Category Archives: Thoughts

These entries are thematic in terms of what occurs to me after reading, writing, spending time outside or sitting and musing about the way my life appears to be going. They are my lil’ ephiphanies

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Come and get me

Again, if she wants to have sex, she has to drive down here, and if that doesn’t work for her, we can go back to the land of whatever.  For now, I will text here and there because she called me this morning and said that she wants to date again when she is doing better.  We also reminisced about a funny time that we had last October, and then she said, “I miss you, ____.”  I told her, “I’m sorry,” and I really am.  Because what I miss is long, long gone as is that fun and carefree girl.  I don’t think that she left just because her Dad is gone, but rather she fell in love with me quickly (As I did with her.) and showed me her best face for three-months, and then she started her controlling and unattached stuff that she does.

We shall see.  Her journey is independent of mine and I don’t chase anyone.  I did enough leg work for her when she was my girlfriend.

I’m pretty sure that she knows that I don’t desire a friendship with her ever.  I would like us to be amiable, but right now, it’s not like that at all, as we still may have sex occasionally.  However, I need to be clear with her at some point that I won’t drive up there for sex again.  The barking dog incident (And this should not be confused with the psuedo-biographical account of the autistic teenager) cooked that for me, as I knew that I’d be blamed for her not sleeping.  I am not going to be a punching bag at all even if we do occasionally have intimacy.

So, I guess if she does ever want me again, she’ll have to chase me a little.  Otherwise, I will know that she’s just not that into me and I’m so fine single, that it’s not even funny.  I would love to co-parent with a woman, but I’ve learned in five-years how to solo fly with supports.

I had a good night.  I walked my dog and am chilling and going to hit the sack early.  My son doesn’t have school tomorrow, so I’m writing tonight (here) and he is with my parents.  We cooked tonight at a good friend’s house and her daughters and some of her friends came over and played a dance game on the Wii.  It was really fun and I loved being around typically developing teenagers, as I don’t work with any who fit that bill.  I have great friends.  I’m fine on my own, and open to whatever happens next.  I just won’t hustle for anyone right now, and need to keep focused on parenting and getting my schooling done.

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Lessons

My number is so paltry for being 38, but I think that because I told my psychologist last night that I’m not ready to date that exercises in before and after are probably good for me.  I don’t want to be part of the catch and release program anymore, so I am going to recall what I learned from every connection that I’ve had.  Sadly, some of these might be a reach, but I want to list what I learned:

  1. High school = try to avoid enabling
  2. College = if you make somebody cry frequently, you are not compatible
  3. Marriage = if you continue to enable someone, you have to step away
  4. Coming out affair = falling in love will make your heart race and consume your being
  5. Cowgirl = I really can’t do casual
  6. Musician = I won’t do push and pull
  7. Drunk = start your day and end your day with a snuggle and enjoy water anytime you can
  8. CEO = keep your body in the best shape possible, detail your day and plan your week so you are more able to enjoy time with your family, and be vulnerable
  9. FB = I am seeking integrity, mellow is good, but not when it borders selfishness and hedonism, and I want time spent with someone with whom I am intimate to matter

I can look at these and see a pattern that follows every other relationship.  That really could mean that the next girl who I sleep with could be one who I could fall in love with and give my heart to–I am certainly open to that possibility.  Again, that means that there are some definite things that I don’t want.  I don’t want to be controlled or give too much of my time or resources.  I also want to resolve conflicts.  In addition to smart and sexy, I am seeking stable and kind.

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Feet on the ground

One foot forward and moving toward is what I want.  I will value having my doctorate done and my head clearer.  I will get my proposal defended this year before it ends.

I’m given quite a bit of pause how I don’t care to pursue any girls at all and how they tend to annoy me or not be quite what I’m looking for in terms of dating.  I am not chasing anyone or I am making things work that won’t work past some sex or tolerating what are simply some incompatibilities.  Pink says, “I don’t believe in soul mates, happy endings or the one,” and I would have always tended to agree with that.  However, there were some unique and earth moving things that happened for three straight months last fall that also give me a great deal of pause.  Maybe those soul-level connections are not meant to last.

That is why I have come to wanting stability in addition to sexy and smart.  That works for me, because except for getting irritated, I think that I have both feet on the ground.  I’m just looking for space from my ex right now, and I think that if it comes to it, she would stop contacting me if I asked her to.  Right now doesn’t feel like the right time because it was just her father’s bday, she is recovering from complex surgery, and it’s now the holiday season.  If it gets too emotional for me, I’ll tell her to cease.  However, my line is firm about not driving up there.  That I won’t do.

My psychologist says, “Chop wood.  Carry water.”  For me, it’s last night trying to complete three sets, and giving up, drinking a beer and eating cheese puffs.  I felt sad and laid in my bed and was mindful about crunching.  I miss our old times, and know that they don’t exist anymore.  I told myself it has passed.  That made sleeping easier.  It’s what I’ve got right now.

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There is no perfect partner

I get accused of wanting perfection, but that’s not it at all.  I want a girl to want to be with me, and when we make a plan, which I look forward to more than most because my life is busy, I just want it to come to fruition.  I would like stable next time around.  I would also like consistent.  I’m more than willing to work on my issues of rejection so I can project a healthier and more whole me out into the universe.  I do believe that you get what you put out.  I have always been consistent.  I have never broken a date.

