this funny little thing called love

so i have been thinking for a couple of days how weird relationships really are, along with my definite failure of them. regardless where the blame may lie, i am just not good at them. oddly enough i have come to realize, with the help of an awesome psychotherapist, that i really have issues with them. on the simple side i just change, i become someone different... a more caring me that promotes more of a slave type image than that of her once cocky fun loving chill persona that i started with. as odd as it is, i have figured out that this dual persona is a simple combination of both my mother, the cocky confident redhead, and my grandmother, the cookie cooking hug giver lover of family. i have realized that when i truly don't care about someone i stay in redhead mood... probably also part of the reason that i dye my hair red and stay overly confident to a fault that i am a true bitch. on the other end when i end up in a relationship, i begin as the cocky one and then i become the more nurturing one. i take on more fault in the issues of the relationship and i tend to lose myself by chameleoning their likes... why do i lose myself in a relationship... or is it just that i put my worst foot forward first, and when i calm down they don't like the more nurturing sweet persona. and why does this only seem to be in relationships... with friends i am me, good or bad... well right now being that i have ended another one, trying when i should have given up, caring when the other care was gone and still very angry with him for not being truthful with me. but then maybe he was truthful with me and i was too dense to see... regardless i am done with relationships. i am done with focusing on someone else when they aren't focusing on me. i am done. i won't say i was broken by this last relationship but that is a lie, i was. i was more than i was from my marriage. i was because with my marriage i was blindly entering the valley of despair and in this relationship i knew where i was treading. i stupidly knew... i just want to take a breather... too much this time broke and i can only thank the anti-depressants, my doctors and my friends for bringing me out of it. i needed to find me again. i am still not there because therapy takes time and its worth each and every co-pay that i spend. i would have never decided to make this choice without being at a very low point. i thank the people that saw it and truly cared, did just fain care and tell me things like "you're strong, this isn't you. get over it" or "why don't you think about all the things going right in your life". when you are depressed you see nothing but a dark long black tunnel that you are in without a flashlight or any guidance. to a point at my lowest i was suicidal but with only thoughts to guide me to an end with no guts to complete the mission at hand. was it hard, yes. is it over, i hope. do i need to figure out what i truly want in my life above and beyond all others... completely. do i still have my weak moments... HELL YES! it is just one of those things... i feel like depression is a cancer of the mind that needs time and help like chemo to kill it. it may go into remission and be gone forever or it may get a trigger that brings it right back. regardless knowing that you have the illness is the first step in any situation to conquer it. i will conquer this and i will learn from this...i will learn from this...

