Tag Archives: Art

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I was in our group consultation via videoconference for a new modality that I’m hoping to receive certification, and got a text from a woman who is recently divorced who was in the consultation with me. I know her through an intern that I supervised in 2011-2012. She is really sarcastic, and an angry vegan. Do you know what an angry vegan is? They make it their entire identity. However, she’s a newer climber and probably way better than me, but she texted that she’s getting on the wall this next week, so we’re going to go climbing. Attraction to her would never grow, but I am so glad to have someone that I can belay and watch so I can go up routes. That is something that I’ve mentioned helps me to get up a route. Also, now I’ll have to learn the gris gris.

I went to the art show. It was really cool. I was sleepy though so a little encumbered. A man asked if he could join me at the standing table and he was fun to talk to, but I knew after he returned with a another drink that he’d ask more questions about me and it would become a thing. Fortunately, a woman who also sings with my best friend was sitting down with her boyfriend and a couple of lesbians and had an open seat. Why are men hitting on me all the time now? I think that I’m going to have a samurai ponytail when I go out in mixed company to expose my undercut–particularly when I’m in a dress and heels. My boss bought me a drink, but it was our domestic version of an IPA, and their products give me headaches. I do better with small batch and microbrews. The concert and native dancing was phenomenal. I went through a drive through and got a grass-fed hamburger and chili cheese fries. I’m not a vegan, and don’t think that I’m angry.

I slept well three nights this week. I have a sweet spot of understanding. When my mood is semi-hideous, I need to stay up later than usual. So, I’ll do planks, stretching and a short meditation. I need to see that now that I don’t pay for Amazon music if I can still get a listen for a 2-7 minute program that was simple and really good. I’ve not found something comparable on Spotify. If anyone has a recommendation for what I could listen to in my Pixel buds while planking and then stretching, please comment or email me here.

My son is still lying. He’s only taken the GED Math Practice test. That means that I have to endure the wrath today while he takes Language Arts and do the same pattern before dodgeball tomorrow for either Science or Social Studies. I will buy him something for his future guitar if he takes the final one on Monday while I’m at work. He also talked to his ex-girlfriend for hours last night and was going to get back with her. Mind you after she blew up his other ex-girlfriend’s Dad’s birthday party he was “never speaking to her again.” I need to help him with a friendship with her. She can’t come to our house anymore under the guise of friendship though. She’s a sweet kid, but beyond manipulative and really unhealthy mentally and physically.

I’m prowling tonight. At 8, I am dropping off my son at his Dad’s apartment. I am packing gloves and his big down jacket so he can walk home. It won’t get even near the freezing mark for two-days given La Niña. I’m going to work with him today and watching his team play and then I’m going to use the machines and make sure that he does cardio. He skipped Monday, because he has a cold. He caught a cold because he vapes and is overweight and has shitty sleep hygiene. That latter is post-COVID and hasn’t shifted. When he was an athlete he slept 7-13 hours. The latter was after a weekend of sometimes 11 basketball games.

There are some really cute ladies on the other dodgeball teams. I need to get close to them to make sure that they’re in their mid-thirties. I just can’t be serious about conversations with anyone under 35. It makes me feel like I’m chilling with a high school-aged client and that is super creepy and skeeves me out completely.

I had a weird dream about my ex-wife Thursday night. I can’t remember it now and had to be at work super early all week and worked to nearly five after being there at seven-fifteen on Friday. If I have a dream that I want to reconsider, I write it down my hand while still in bed, but had to work too much this week, so I don’t remember it.