When I commuted in state (80-miles when it was roundtrip) and was still in two grad programs and doing night work for schools, I made a couple of snafus, as did I once this August when I couldn’t bike on Sunday because I had to read at church, but I would never change plans because I didn’t feel like it or I had some half-assed emotional response that I was unwilling to share.  That’s not me.

I have also been really good about accepting my role in conflicts.  I think what will be a stumbling block for me next spring will be that I need to be careful with casual and sending the wrong message.  I need to practice saying, “I like you.  Let’s just see each other when it makes sense, and not too frequently, because it’s really good to miss each other.  In terms of future, let’s see what develops.”  I can do that.  I’m not ready yet, but in a few months maybe, and then I will see HER.

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Working out as it should

I got a really bad cold, so unfortunately yesterday was a wash.  It’s ok though, because it’s not like I had to think about how I would apologize to the woman who has too many acutely mentally ill teenagers who I help her serve and also do some case management with during the week.  Yesterday when I was sick I did not have to apologize for missing, because yesterday was a vacation day for us and the adolescents.  I wound up doing very little though, and only laid the groundwork for what I’m planning on doing with my psychologist.  She helped me see yesterday that I go into a flight or fight mode with my ex and now because I don’t like the way that we fight, I just choose to bail.  And she’s right, because that is what I’ve done.

The only conflict is when she’s nice to me, but it’s pretty rare.  She was back to one word exclamation point responses yesterday when I told her that I was sick.  I haven’t even cooked.  I’m lucky though because she let me off the hook and said that she had plenty of food and I should just enjoy my packed weekend.  She has to get that jab in for “packed,” and I guess one evening commitment and church is super extreme.   She can believe whatever she wants to about me, but I’m just glad to not have to expend all that gas and energy to get up there.

I took all the stuff that I normally take at night last night and took one more fish oil and two zinc tablets.  I feel quite a bit better today.  She texted and I really hate texting–especially with her–so I called her.  We talked for a bit until her toddler got up and then she called me back and was acting remote.  She HeyTelled later that she was NOT remote, but thinking about her day.  OK, then you were not engaged in conversation then.  God.  Please just go do your thing and some girls who worship you and stay off my ass, ok?  It has been nice to have a break, and one until the end of February is just fine with me.

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She does know me

She has been texting and HeyTelling me like crazy.  Finally, after I got done meeting with my other committee member for my dissertation, I just called her.  We talked easily and well and I fessed up that I have no desire to date or am I really attracted to any girls enough to hustle for them.  I said I’m going to screen print a shirt and it will say, “Yes, I know that I’m fun, but I really am not available to date,” and she followed it up with saying, “Just make a QR so that girls with Smartphones can scan you.”  That was hilarious.  Good one.  With her being so contemplative, she can’t attack.  It’s nice.  I do love her–especially when she is not moody and in her critical mode.  I think that she’s aware of this personality taint.

I also think that she’s cognizant that whenever I drop off food, it’s my last hurrah.  I wonder if she’ll date someone come January.  I think that she will.  I wonder if it will implode by April or if the girl will be much more accustomed to sucking things up and she can string her along for a few years, because she is incredible for a few weeks a month.  Who knows?  I wish her the best.  I really do.  She can be amazing, but when she is in a bad mood or pissed about little things that everyone does…  Watch out.  It’s horrendous.  I’m not going to write again until I do drop off some meals for her.

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Been on the run

I have been within the walls of insanity for three-years, which is at least partially why I have attracted dynamic, but unstable, in my last two love relationships.  I quit a job so I wouldn’t get fired by a psychopathic boss who fires about 60% of her staff every two-years, started a new job and very different position, was in another grad program to maintain employment while my doctoral requirements changed and I had to continue the program while being concurrently enrolled in the former.  Oh, and I’m a single parent, and I have aging parents and have had to take my Dad in for two different procedures during one school year.  I’ve yielded so many lessons, but mostly I know that I want to be treated consistently well, and to work on conflict healthily.  I don’t want rancor.

I stepped out of this one forever a little over a month ago, and I am glad that I finally fell completely in love and gave my whole heart to a woman.  I loved being vulnerable.  I loved looking into her eyes and telling her that I love her.  That made me realize the possible.  Having raised another woman’s two kids when she was a young adult, she also taught me to use time wisely for family connection.  I pre-cook now, and we walk our dog at night nearly every night so we can talk about the day.  I also keep my body in tip top shape.  Those are pretty powerful lessons and I am grateful to her for those.

With my ex of two years, I learned that you should be treated well all the time and be held first thing in the morning and before you go to sleep no matter what the day yielded.  I also learned more about water and I will always love it as a result of being with her.  I loved too her love of my son, which was much greater than her love of me.  I just don’t think that love would have been enough for her to ever stop drinking.

I journaled (in pen) about a poet, hiker, and a beer drinker.  I guess I would trade all the dynamic qualities in the world for stable and easy.  I have a crush on my son’s guitar teacher.  I just like her way.  I’m not into str8 girls like my last two ex’es though, so it is an innocent crush.  I’m just looking for mellow, but caring and open.  I don’t want some girl who hides herself or is scared of emotion.  My lil’ FB that I had this summer is so scared of vulnerability that she only tells lovers what she tells everyone.  I think that is what many of us are like until we become adults and realized that we are worthy of deep love.  I know that I am.

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Hmm…

I woke up differently today.  Additionally, I finally got some good, high quality sleep.  I haven’t been missing her since she cancelled on me in September and then called me names when it hurt my feelings.  I have been thinking a lot about my last three years of being in relationship too, and I can honestly say, it doesn’t matter that she won’t go to couple’s counseling with me.