absense does truly make the heart grow fonder

so last night i am writing in my journal as i try to do each night and i wrote something that i actually had a realization about. i was missing my boyfriend, plain and simple. he left april 8th to fly from the bay area to fairmont, nc so that he could help his dad with a special construction project and hopefully pocket some cash. this fun little project has grown in complexity and now officially he has been gone for 6 weeks now with no real return date in sight. which is beginning more and more each day to suck. i won't say that things were going perfectly before he left but we were progressing. as each person with baggage of bad relationship pasts ghost wanders in and out of the closet so did he and i have our conflicts which lead to understanding and better communication. to the point that sunday mornings were our "let the world just go away" time. laying in each other’s arms, talking about the weeks’ worth and laughing about the silly little things that had been bigger monsters of frustration sometimes only mere moments before hand. i have grown to realize that grown-up relationships aren't perfect, far from actually but that they take baby steps called communication to truly be the less scared tortoise or ostrich that brings their head back into the light after a rough patch. the boyfriend and i both have the same views in regards to life, relationships and feelings. we are both strong, stubborn and opinionated but we respect each other which is far more than my ex or any of my other relationships claimed. shortly before my boyfriend left he asked me if i considered him my best friend? having labeled only female friends with that title in the past i can admit that the questions perplexed me greatly. i can admit that i never saw a man that i was with as my best friend... i can only assume because the term best friend has always been taught to me as your closest friend and while i can use my grandmother as a great example i still thought "no" until yesterday that is. prior to last night, my best friend was only a friend... while the gender could have been female or male, the intention of best friend was that this person i could share almost anything with but that there were still things that i would hold back from a best friend. i can admit that i discuss more with a partner than i would a friend. i have had too many friends hurt me in one way or another through fault of my own or them. a best friend i could not talk to for months at a time and much like a daytime soap opera, one phone call or conversation and i was back up to speed on. a best friend you hang out with but time spent with them is secondary to that of a partner/boyfriend. there is something about intimacy and sharing of things taboo or scary or foreign or harmful that i will only do with a partner, with my boyfriend and a best friend just falls a little below that status. in my opinion and we can blame how i was raised, if you need something to blame, that i place my partner in the number 1 spot, family in number 2 and friends in number 3 followed by all others. some of my friends have become family over the years like jackie and david, i consider them family more than anything else especially with over 25 years of knowing each other but few raise in the ranks like that. a best friend does comes close to a partner in certain events but never 100% of the time and while i kept thinking this way i realized last night that i missed my boyfriend as that best friend as well. i knew when he asked that we weren't quite there, i knew that we were close like a pebble ready to plummet off a high cliff but that it would take something to get us to that point. i was right. what it took was a first turn, what it took was a conversation where i was the first one giving the advise to him, what it took was that conversation and the day without hearing from him after it that made me realize that i truly missed him. this morning i got a picture of him in solace, his solace which is the water... go figure for a pisces. he is calmest when he is near water, he is best and most level headed when he is near the water, he is at peace. i can understand that, i love nature, all nature and as much as the culture of the city excites and intrigues me i am most at peace when i am away from all people and all things and i can hide. when i grabbed my journal last night i realized that i missed him, not certain parts of him but all of him the silly jokes and goofy smiles, the arguments that ended in little jabs to the ribs or kisses and hugs, the cuddling through the night and the smell of him on my sheets in the morning, the short and long conversations that ended in a hug, a kiss or more each time i needed it. when i miss someone that i love and i know i love him so much but that is for another blog on another day... when i miss someone it actually aches in my the middle of my chest. it is not my actual heart but my metaphorical heart that throbs for the attention given by him. i sat last night and wrote clear as the writing on my license plate 'i miss my best friend'. plain and simple, no more explanation just clear as daylight i miss my best friend. our relationship has hit the point where i know where i need to be, what i need to do and who i want to be with. truthfully after my crappy marriage i wasn't sure i wanted to get to this place again and i didn't know if i could, i didn't know if i ever would be able to and i wasn't truly sure if i wanted to be knowing the potential joy and potential hurt that this instance may or may not cause. but when it comes down to it you have to trust your gut and while my heart isn't always right, my gut is fool proof. so here and now after writing what i could only recognize as an epiphany i am feeling more anxious to see my boyfriend, my partner and my best friend. even if this stupid project takes another month to get finished i know that i can watch dumb romantic comedies and look forward to the moment that i can kiss him again and see the smile on his face and the glow in his beautiful green eyes. i truly understand my heart growing fonder :) it’s a nice feeling...

after the words... numb is easy

when i was younger the last thing i would ever think in my entire life is that turning myself back to the feeling of numb or rather the lack of feeling... i have noticed that in my life, when i am happy i vibrate like a rainbow, full of the color spectrum and ready for anything that life is ready to give me. regardless the cash in my pocket, the job that i attend on a daily basis or the people in my life. i can spend the entire day inside the house and still be productive. but when i am numb there is no colors... i don't smile, i don't care and there is nothing that i can take pride in.

i will admit that i wasn't a full rainbow lately, too many things on my mind were clouding my judgment and my day to day interactions. i felt like a scared animal, only taking a step when i knew the ground beneath me wouldn't give and most of the time not moving much at all. as my cats do when they are in a new place, i had my paws underneath my body and my tail wrapped closely in the same manner. i realized yesterday after having all day to think that I am scared, not of one certain thing but of one resounding thing that takes a good 73% of my head right now.

last night i slept, but it wasn't restful. being numb allows no comfort, it is just a place of protection and it allows your brain to try to function on a less emotional and more rational space. but it doesn't mean that anything is truly functioning the way you are supposed to function or worse yet the way you want to function.

i have realized yesterday after going into "numb mode" that after being burnt so many times in my life by people that claim to love me that it is easier and easier to navigate into. if i were to use the gears of a car for my life you have drive, reverse and neutral... numb is simply neutral and when in neutral on a hill you are screwed but luckily right now i am not on a hill... thank f#$%ing god i am not on a hill.

