Reflections

Even when I wake up while I’m dreaming, I love my coffee and headlines and then maybe a blog entry in the morning.  I’m so, so looking forward to the migration to working 30 – 45 hours a week instead of 60.  The latter number starts to make you feel only semi-human after a couple of months.

My friend’s bf was sweet.  Her neighbor needed a rescue and came over and then her actor friend and roommate also came over to pick up something that they had left at my friend’s house on Saturday, so it turned into an outdoor dinner party.  The risotto with tomato, garlic, and basil was phenomenal.  I had flash fried zucchini and summer squash and did my tomato trick.  The trick is that you take a tablespoon of basil and pinch it (like to hand grind it) and then put it on sliced tomatoes and add liberal amounts of garlic salt to them.  It’s incredible.  So, we had salad, risotto, and grilled chicken.  I don’t know when Italians started grilling chicken breasts, but my cousin did that last weekend too.  We never really ate boneless breasts of chicken growing up, but we did use meat mallets and a sharp knife to make cutlets that were washed, salted, floured, egged and then given a light coating of bread crumbs.  That sounds good for this week one morning when I cook for the boys at five am.

My ex texted on Saturday.  I didn’t get it until over an hour later, because I was on my morning bike ride with my colleague.  This was the same colleague that I ran the 5K with recently.  It was odd.  It was recommendations for a couple of things to do with my son in her town in June.  No thanks.  I already have to spend two nights in the mountains in June, so I will stick around home and things to do minutes from my house while I finish up this course and my client load.  I wrote, “Thanks.  I hope that you and _______ are well too.”  I have this weird intuitive thing wherein I know that although her son won’t consciously remember me that our bond will have a heart connection.  That makes me feel better.  I guess that although the chess board is shelved that I will get these weird text recommendations from time to time.  It’s highly unlikely that I’ll take her recommendations either.  My friends don’t shell out unsolicited advice.  We have heart connections and don’t need to force friendship.

I don’t want to build a friendship with her.  It doesn’t make any sense to do so either.  She’s an ex and is not family.  I don’t want to drive 80-miles roundtrip to hang out for a couple of hours.  It’s bad enough that my first cousin and her two kids who my son adores live 42-miles away roundtrip.  It was funny, when I was still seeing my ex in August, my cousin drove up to one of the lake happy hours that my ex hosts in the summer time and the first thing she HeyTelled me was, “If you two stay together, you got to get her to move further south to civilization.”  She doesn’t know my ex well.  My ex will not only never leave her town, but she’ll never leave her house.

I’ve crossed over this part wherein I know that I will meet a girl, but don’t know if it will be this summer or two years from now.  You get to a point–I’m at the five-month mark–where you are very good at being single.  I do want to go out and have fun with new women, but can wait a few weeks for that one.  I’m looking forward to my friends’ going away party in two weeks.  I invited lonely girl and church girl too.  Friendships mean the world to me and make realize how lucky I really am.

Balance

I’ve had a really great weekend.  It was fine to see clients yesterday too, because I wasn’t just working.  I’m lucky.

My friend from work who is also my workout partner had a bday party and we went to a Beer Garden.  The only bad thing was that I finished my intern’s pint at her request and was pretty hungover for much of the day yesterday.  However, I dragged my tired ass out and biked to one of the parks with a colleague very early in the morning and then saw my aesthetician.  I saw clients and then came home and rested for 45-minutes and then got ready to go out.  My friend’s 40th bday was really fun, and then my best friend had a performance–she had not done so in 3-years–with two girls who she mentors.

I was confused when I got to the venue.  First of all when I was parking, there were all kinds of lesbians in the parking lot.  Then there were a ton of lesbians in line.  Then there was this young girl who was obviously bi who started talking to me.  Turns out that at the same venue was one of the lesbian iconic slam poets.  She is not my thing.  I don’t get her.  I think that I’m too happy for that approach.  I was worried.

So, I stood in this line talking to this girl and then when I got to the top of the stairs, my best friend was not on the list.  WTF?  I walked back downstairs and entered a side stage.  No one knew my friend.  Then I pulled up the poster on FB via my mobile, and the promoter was looking at it and said, “Another date maybe?  No, it’s May 4th,” when my friend came up and hugged me.  Their opening was incredible.  So was their massive talent.

I went back to my friend’s party and was very sad to see that all the food was now gone.  I should have eaten more.  Red wine makes me really hungrier than I actually am.  I hung out until after nine with my son and friends.  It was such a good Saturday.  Even hungover, I had a blast.  Now it’s time to work, clean, and write.  I hope that one of my best friend’s makes me dinner tonight.  Her bf is in town.  Otherwise, I just need to work hard given such a perfect Saturday.

