There are no coincidences in this life, and I have found that I can either embrace where I am in my journey and move forward, or I can keep doing crazy things that are not mindful either only to be faced with similar circumstances when conditions are the same, or being miserable when I’m trying to ferret through them feeling imbalanced.  I think that Einstein is the one who said, “Crazy is doing the same thing, but expecting a different result.”  Why would I have thought that she could just be herself with me and we could form a friendship?

Nakedly mean is gone, but now she is back to pseudo encouragement and I found her signature in one of her notes completely disingenuous and actually revolting.  I remember everything, and it’s a nickname that one of the girls from the bday trip that we took last fall calls her.  This is a girl who Bette says, “I don’t really respect her or the way she leads her life.”  Nice.  Good judgmental stuff and completely phony when you act sweet as pie around her when we were all together.

When she was saying that she doesn’t know where her relationship will go, and that she didn’t like what happened visa vi her new gf’s ex, she also said, “I don’t like dating.  I like to be in a relationship.”  I told her that it is good that she is dating and that I believe she will learn a lot about herself and who she is while she does it.  She reiterated and laughed a little and said, “But, I really don’t like it.”

I have dated for six-years.  In fact, I have not gotten a hard commitment for Saturday night, and if she is not in church today and I don’t hear from her, it will just be too gamey for me.  It is completely possible that her friends are saying, “Don’t do this, she will just get back with her ex, ” but if that’s the case, then she is too swayed by other people.  So, we shall see what church is like today.

The engineer’s Dad died suddenly and unexpectedly while Bette and I were at the death psychic.  I have written to her and offered my support.  That’s terrible and odd that it happened the night that it did.  I also heard one of the songs that Bette said that I’d like, because my very young client came to session asking if I heard it.  It’s catchy, but I couldn’t listen to it much because it’s too repetitive.  Songs like this always remind me of when I couldn’t get “Personal Jesus” out of my head.  I didn’t even buy “Violator” because I used to nearly vomit hearing that over-played song.  The one that she recommended has already been parodied a ton too and came out at the end of August.  We just don’t get music as fast here as they do back East.  I wrote her two or three lines, and then all the superficial stuff ensued.  I told her that what I am comfortable with is exchanging pleasantries when we run into each other, and that I wish her the best.

I think that’s it.  It’s binary.  When emotions get tripped–I did tell her that I was going to date the girl from church and get over the ten-year age difference–she can go two ways.  She can get mean and talk about how awful I am, or she can be superficially encouraging.  Both of these reactions do not come from the heart and lack authenticity.  No thanks.  I told her that I’m done for a long time.  And since I have never contacted her, it actually means that there will be no contact at all.  When we do see each other–it will probably be the women’s cycling event in September–we can exchange pleasantries.  I’m not being her friend or do I want a friendship.  I’m just glad that my memories of her will not culminate into her being nasty to me in public, and that would be the sole outcome of a life-changing relationship for me.

I got into one of the pages that I like this morning.  An article by Cole caught my attention immediately with some quoted teasers.  It talked about learning through painful experiences.  I believe it.  I read the article and it talked about counting your blessings in crisis, and fully taking in what happened to you during it and how it impacted you.  That’s it.  I know how she impacted me: 1) I get things ready for my son so he knows that I care, 2) We got our dog, and 3) I am in the best shape of my life and continue to strive for more, and 4) I am ready to be vulnerable regardless of being unable to tell an outcome.  That is all I need, because I don’t need criticism, or do I need phoniness while saying judgmental things to other people.

My preference is to see what is there between the girl from church, or to meet some girls when I run or am out and about.  I don’t need friends who I used to sleep with though.  I think it’s healthy for me to be cool with ex-lovers, but not to be close with ex-lovers.  Some people can probably do more middle ground, but when I saw her watching my mouth while I was talking on Thursday night at the bar before we went into the venue, I thought, “Are you kidding me?”  She also touched my forearms and perhaps my upper arms too many times while she was talking to me, but couldn’t give me a proper hug.  We are just not similar people and we don’t show up in ways that mix.  I got it.