Why did I put up with it for so long?  I’d never let a friend tell me the things that she had about me, and because I can only contrast it with the drunk, and she only had a couple of similar complaints about me and that was that sometimes I say things more than once and that I draw parallels from stories told to me from my own life.  She never called me selfish, or negative, and definitely not creepy and although my son can be challenging, she certainly never told me that he needed to be evaluated or perhaps have meds!  I don’t want the drunk back…  But, she was with me for a lot longer period in total, and I think that she knew me better.

So, what I can change about me is I can listen fully and pause.  If I really feel that something is important, I can state it and ask what do you think about that?  If my next girlfriend likes to tell long-winded stories about people who I don’t know, I can say, “I don’t have much to add, because I don’t know these people.”

However, I think those are pretty simple things to change.  My ex wanted me to feel like I had problems or I was somehow responsible for her unloading on me.  I’m just not.  If someone gets all over your case and you feel badly about it, it’s just an abusive cycle and bad relationship.  The best thing in the world that I have done the last two times that I saw her was to just leave when she gets angry.  I don’t have to engage in that kind of interaction and I sure as hell don’t have to take it from someone ever.  The dog is barking and keeping you awake?  Well, I’m going to head home and make sure that my presence is not affecting your sleep.  Your long story within an only 50-minute time period (That I have heard three times before) about people who I don’t know is “Not about me?”   Well, getting away from you when you are judgmental or combative is.

Good luck with your surgery.  Have a restful recovery.  Look within yourself for understanding and then strength.  I’m simply dropping off some food and won’t drive to you again.  Best wishes on your journey.

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Waiting

I wonder who she is…  I’m sure that I haven’t met her as of yet, but I’m sure that I will know it when I see her.  See for me only the commitment piece is the slow part, but I just know when I know that I want to have some dates with a girl.  I can see a girl across a room, I can touch her hand, or in the case of my most recent ex, I can exchange e-mails and just know that we were connected.  I told one of my best friends last night that is what I’m looking for and that I don’t want something that I have to work at initially or chase.  I want that boom.

I would like to meet a girl who is flexible too.  I know that some of the bumps that I had experienced in the last two relationships were because both of these girls had to drive the bus to the exclusion of anything that I wanted.  For example, we have to live in FL, and bar hop–I don’t even drink much.  And I won’t leave my house.  How do you know all these things?  Why can’t you make decisions together?  That’s what is more normal at this age.

I want that attraction and then maintenance of wonderful conversation based on chemistry.  I want good kissing and a girl who touches my body because she is completely attracted to me.  I’d like a fairly mellow and open girl who loves to be outside in anyway that she can who doesn’t give me shit for not skiing or boarding, and is willing to share snowshoeing or hiking with me or let me do it and then reconnecting with me for dinner while we cook, sip wine, and laugh.  I’m sure that everyone is looking for a girl like this, so there must be a few out there for me to meet come spring.

Now, it’s time to write.  It’s time to clean.  It’s time to see other clients and complete hours for school.  It’s time to reign in my son and ensure that he is mostly sweet.  For now, I’ll grab another cup of coffee and get in the shower though!

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Sex

So, we did finally catch up and the conversation was just fine.  It wasn’t free and easy like it was prior to our cold F2Fs this summer, but it was just fine.  It must, actually, have been better for her because then she propositioned me for sex three-and-a-half hours later.  If I feel healthy tonight I’ll go fulfill that because it’s been a month.  Yesterday I was excited for it in a lustful way, but today my cold doesn’t feel that great and because I won’t date her or even contact her–I will however respond–I would probably hook up with her monthly or a little less.  I know that I’m still in love with her, but given how she jumps my shit all the time, I’d never want anything serious with her unless we went to counseling.  She needs to get her act together with respect to conflicts with others, and that is independent of me because I told her that I didn’t want to date anymore after she marked me down and slowly cancelled plans like a blue light special.

I started feeling like it was really her who is selfish earlier last month when I tried to connect with her about feeling stressed about work and she told me to go to my psychologist.  I didn’t say, “Screw you,” but I did realize that she is not the best supporter.  She does like giving financial advice, but I think that’s distasteful, so I told her that must cease.  So, we shall see what transpires tonight.  I could go either way on sleeping at her house tonight.  I’m not antsy for it this morning like I was last night.  I do love our sex life.  I think that it’s the only thing that she doesn’t try to control.

I did head up after a I took a bike ride.  I went with a new friend.  I like her.  I like meeting new lesbians.  I spilled though and really bruised my right ring finger.  I’m not ready for a gay marriage evidently.

We talked for about an hour.  I knew that there was more that she needed to tell me and it was that she had a first date, but the woman told her that she doesn’t talk much unless it’s her best friend or her mother, so she told her that she doesn’t know how she will get to know her.  That’s fine.  I knew that this time around that given that it’s different and I won’t date her without counseling, that she would move on, and it’s really because I’m not that worth it to her.  Not meant to be.

We had good lovemaking.  However, when a dog outside was disturbing her, I could see the writing on the wall that I would be blamed for talking so I said, “You aren’t usually bothered by anything outside although it’s loud at your house, so I’m going to head home so you can sleep,” and she said, “You don’t have to put that on me.  I appreciate your need to go home if you can’t get to sleep here.”  I told her that I have not slept well in a month, but that I could tell that she is not sleeping.  I left out the fact that I would be blamed later for that.  It’s not my problem anymore.  I’m not the designated asshole.