right now i am trying to decide a next move with baited breath and fingers crossed that the person that i love right now will make the first move so that i can decide the second. i know that he has made a move, but the move is just words and until actions follow i don't know where to go. i have always told someone that i care about that while i am bright i want the words and actions communicated in my relationship to be simple so that there is no misunderstanding. if there is no misunderstanding then he can make his move, place his cards on the table and i can decide whether i want to bet or whether i want to throw in my hand.

in this situation i know that this man that i love is the one. i have had dreams since we first met of the potential of our relationship but my gutt said from the get go that paradise is but the destination through a valley of thorns and hardships. i knew coming into this that it wasn't going to be easy but the strength of this wonderful relationship would prosper when it was ready to as long as neither of us gave up when the going got tough. my gutt was on track but this toughness was more than i have ever bared in my life. i have never been scared of someone that i love, not in the matter that he would ever do harm to me but in the fact that i never know the mood that he is going to walk through the door with. i feel like i am always wearing a bullet proof vest and ready to grab the gun and shoot (purely metaphorical people)...if he comes in this way then i have to be A... and if its this way then I have to be B and so on and so forth so I AM CONSTANLY ON EDGE... sometimes the colors of the day reveal themselves early and sometime they reveal themselves late. but i am always on edge waiting for the next pin to drop.

now i know this isn't healthy for me, i know that feeling like a long tail cat in a room full of rocking chairs is no way to love life... i know, I Know, I KNOW... but its what i chose to do right now. over the last week he has been back east helping his dad with a project. a project that started out paying one thing and then got reduced and then got changed and now my poor man in working at least 12 hour days for what can only end up paying him slave wages. but when you are unemployed with no income, you take what you can get. regardless that i knew this was not going to be a good time for us, i knew that the conversation on sunday was going to happen and i knew that i was about to put myself in numb mode so that i could try and get through it.

after my failures in life which i feel are tending to outweigh my achievements i turn to numb because it is the safest thing for my heart and my soul. i love certain things about my life but right now i can't talk about them. right now i can't even pull a word into my brain and try to think about them. right now the smiles that i will sport are fake and if i put on a movie that i know would make me cry, i don't think anything would happen and so it is time for creation. when i am numb i can create, my mind is most clear for creation whether it is for writing, design or creation. so for now i will deal with numb and i will create and i will feel like i am holding my breath until i can come out of numb, but right now who knows how long that is going to be.

ears are the speakers to the heart

do you ever hear, and i am sure that you do, that the eyes are the window to the soul... well the other day after having an emotionally explosive conversation with my boyfriend that my ears are the speakers to my heart.

as i got hung up on that day i was the widest range of emotions that a person could be and without going into them i tried to sleep away the disbelief of the conversation. instead i stared at the ceiling in our bedroom and watch the ceiling fan slowly circle. it was mesmerizing but not what i needed. i needed it to be tiring, exhausting and anything that would allow my eyes to close and let the conversation run out my ears and onto the pillow that surrounded them.

after a while i realized that i needed to travel over to the bi-weekly dinner appointment with the grandparents and so a quick shower, a push of the clock radio sleep button and picking out clean clothes to get ready for a nice couple of hours with the people that as far apart in age as we are tend to "get" me. i jumped in the car and as i switched back in forth between my two favorite radio stations i heard only the songs that were directly affecting my mood that evening. which by the way my mood was worthless, as worthless as a penny with a parking meter.

all i caught were the sad songs that pushed me further and further into a funk that i just wanted to try to get out of but more than likely what was going to happen was avoidance. avoidance is easy... or easier... but as i switched back and forth it seemed ever damn song was the bad ones and ever word that my ears focused in on made the tears rush down my face faster than the ones just before. as i drove to the grandparents i realized that my ears always do this. they exemplify my mood through the songs that i hear and i constantly have my radio on.

i realized when i am ready to take a road trip that i pack the songs that make my foot caress and push the gas pedal and when i am not in my head i actually turn off my radio, which is a much rarer moment that when i have the music blaring. thinking about this on the ten minute drive to the grandparents felt like a thousand tiny daggers stabbing me but could i turn off the radio.. nope, nope, nope.