My lead at my main site likes to schedule complicated meetings all in one week. It makes my life and another specialist’s life hellish. She also is a little simple. The other specialist said something that caused me to laugh until I cried and I could no longer stand. Our lead doesn’t read very well or pronounce things well, and also has a tendency to suddenly not understand legal procedures for some complicated meetings. It’s an odd presentation. Likely induced by stress. Anyway, the other specialist who was incidentally my pickleball partner last fall was talking about some procedures and our manager being confused and she said, “It’s just exhausting. I can’t keep up with all the fucking stupidity.” I told her that I was glad that I wasn’t wearing eye makeup because I would have had it everywhere, and I also had lung butter for the better portion of the day from laughing so hard after she said that. It went in my 2023 quotations cell phone file. Also, in there is, “Would you ever date _____? She does all that white people shit.”

My colleagues keep me sane. I’m really lucky. I make good money and love so many of them.

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Writing helps

I know that I had written that I read “Opening Up.” Through writing and also processing some trauma, people experienced alleviation of symptoms according to the professor and researcher. Now when we work with people we teach them a ton of mindfulness, relaxation, and sometimes biofeedback before we process anything significant. The exception is when you have someone come in your office in an acute stress state or fully panicked and then you ground them fairly directedly, and allow them enough time and space to tell the whole story. You can also have them rate how it feels to tell it with totally freaked “10” and calm “1.” You can have them tell the story a few times too to hopefully desensitize the heightened emotional state. I have life circumstances that are in a low state of stress all the time, so I just have to ventilate a little. I talk a bit about stress and write way more.

Last night my colleague who almost died was talking to me about work and when we got to my son’s best friend’s house, I hung up the call. I called her last night while I was lifting weights. She’s a mess. I think that three-years ago her own stuff got really flared up when a client of ours was murdered. It was grisly and all over the news too. Her father had chosen to come to her house to die just a year prior, and the man who raised her just died of cancer. Way, way, way too much. That’s why she was suicidal. I told her, “______, I am your solid friend. I’m pretty basic (I didn’t explain that it wasn’t in the white Adidas, yoga pants, carrying a Hydroflask way because she’s a Gen X’er too–actually I’m 6-weeks older than her.), and never do anything weird. You can count on me to always be the same.” She stopped crying eventually and calmed down. Hopefully, she slept ok.

After my brother was killed and I was in the hospital, my mother had fielded all kinds of phone calls and read letters from 8th grade kids who were my “best friend.” I know that the woman who I prowl with once monthly also calls me her “best friend.” My ex-wife always told me that I’m so much of a better friend than a partner. It’s all pretty interesting to me.

Even the climber said, “Have you always been this confident?” I told her no, and especially was not in my thirties. That’s true. I used to try to hard. I can read my writing from 2011 – 2013 and see all kinds of over extensions and frankly silly shit that I used to do. Glad it’s over and likely has come with age. Speaking of which, I put it out there that I’m still wickedly attracted to her on Monday with talking about the blue hue match of her eyes to her sweater, and that she has a memory of me in my underwear. Because she’s busy, and likely it’s with new partners, I’m going to just work with her a bit and say “Hi,” if our paths cross in the hall or copy room. Otherwise, I’m not going to initiate a conversation with her again. That’s more firm than my simply saying that I won’t ask her out. Come to me if you’d like, as you know where to find me.

I’ll see the photographer on Friday. I really hope that she just says, “Hello,” and catches up with me. I don’t want to hug her or do anything which involves a mixed message. We all have an art demo and music performance from my best friend’s singing partner. My best friend gets back from a month in Asia next week. She won’t be at the museum for this artistic experience. My Boss will at about 7 or 7:30, and she was shocked that I don’t have a date. I told her that I don’t chase. And, again, she said, “Wow. That is impressive.” I guess confidence is sometimes attractive and other times surprising.

I think that in entries from 10-years ago I talked about next year starting my easy part of life. A Vedic Astrologer told me that during a 2.5-hour reading that I paid for. I also had my friend who is coming in two weeks for convention do a distance reading through her mother probably 12-years ago. She told my friend that I wasn’t through the difficult part of my life. I think that Dad dying in 2020, Mom dying in 2021, my divorce in 2022 and my son dropping out this year are all trying. I think, too, that these circumstances have been helpful. Writing about them has made them more easy to process.