday. I’ve been complaining about this since the beginning, but what else can I really do but complain? It makes me miserable and I’m helpless to stop it.

But that considered, I’d rather he went out on a regular scheduled basis than on a whim, with no call, with me left here to just wonder. The drinking has improved but is not completely to be rid of on top of it. Last night he drank one tilt. Okay, not very serious, but also not very serious about quitting. Perhaps he just wanted to see if I’d notice, and I did! I smelled the difference in his sweat, I saw the way his eyes shifted as we had sex, I felt how much more tired he was, I saw the variance in his expressions, the taste of saliva, the slightly different movements of his lips, the slightly different twitches of his eyes, the way he looked more agitated than usual, and slightly guilty, and the fact that he protested having sex on the account of the likelihood of falling asleep afterwards, as if he ever cared about that before. I’m not stupid, I can read the person I love the most in this world. I can see the difference than even one tilt makes. The part that really pisses me off is that he was trying to hide it from me.

“But you would be mad” he protests. Yeah, and what did I do the moment Tre asks to see me? I call him, despite the fact that he’d be mad. In fact, I called him because he might be mad. The nerve!

The lack of trust he has in me is killing me. His lack of faith in me is burning me. The way he doesn’t believe my words are knifes in my heart. The way he gets restless and bored and wants to go out, and eventually does go out leave me high and dry and swirling in insecurities. The names he calls me leave me feeling worthless. I can’t believe I’m sinking into this same pit again. It’s about that time, one year and five months. This summer will makes us or break us once and for all.