when i finally arrived at the location and unlocked the front door i almost fell on the floor because i wanted away from that damn car's haunting voice as quickly as possible. the grim reaper seemed to follow those lyrics and instead i ran into the house, puddling on the floor the instant the door had been closed behind me. i looked around and realized the house was quiet.. quieter than normal which when you have 90 year old grandparents freaks one out. i picked myself up and checked in the bedroom, no sleeping grandma and then into the garage with no grandpa but with a car.... shit, shit, shit.

totally forgetting that they were at the coast on the night where i needed to talk. i laid on the couch for what seemed like an hour but was literally only a few minutes while tears streamed down my face, i couldn't figure myself out. i thought do i just stay here, he wasn't there but that wasn't what was keeping it away... it was his ghost, his ghost kept me away. and the haunting lyrics that were going to play with my heart the second i got back in the car. what was i going to do, i couldn't hide forever especially at my grandparents house. plus it was sunday and i had to work tomorrow.

finally after more empty feelings flooded my brain filled with some anger and a huge lack of focus i walked back out of the house and trepidatiously walked to greet death sitting in my passenger seat, smoking a cigarette with the window down and his sandaled foot sitting cockily on my dash board. death smiled at me, which pissed me off, but i still got into the car and as i turned on the car and the radio came to life like frankenstein my eyes welled up again with tears.

this is not what i was willing to take right now. this was not what i wanted for my last day off of the weekend and the first weekend where i was fully in our place. or at least that was the reason that i moved for us. instead now i was lost and trying to figure my way and allowing every dumb depressing song to turn my eyes into Niagara falls. the whole day left me trying to figure or refigure everything in my life since the moment i stepped out of the budget moving truck back in 2009. what was i doing back in this damn town trying to find something i was never ever going to find again and what was my next step going to be. ever since having felt like i lost everything to bring death into my car, i feel as if i am lost and the more lost i am the more the radio plays the crappiest songs to keep my heart in that mood. so for now the radio has been turned off in my car and in my office... for now i am closing the speakers to my heart until i am ready to hear the words again... right now my ears are closed to save my heart..

will the patriots of this country please come forward

i have been thinking about this for the past couple of days and the whole patriotic short fall of this country is laughable. we are coming up on yet another tragedy that befell our country on our own soil and we will again do the "i remember" bullshit of years past. these are the same people that piss me off for flying tattered faded flags off their cars or in front of their houses and only celebrate or make mention of our country when they have to such as national holidays of remembrance.

americans whether you came here on a boat, a plane or were born in this beautiful country need to remember that you are lucky to have the accesses to freedom that you have. regardless the technical politics of this country that you agree or disagree with. we are the most guarded country by our military whether foreign or domestic. you have embassies in every country you can travel to and even in the worst situation they will open there doors to you and protect you. and even our reservists help keep our country from getting worse by continually training and be ready to assist our country should ANYTHING happen.

i appreciate those that have given even a second to defend my right to work where i want, eat what i want, drink what i want and anything else that i want to do. this country may have its shortfalls but if you don't like it you can easily GO BACK TO WHERE YOU CAME FROM or TRY SOMEPLACE ELSE!!

if you are the type of patriot that i am, you will always find yourself mouthing the words to our national anthem, you will tear up at just that spot before the end and you know where it is. you will own a flag that you will take pride in displaying with respect and solidarity as an american citizen. you will stand a little straighter watching that flag (or any other) blow in the breeze and remembering what your own family members may have done to insure that.

on this september 11th i will do the same thing that I do every september 11th which is NOTHING. I am proud today, I was proud yesterday and I am proud tomorrow to be AN AMERICAN. I will do for my country what my country deserves and I will thank those like my father (air force), my grandfather (Navy), my best friend Dave K (Navy) and my step brother Ryan (Air Force) for ensuring my countries safety and overall success. It is not the steps of this country that make it GREAT, it is its overall progression to keep us smiling on a daily basis and not making ALL OF US stand in line for food or services.

take the time to get your head out of your asses and STOP being superficial patriots. the USA has been through worse and survived, this is just taking a little longer than we had hoped but WE WILL SURVIVE THIS TO...