That I don’t ever text her bothers her deeply, so I’ll text her from the soccer field tonight and say that I hope that she had an incredible day.  I will also hope that she keeps our date on Friday.  If not, I will text her each night and ask when I can bring up food for her.  I will find jokes and funny stories to e-mail to her while she recovers.  Unless my cousin goes to her party the first part of December, I’d rather stick a hot fire poker in my eye (Please note that I have borrowed her line there), so I’ll wait to Feb to make plans.  I’m pretty pragmatic.  She’ll want me if she doesn’t start dating someone.  I can do that and her anytime that she asks.  That part of our relationship always works, but we just don’t have conflict resolution skills.

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And I’ve stopped playing reindeer games

So, when she ignores my calls, it’s because I have a ludicrous, inflexible schedule, right?  When she screams at me about all my shortcomings when I’m just trying to see when I can drop off food for her during her recovery, it’s probably because of how selfish I am, right?  I can’t believe her.  She contacted a couple times during my dinner for my supervisee and I texted “You too!  Goodnight” when I got home.  She is the queen of explanations points because she’s always mad, so I am rather taken with them now.  So, this morning I emailed for her to reply back if she was available and wanted to talk–as emails make less noise when her son’s away–but BIG SHOCKER, she has not responded.

At least when she acts this way, I don’t miss her even a little.  Plus, I haven’t seen her in a month and she isn’t jumping on counseling or have I asked her any questions, so I could really give two shits if we talk today or tomorrow.  What I will do is when she’s at work, is drop off some food.  Now, I get why her ex-partner leaves toys and stuff for her son on the porch.  Makes sense to me now, because when she says that she would like to come drop stuff by, I am sure that my ex has excuses for why that doesn’t work and then blames it on her rigid schedule.

Again, to summarize: 1) I have been in an eleven-year relationship and never had any similar complaints, 2) I am nurturing and do the right thing, and 3) you really know someone in a year, and with these many issues, it would take lots of time, space, and therapy to resolve them.  So, I’m doing the latter two.  That’s what I do anyway.  I’m also patient and never try to control outcomes.  I hope that she has a wonderful weekend.

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And I want to see you

So, she wants me to meet her for a drink, and I can’t.  I have to meet with my supervisor for an hour and a half and then after that, I need to lift weights for my own mental health.  Plus, the woman who I supervise has had a pretty tough year so far, so her other supervisor who helps her work with young children and I are taking her out tonight.  I told my ex that I could meet her, but it would be really late and then she asked when my evening plans are done and I told her that I don’t really have an end time on dinner, but that we want to support our intern because it has been a tough, tough quarter for her.  And for me, as I don’t remember ever a year starting off like this for families who have kids in school.

I don’t understand why she has to contact me all of the time.  Can’t we lay low and then I’ll drop some food off for her before her surgery?  That seems most normal to me as we are not dating.  The only time that she didn’t contact me much at all was in between Memorial Day and the time that I saw her after the Fourth of July.  The reason that she didn’t stay in touch with me is because I had asked her if we could go to counseling and she didn’t have the guts to say, “No,” until she saw me and then she wanted to make me want her and presented like a corpse so I don’t want that.  She had followed up in an email saying that she had been looking at me the whole time–at that point, we hadn’t seen each other in six weeks–and that she was just scared.  However, our subsequent date she was edgy.  She doesn’t seem often to be in a very good mood when she sees me and that makes a friendship impossible.  She’s moody.  I’ve been with moody, and I don’t like it.

Because I don’t want to rush around or go somewhere late at night and then drive all the way home, I just think it best if she really does want to meet with me for a drink that we do that next Friday.  That’s fine.  I hope that she is acting nice.  I also hope that she gets that I don’t want her advice.  My friends don’t give me unsolicited advice.  I have certainly asked for advice about her when we were dating, but they don’t tell me all the time what I should do.  That’s a hot button for me, because I’m an adult and conduct my life well.  Things that I know that I should do differently, I am starting to do, and it’s because I want things to feel more streamlined and easy on the home front.  So, we shall see if she presents kind, if we can laugh, and if she does not give advice to me.  If not, we can try again later.  I do want us to be amiable.  That’s important to me.

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Not spinning

I should take another spin class though…  Food for thought.  She pissed me off today by being the queen of unsolicited advice.  God Lady, you are totally sexy, but check your control issues and remind yourself that I didn’t ask you or do I have the same view of the world.  I do believe that love is what matters.  I don’t believe that most people are simply liars.  I don’t worry about the way people say things all the time or do I make myself crazy thinking about hidden motivations.  Everyone does the best with what they have.  Wow.  I also would not ever send her a picture of her ex.  She did that last night with the woman with whom I had my coming out affair five-years ago, and I responded innocuously.  It was a good reminder that I need to be careful who I date next.  And I will.

The thing is that when you’re not dating, you can very simply, disengage.  So, I did.  I said, “Have a good night.”  And I don’t have to text or follow up about anything.  She can still tell me how selfish and unaccountable I am and tell me the way that I need to be with friends and next loves, but I have never heard anything like these statements from anyone but her so I’m not owning it.  I will, however, synch her iPod and take her food before she goes into surgery.  And that’s it.  What will be will be and I will not as she always puts it “spin out.”  I’m settled and getting grounded.

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Steadfast

I used to say religiously, “I’m not taking her back,” and that level of black and white doesn’t even sound like me.  Now, I say, “Your actions confuse me.”  I don’t get why she texts at night before she goes into her work week at night.  She knows that I won’t just engage and be super friendly.  I will answer direct questions, but I am not going to be chatty and exchange details with someone who I have dated for ten-months total, and that I didn’t know over a year ago.  I have tons of friends to talk about the hell that I had with my son this weekend and the fact that most of it was fragmented and he played so rough with his best friend last night that he hurt him.  I talk to my FRIENDS about that.  Plus, I’m not into superficiality, but rather connection.  I had a huge dinner on Saturday with a friend who I have had a friendship with since 5th grade at one of my colleague’s houses with whom I have just gotten closer, and closer over the last 11-years.  I have connections with friends.

I would not say that I don’t need her.  Because she is the only one who I can imagine kissing.  It is interesting to me that when I kissed for the first time the girl from summer it wasn’t even nice.  She is not a good kisser.  It had been awhile since I had been with a girl who didn’t kiss well.  Like over three-years, and I was surprised that I even went further.  I was just lonely.  That’s the huge contrast currently.  I’m not lonely.  I just think that my ex is afraid of taking a step with me for a variety of reasons, but it does translate to me that I’m not worth it to her in that realm.  However, someday we will likely be quite amiable.

I told her that I won’t text unless I have to tell her something about my son or if something would happen let’s say to my parents.  Otherwise, I will drop off a lot of food and visit her a couple of days before her surgery so I can synch her iPod.  I love a playlist that I made that is the namesake of one of my current blogging categories.  “I’m not the one to try to tell you lies, but the truth is that you’ve been hiding from it too,” are incredible lyrics as are many from the other 14 songs that I put on there.  Instead of speaking through the subterfuge of lyrics solely, I will also make a playlist of about 30 triumphant songs too so she has something to listen to while recovering.  I don’t think that I wrote that I was exactly right, and that is that she tore some of her muscles in the area where they took her son out when she had him.  I knew that she didn’t have cancer.  When you’re in love with someone and intimate with them, you just would know if he or she was sick.

I remember this summer a rather innocuous conversation that we had and it was nice.  I remember realizing that you probably can be friends with an ex, and I do believe that.  My friend and colleague who I cooked with this weekend said, “No you can’t!  You are in love with her and that won’t work!”  I told her in a few years I’ll be able to be her friend.  Again, she lives so far away from me that it won’t be close, I am sure, but what would honestly crush me is seeing her out by chance and have her be completely cold.  She is good at that too, so I’d rather just build some amiability.  I think that in my heart, I know that she really fears going to counseling with me and a woman like me presents real challenges for her.  When she withdraws, I’d really rather just know where she is at, so I can hold her tight, but like another Cameron Crowe line she is “not built that way,” so I really will just hold out.  I will not just sleep with some girl to numb this pain, because that is not what I’m looking for either.

I want to find someone

  1. Sexy
  2. Funny
  3. Smart
  4. Who I see and just feel a chemical hit
  5. Who truly wants to completely connect to me
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Bad Day

Although really not that bad of a day yesterday, it was definitely not my favorite.  And my son didn’t get much sleep so he was a holy terror.  Cancellation of my friend’s son coming to dinner made him cry, so he tried to play with one of my best friend’s daughters, but they are very different, so I think last night he was a little bored.  He also was in a very strange mood during the cookie decorating with his godmother and his “cousins,” so it was just an off day.  We have those.

I went to bed at a decent hour and even did 20-minutes of cardio this morning.  I explained to my son that tomorrow would be the only practice that I would miss of his because I need to get back on my weight lifting and he understood this morning saying, “Well, it’s not like you’d miss a game!”  He gets it.  He is a pretty cool kid.  Now, I’m drinking coffee and reflecting.

I get that conflict is inevitable, but I don’t want to fight dirty.  Name calling and bringing up old resentments that you never get over should not typify your fights though.  Should we ever go to counseling, I’d like to start there.  However, I must note that I have spent three-years kinda like this, because I’m sure that folks know that drunks fight just like that too.  I just don’t want that in my love relationship.

I want someone who treats me well and when I aggravate her, she and I take space and then talk about it.  I would prefer to know how long that space is, because in my last relationship it just seemed indefinite, and then I’d be waiting around and getting nervous and when I’d engage her in conversation she would either snap at me or attack.  It sucked.  I don’t want that again.  I had read once in a marriage and family textbook that couples who fight well can do the long haul, so that’s what I want the next time around.  I want to resolve conflicts.  I will look through my old entries that I have kept since 2009 and see if that is normal for me.  Have I always wanted to resolve conflicts well?

Right now in addition to really pounding homework, I need to work in counseling on what I should address and that is my need to manage feelings of rejection.  I don’t know how long the haul will be, because I feel pretty sane.  I’m not in the imbalanced dance that I was five-years ago even remotely.  However, I am on the track of self-improvement, so I would like to work on what came up for me this time around so I can go into my next venture, or go to counseling with my ex with an idea of what will help me move forward.

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Never settling

I’m looking for something that will sustain, so probably by it’s very true that I need to just slow down and be.  Right now it’s just sitting in my grief and pain, because I didn’t do that this summer, so I can get the contrast.  What I did this summer is feel completely rejected, because she withdraws when she has a lot on her mind–probably because she has had to do it to survive–and then when I would not respect it and then engage her in conversation, I would get attacked, so I avoided her because I knew we’d just fight.  And God, does she fight mean.  It’s funny because she didn’t even get that this summer while we were separated.  She left me a HeyTell this week that said, “So, I did the breaking up January through April, and then you did from May on?”  Nope.