... and the vicious cycle continues...

it is hard enough sometimes to take a big long look at your life and say to yourself "i fucked up, i fucked up somewhere and this is not where i want to be." it is even harder to try to figure out which minute string of the spider web known as your life is causing you to lose the flies you are trying to catch to sustain your life. i have realized sometimes it is all a front. a strong woman that has confidence, keeps a smile on her face through just about anything and inspires other to do the best for their life and their happiness, isn't always who i am.

i put on this front many, many years with my ex husband. there were times when i wanted to just crawl in bed after a ridiculously hard day to just vent, cry and have him there to pet my hair and us together figure out what needed to be done. but time after time on those days, i didn't get that. he was emotionally not there for me... i know for a fact that is why i gained the weight that i did. i know that he pulled me away from my family and friends so they weren't there for me either. and i know that after years of feeling alone in a relationship, i just gave up and put up this front of being uber confident.

after finally having the balls to give up on my marriage to a selfish, unloving, cheating man... it took me a long while to actually open my heart again. i have written previous blogs where i talk about feeling empty and yet again here i am feeling empty. wondering what part of myself i need to change to conform to the social norms and fill that space again. i have other female friends that are the same and may not do the same but for me i feel spent and wasted and full of holes most times. i like who i am but there is definitely two different sides to me.

as a friend i have realized that i am blunt and we are talking brutally blunt. i have never tried to make a friend cry and i have also never really ever given up on a true friend. i have had to remove friends from my life because in one way, shape or form because they had just become acquaintances by their actions which were emotionally or mentally harmful to me. but truthfully i am a great friend, i protect, mentor, shelter, advise and help my true friends. i am there for them no matter what time of day and i will put my life on hold if they need me. i will be the strength to their weakness and keep them focused on the positive because i can see their beauty, compassion and hope for better in their own lives even when they have mentally locked themselves away in a dark room. it takes a lot for me to give up on a friend and it is only when i feel a lack of partnership between myself and someone as a friend that i have to say goodbye.

as a significant other, i am vastly different. there have always been things that i keep locked away just for the person that fills that spot. it is the emotion, the true hopes and dreams, the working together to get some where... with my ex my dreams were crushed. it is one thing to mutually decide things together, it is yet another to be forced down a path you never wanted. when i was in my early 20s i looked towards my grandparents for inspiration on relationships. i wanted the family, i wanted the kids and the true companionship. i have seen where in the instances my grandfather was weak, my grandmother was strong and vice versa. i have seen the reason that they have been married more than 70 years. ultimately that was what i wanted, i said i wanted kids by a certain age, a house and the finer things to be happy and be productive in society. i met someone that said he wanted the same to, but it was all lies. i know that now, but then i always ALWAYS gave in to him....

i was severely broken after him. my trust was shot, my confidence was shot and i figured i would be alone forever. it was my one shot and i blew it. it was my one chance and somehow i ruined it. looking back i know it ruined me. each time i think maybe this time, i think perhaps this will work and i restructure my approach to something then i get shit on. and it isn't as if this guys was perfect, it wasn't as if he had the key to truly unlock things... but i do think each one is actually helping to build my walls higher than my ex's actions could ever build a fortress around me.

this time i cried... i cried before i went to bed last night, i tossed and turned all night and i woke up with tears running down my face again. and shaking my head, i know it wasn't the single actions of this man or perhaps boy... regardless it wasn't him that put me here right now, it was them. it was the men i dated after my marriage fell apart, it was the boyfriend that gave me everything and but for one little thing we couldn't make it. it was the series of bad dates, lame hook-ups and lack luster people that make me feel like giving up completely.

after my post last night, i feel loved. my best friend's phone call was immediate - he seems to hurt when i hurt and is very over protective. he has seen how i open up and get stomped on... he says "it's the guys i pick" and while i agree i couldn't put all of them in the same category to save my life so i am truthfully not sure what characteristic that i choose that helps me to hurt myself each time. i probably could make a list and with my feminine thinking truly figure out what one trait puts them all in the same category... oh wait i know, it would be their penis's... sorry that is my lame attempt at humor at this point... additionally some minutes later my new fav friend called, she is a breath of fresh warm air, seemingly a younger version of me with all the same passion and confusion for life. we spent the best weekend together and now i know we are true friends. after time talking to both of them, my cheerleaders in the "you're great - he sucks" rally that is my dating life MOST times, i crawled in bed and proceeded to cry myself to sleep.