It is true that now I’m in this rejected space, but what is different now is that I’m going to sit here and feel bad because I don’t feel the need to numb this pain.  Staying in it will help me come through it when I have healed.  I’m not imbalanced like I was at the end of 2007, so I can just feel sad.  I can also address why I feel so rejected when she takes what she calls emotional distance.  I don’t like being shut out, and I know exactly where that comes from and it will take specific and hard work to get through it.  That is my stuff though.  I almost feel like I have to be even stronger and more solid to be her partner.  I’m a tough one too, but for her, you’d have to be even tougher and completely grounded.

In terms of this summer, when I kicked her out of her own bed because of how badly I had pissed her off, I just bailed.  I definitely regretted it, and did even more so when she sent me pictures of her and her son saying that I probably felt badly because I didn’t make the right decision.  The decision was not wrong, but I do regret that after our first time that we saw each other and our subsequent date not simply staying with being numb.  Instead I numbed my pain by hooking up with a semi-friend, which didn’t help and I couldn’t get anything out of it with exception of all those crazy things that you do when it’s like a one night stand from a Prince song.  I kept sleeping with her because I told myself, “The damage is done.  Might as well keep doing it.”  The thing is that although some reciprocity got better, I realized how fundamentally incompatible we were and that is because that true connection is rare or it simply takes time to build.  You can’t speed it up, it either is there, or you have to spend time together to watch it grow so it will sustain.  With my summer quick fling, there wasn’t much there and she wasn’t a person whom I can respect much.  It was like the Cameron Crowe line, “a warm body to cushion the fall.”

Now, I want to be alone.  I want to work so I can have my school stuff done by December with the exception of my hours of family work that I have to complete.  Of course I will also do some good parenting stuff, and he is such a challenge that I need to do some preventative stuff (AGAIN) at this juncture, but that is something that I have also been doing on my own for five years, so I get that. I also get how to be alone, but I’m unsure if I get what it’s like for me when I’m truly alone.  The first time was when I was 14.  The second time was when I was 23.  The next time was when I was 33.  Now at 38, I am not as solitary as I was previously because I’m an adult and raising a kid, but have no plans to chase any girls (Again, those damn introverts!) because I simply will not numb my pain.  There is a chance; although, it is very slim that I will meet someone who is interesting, but what I will do is say to her, “Listen, I am still very much in the throes of being in love with my ex, so we can hang out a little, but I am making a promise to myself to be conscious of not just falling into some arms because at present they don’t reject me.”

 

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Coming Out

So, it has been five-years for me…  But, that was just to make it official.  Having thought that I was supposed to have been born a boy, I just did masculine things like rough play, action figures, and bike stunts.  However, if you look at me when I was younger I look like my son with dark coloring, so it is not a surprise that I came out, but it’s very odd that I did when I did.  Honestly, I went around with my shirt off and only played with boys.  Later in 5th and 6th grade, I had some friends who were girls and then the awkwardness ensued.  I remember being aroused sitting in one girl’s house when I was about twelve, and middle school slumber parties were agony and hell.

I had sex with a girl first when I was 15.  I was with her off and on–she was off sometimes with boyfriends–but I didn’t even kiss a boy until college.  And it was weird.  I think that I’ve kissed three boys, and I don’t think that they kiss worth shit actually.  (I do know that it’s just that lack of chemistry which I have with males.)  My first girlfriend, meaning the one that I had all through hs, was mentally ill though and actually wound up in a mental hospital during what would have been our sophomore year of college.

Then, there was my college roommate.  Hot.  To be honest, I still can look at her eyes in pictures and see what I saw then.  She always had to get next to me.  The distance would get smaller and smaller.  After about three-months, we cuddled.  Then the following year, we would sleep together, but nothing physical happened beyond holding each other tight.  It was nice, but chaste.  It was not until the following fall that I was laying next to her in bed, like I usually did, but then I undressed her.  I can still remember that night, which is funny, because I have no memories that are sexual from my first girlfriend.  I remember with terror when she told me, “You know, this is the second time that this has happened to you, so did you ever consider that you are a lesbian?”  NOPE.

I so wanted to be “normal,” and never dealt with it.  I had an eleven-year relationship with a man.  We even have a kid together and we are amiable enough.

I touched her hand in 2005 and thought, “Boy, do I have to avoid you!” which I did, successfully, for over two-years, but when my boss transferred me, it was unbearable.  Also, she is a shameless flirt!  I am really taken with those damn Geminis, although they are bad for me.  (She has a Moon in Gemini, and my lost love has an Ascendant in it.)  After about a month, we were lingering at Happy Hour after everyone had gone.  She came out to me finally.  Then we met once for a drink on the weekend and I told her, “I have had sex with a woman,” and she said, “You have?!?”  I didn’t tell her two relationships, but I did tell her all about my college girlfriend.  About this time five-years ago, we made out on her couch for two-hours.  I can remember her kisses and a few things that she taught me about sex; although, there were certainly things in my skillset as I had been with women for about 5.5 years prior to her, but she was my first lesbian.

Now, here I am…  I’m 38-years-old.  I have been out for five-years with everyone, and I believe this year marks the crossover to more years with girls than my only male stint that I will ever have.  I know people are attracted to the person, but hell no, not I.  I’m attracted to their smells, their skin, the swell of their hips, their eyes, the way they kiss and then all of the sexual aspects of  women.  That’s me.  I’m a lesbian and just over five-years ago while making lists of who I had told, and who I needed to know was getting very small.  Now there are never tears and it’s rare to even be asked, because I know, don’t have to broadcast, and have worked through internalized homophobia.  I’m gay.

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The Good Fight

What will I do if I still feel this way after next fall?  It has been so beastly hot as of late that I will just be glad for the season to turn, but honestly if she continues to hold so much weight over my heart, what will I do?  Nothing seems to help.  We were so damn happy last fall, and nothing compares to the way that I felt then or how much of myself I gave to her.  I’m not sure when or if those conditions could be met again.  I could do some low maintenance thing with a girl, but I probably could not give too much of myself and that is not fair.  The last girl who I dated was just too needy and thought that she was beyond reproach, but I wonder what would happen if I met a really incredible girl?  Would I even “see” her?  I’m incredulous.  I wish that there was some way for my ex and I to actually be together and enjoy each other without rancor.  I am still in love with her.

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Cultivation

I am really hoping that this year I am able to get some distance between my heart and my ex.  It’s not that I ever contact her, because I just don’t.  I actually also wrote her a letter about where I am, as she has been incessantly contacting me and I’d prefer that it would abate.  She had told me to tell her when I move on because she told me that she only wanted to hear that from me.  Dating for a couple of weeks was a mere distraction, and in the letter that I wrote her, I told her that I had been distracting myself for a couple of weeks and stopped.  She knows me so very well and is a mature person, so she will understand the subtext, and I’m sure that it will piss her off to high hell.  However, I had to just see if this girl and I were compatible.  However after two weeks, she presents as clingy when her roommate is out of town, so I’m not sure if I can even fully tend to a friendship with her.  I think that she is just young.

My ex is not young.  We are exactly the same age.  Our birthdays are just three weeks apart, and being with her did not involve any explanations.  It was easy to talk and interact with her.  I just wish that she would have been less stressed so she would have treated me better, but I guess that is not in the cards for us.  I’m at this stage where I am vulnerable though, so I told her that I knew that she had contacted me and that I had not contacted her back until now, but it was because it’s just very hard for me to engage with her.  I just wish that we would have been able to work out the nuts and bolts of our relationship in counseling.  However, I suppose that she and I were not meant to be in a longterm relationship for some reason.  I would like to build one, but don’t want to sacrifice what I believe is treating others right and building a future or do I want to be with a dreamer who plays all day to escape dealing with real issues.

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NOT who I’m looking for

I don’t want to keep sleeping with this girl.  We need to go back to a friendship.  To tell me that because I fell asleep having already spent three-hours with her when I am back at work and juggling everything that I took advantage of her is much too odd and more work than I need to do with dating.  Waaaaay too much drama for a slow, organic development.  It’s too relationship-oriented for me too.  If she had more mature kinda characteristics–meaning that I could see her as a partner–I’d probably forge forth.  But, I don’t want to and I really miss those good times with my ex.  I don’t engage with her, and I won’t, but life does suck without her and I’m not going to lie.

Gotta talk to this current girl and do the “redefine as friends” convo thing.  I will, and this time actually mean it and intend to be a good friend to her.  I’ve told her over and over what a good egg she is, and it’s true, but she is not who I seek.  Right now, I really just need to connect with friends and mend this fucked-up heart.

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WTF

I don’t know what I am doing.  I know it’s a new girl, but really what does our life path even have the possibility of holding?  She talked about how much she loves kids and would be a great parent and sees herself with a kid, but now since sex, she won’t even hang out with us.  He would have no clue that we were dating, and the rule, which I actually know because I AM a parent, is that you don’t wake up together unless cohabitation is probable.  I don’t think it is in this case with us ever, but I will take time to see.

Here is why I don’t.  I’m working full-time and parenting full-time.  She cooked for me last night, which I thanked her profusely for doing and it was good, and when she came back to my house after 10:00 pm having played some rec sports, she was mad because the ref made only calls against them and they lost, so I had to hear about that for 10-mins.  Really that is souring your mood that much?  She never thought that my day entailed leaving for work, working all day, going to two grocery stores, cooking dinner for my son and his Dad who is graciously watching our son for the next three weeks, working out and then watching her cook (While I opened a beer for her.  She has probably had over a case that I have bought this last month.), and then we had sex.  When she left to play rec sports, I walked my dog.  When I came home, I was spent.  I didn’t even want her to come back, but she had left shoes here.  I listened to her bitch about the ref, I got her stuff to clean her scrapes, but I didn’t drink beers and hang out all day so unlike her, I was falling asleep.

My day is different. Our days will always be different because she works part-time.  As trivial as it  may sound, what you do for a living does affect the way in which you have to organize and live your life.  It’s not just her looks that are polar opposite of my ex, it is also her lifestyle, which is a solely free and easy one.  This is the first time that she made a meal for me and I have made her about 7.  She said that I took advantage of her.  I don’t get that.  Does not add up and seems odd after a few rolls and undefined dating.  I was tired, have been working after my vacation, and I always spend time with her.  Very odd.