my emotions got the better part of me last night, as much as this guy apologized and tried to not, in his words "be the asshole", well he was... but he wasn't the first and won't be the last. each time this happens i get more in the mindset that this is the best it is going to be for me. i waited too long to walk away from my last relationship and now i am going to remain this single female, living alone, collecting friends and cats, creating less than relationships with men because when i play the "come get me" female i am wrong just as much as when i play the "i'll get you" female. i seriously don't know what to do, i frustrated, i'm hurt and i don't want to try any more. i am sick of being hurt by the smallest of actions because i stack each failure on top of the last one... and right now my failures are seriously outweighing my accomplishments...

who's says that giving up is necessarily a bad thing

so tuesday was a pretty crappy day. all in all it ended better than it started but only slightly because i hurt someone that i would have never intended to hurt but being the stubborn crazy female that i am, it was destined to end this way. kinda reminds me a little of the Gwen Stephani song "ex boyfriend" which repetitively states "i kinda always knew you'd end up my ex boyfriend" regardless the label on the situation i went from kinda interested to ridiculously infatuated and with that from funny to desperate.... looking back that is totally the way i read things now but hindsight always is 20/20.

it sucks because while i don't need any more 'friends' in my life, i am very happy with the select few that i have and trust... but i projected so much further down the road with this guy that i couldn't have backed up to meet him even if i would have 150% tried.

i guess the situation is this.... a relationship with someone begins at the first step that you take getting to know each other. you meet and begin down a path together, grabbing each other when one falters because the path is set in front of you, regardless how easy it may be to travel. i know that there have been times in my life where i have dropped the person's hand with i am walking with and either stopped or ran ahead. part of the issue is that regardless whether i have stopped or progressed past them, i still dropped their hand in the first place. dropping someone's hand is bad because if you bounded ahead over obstacles you may not find your way back and if you have stopped well the path may have gotten dark.

i feel that the beginning of the relationship is crucial but talking through texts and emails is not the same as talking in person. i can pull details where i know that i was reading them wrong and INTERPRETING the situation instead of understanding it. looking back i see that now but i dropped his hand and ran ahead because i saw these great ideals of what "could be" and not what was actually happening. what sucks is i have done it before and i am sure that i will do it again.

at this point i gave in and gave up. i turned off the emotions a couple times on him, i bounded ahead and then came back but i still forgot to grab his hand, i may have reached out but i didn't grab it and then bounding ahead i realized that i was ahead AGAIN and now i have lost him.

i did two very wrong things in this relationship... i interpreted writings like hieroglyphics and i didn't reaffirm the translations in person. the horrible things is that he is really a great guy and he can't even see it. he asks "why" and makes himself less than he is.... last night i even networked with a friend of his and couldn't stop asking questions even though i know i have now bounded onto another path, back on a singular path per say.

that is when i have come to the conclusion that this one is ok to give up on. my friends are being as they should, telling me that i was ok, that i am awesome, that better will come along but i'm only taking them with a grain of salt. this is not a time that i need to be pumped up or told that i was right when i don't feel right. i think it is because i have grown up to see both sides of this situation. i look back at our first meeting as if he was perfect and i was crushing on a guy in high school. you know the one that i was never going to talk to and all i did was doodle his name in hearts on notebooks and talk to my girl friends about how cute his hair was or what he wore and how great his butt looked. i started swooning thinking about him with my heart thumping and my head filling with silly girl dreams.

i wanted to instantly add him and everything about him to my life even to my own detriment. worse is that because i was so delusional i bordered on desperation because i was willing to give him anything. you want $20 sure, you want me to buy you food sure, you want to take my car sure, you want a kidney sure. part of the problem with how i was raised, i am willing to help out on any level and i don't see it as undercutting someone's pride because it just is what it is, being raised by a bunch of southerners... its the way we work.

but right now while i still want him in my life, i was mean, i was judgmental and i was in the wrong. i can't hope that he will forgive me but i can still wish the best for him and his life because he deserves it. i know i can proceed forward knowing that he has good friends that will take care of him which is all he needs right now, it was not a good time for us regardless the label and as much as it hurts, i have to keep thinking that way. i hope that he will realize his greatness one day, i hope he will realize that many people love him and i hope he finds the best person to put a label on who will be there for him but for my safety, sanity and self, i need to give up on this one and realize in this situation that giving up isn't a bad thing...