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I have issues clearly

So, I took my son to my folks’ house during the lunch hour and met her for a impromptu date yesterday.  I fed her meter–actually I parked her car too, as she had trouble getting in the spot–bought her a couple beers and pizza and we went home to have sex.  It was nice, as was the conversation that we had, but then she suddenly looked at her watch and said, “I told [my roommate] that I’d be home at four, so I have to go, as much as I’d like to stay here and have sex all afternoon.”

I told her that she has to get home to someone who doesn’t give her what I do–which I had said in a smart aleck, in jest sort of way.  Then she said, “I have been in a relationship like that where I was told, ‘Oh, you can be an hour late.  You can be half-an-hour late,’ and I’m not going to do that anymore.  I like to tell whoever I’m meeting what time I will be home and do it.”  I said, “OK.”  I got up and got dressed.  That was not what I was saying, and I was joking, but I was pissed at the abruptness of her transition, and because she is so attached to her roommate I was really aggravated.  Also, I took my son elsewhere to do something nice for her, which I paid for, orchestrated, and was not implying that she needed to be late.  I was joking around.

As I was getting ready to leave my bedroom, I was seething, because she was comparing me to some girl who she was with for over three-years, and is probably 10 or more years my junior.  Then, the kicker was that it was 50-minutes until it was 4!  She lives 15-20 minutes away from me.  I told her the time and she said, “Oh, I looked at my watch wrong!”  I was infuriated.  Last night when we talked for a two-hours she said that I blew her looking at her watch incorrectly way out of proportion.  I told her that it seemed convenient, and she was insulted that I thought that she’d lie.  I told her that with the fervor that she started leaving, it seemed so dissimilar to the way in which she rolls.  I figured that she was going to go out, do whatever around girls, and wanted to get the hell out.

So, she is now aggravated at me for thinking that the watch was an excuse and that I want her to be with me all the time.  The latter is completely bizarre.  I have to admit that she triggered my ex-partner stuff.  Recall that my ex-partner was not exclusive with me, always slept with another girl, and “fell in love with me” when she had moved to the Southeast.  I do not want another fuck buddy again, and do want to be of value.  I guess that if you have as many relationships as I have had that you have what Missy Higgins sings about which is scars.

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Growth

I got mad at her last night, and I’m not going to lie.  She told me all about what her housemate and she have decided about dating a mother, and I told her in addition to neither of them not being parents that they really don’t need to make me out to be a Springer episode.  And they don’t.  We aren’t doing family time, and the latter was only done with my ex because it was the first and only time that I fell head-over-heels in love and believed in a one.  Also, I loved, loved, loved her son, and really can’t click to her social media page because I don’t want to see him.  I loved him and I still do and probably wouldn’t have put up with her shit as much with no backlash had I not felt so connected to him.

Now, I want concerns to be dealt with right away, so I told her that she and I would be seeing each other every other weekend until we make some decisions.  This is dating at it’s purest form and that’s it.  Speculating about my abilities as a parent when your analogy is your str8 sister and your nephew and two nieces that you see about monthly is a poor one.  She knew that she crossed the line and I don’t want her and the woman who she lives who she addresses as “her wife” to make assumptions about me.  It’s judgmental.

I won’t be judged.  I won’t be defined.  I will slowly see what we are.  I will make some decisions after some time has elapsed.  I will communicate clearly and efficiently too when I’m triggered.  After it occurs, I will write about it, and put it away forever, because I wish that my ex could have done that just once with me.  I’m not going to make hash marks.  That is NOT me.

She called me back 5-minutes after we hung up and asked me to tell her a joke.  She said our conversation was odd, and I didn’t remind her to put herself in my shoes, but I did call her back several minutes after we hung up again, and told her one.  We will have fun tonight though…  I just know it.  I’m done with it, told her where my limit is, and I won’t even put energy out where she can talk about my son who she has seen twice.  I want us to discover what “we” are and that should be free of my kid.  That is where my ex and I got convoluted anyway.  No texts since Thursday from the latter, so I plan on enjoying this night to the hilt, and having some good, illicit sex as well.

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Kindness

The friend who I have been sleeping with is so kind.  I can’t believe how conscientious she is about contact and staying connected to me.  We talked last night before bed and then texted some more.  I really hope that she will finally get some sleep.  I like just being able to talk free from resentment and simply enjoy when we are together.  I think that she and I really do have some destiny to stay in each other’s lives after we see out what it is that we are doing.

My ex texted me last night.  It says that she misses me and that I will always have a piece of her heart.  I don’t even know what that means really.  I think that given what she does for a living and how she controls her friends that she is not able to separate how she shows up with others or even differentiate between her work and friendships.  Even with her best friend, who she doesn’t see frequently, she still makes comments about and to directly in terms of the way that she leads her life.  It’s really a classic Adlerian paradigm, and I’d rather be with someone and just be.  I want judgment reserved.  I’ll delete her message in a little while.  I won’t contact her again.  I’ll wish her a Happy Birthday, but I don’t want contact.  I really do want a year’s worth of space.

I want kindness.  I’m seeking it and give it anytime that I can.  If someone is leading her life in a way that I don’t think is good, I can say that it wouldn’t be for me, but it probably works for that person.  A good example is a friend who I’ve had for 25-years who has done break-up / make-up with her partner for 4-years.  It would not be for me (And I have told her this twice), but I think that is the dynamic that she and her girl have, so it must work for them.  Kindness and consistency works for me in addition to honest and open communication.  I like having sex with someone who is kind, consistent, and honest with me too.  I am having a good end to my vacation this week.