And some are just trouble

We were deep in the mountains the weekend before I turned 38, but then her son got sick and we had to come home.  She wanted me to stay and do a long day hike along a ridge, but when you are spending 5-days with the girl you’re dating, you want to do just that.  Because she is such a driven person, she wound up bundling up the baby the next day and we took a 25-mile bike ride.  The weekend wasn’t bad.  She was moody about her possible diagnosis which–as I knew it would be–turned out to be nothing but muscle tears.  However, there was there was more to the outcome of this weekend in general.

We drove back home and she said, “Who did you think was attractive?”  I found the question odd and then she said, “C’mon, who would you do if you were single?”  I told her, and she made a slight about her physical state.  Very her.  Then she told me who she found attractive.  My ex is shameless flirt; although, she would deny and call herself “clueless” when it came to stuff like that, so I knew that she had at least had intense conversations with her.  I mostly let it go, but did say that she would start pursuing her.

Then, the following Saturday when she had plans with us, she slowly cancelled on me via phone, and wound up “hiking”–my ex HATES to hike–with her and her daughter the following day (Sunday).  Then she sent me some of the meanest texts and basically called me a big baby for being sad about not getting to see her and not being a priority.  That was the nail in the coffin for me for us to be “dating.”  My ex is like a lot of people and always keeps one in the queue.  This girl was no exception until her friends told her how she is in relationship, and she also learned some things when she was with one of my ex’s old friends too.

Well, this girl didn’t overtly ask me out, but she did ask if I was going out on Friday.  I would choose pain of death before I would go to this venue wherein any manner of the ghosts of gf’s past could be dancing, and then she texted, “I need to meet people.  How does one do that?”  I told her that if she wanted to, I’d bring her to one of my friend’s parties when I could, and she said that she’d be honored.  She is just lonely.  I was there last summer.  I slept with Peter Pan.

We can hang out with friends, and be friends, but that’s it.  She is super cute and has great dimples, but she is her own worse enemy when it comes to relationship, and I have already seen her with her friends, and it seems, that many of them don’t talk to her anymore.  So, that’s enough data for me.  I honestly don’t have anything in common with a woman who is fine with losing friends.  It seems that she is not solid enough right now to make lasting friendships if newer friends no longer talk to her.

  1. Sexy
  2. Smart
  3. Integrity
  4. Vulnerable
  5. Funny
  6. Humble
  7. Open
  8. Stable

My BFF said, “Become who you want.”  I don’t think that I struggle much with any of these attributes.  I think too, that I really do know who I am.  Shane had this tattoo, “Know thyself,” except it was in Latin.  And she did, but she was not willing to share things that scared her with me.  She was open, but not too much so, because then she could not have justified her alcohol use.  I don’t think that justification has place in relationship…  I was short with you because you don’t read my mind about my grief.  Where is the emotion in that?  There isn’t any, but anger, and that’s just masked hurt.  Hurt is an emotion that few will talk about, because it makes you vulnerable.

Stable is another important factor too.  I’m not a warm body.  I’m someone who is worth it.

Inspiration

I’m ok.  Really I am.  I can remember feeling just like this late summer and early fall of 2008, and then when 2009 rolled around I dated three different women within six-months.  I was ferreting out what I wanted during that time.  It’s odd that I wound up spending so long after that with the same woman.  I’m glad to say that I didn’t do that in my recent ex’s holding pattern.  I could have stayed with her too if I hadn’t told her that I couldn’t approximate dating because of the way that it makes me feel…  So here I am four and a half months later, with few answers, but feeling like I put a hard stop on things that I really couldn’t tolerate.

Even if you are within the worse days of your life, it’s not ok to put someone down all the time or is it to make complaints about them.  My shortcomings wound up being mostly what we were conversing about when we finally did see each other.  That and flying off the handle got really old.  The chess board is on a shelf and there won’t be any moves anymore, and that’s fine with me.  I left it at that I agree that we don’t communicate the same, and that we CERTAINLY don’t fight the same.

One of my buddies came to dinner last night, and she spent the night in our basement.  She has been my friend for five-years.  She was in a fairly dark place last night and had actually cried at work, so she was especially vulnerable.  Her relationship is starting the bumpy cycle.  I actually don’t care for her gf much.  She does that competitive conversation thing and she also is completely self-involved.  My friend has put up with the latter a whole bunch.  Apparently, she gets sick quite a bit when she is stressed and then has been blaming it on my friend.  To me, they just don’t sound all that compatible, but the other thing is that you are responsible for your reactions to other people.  Blaming stuff on others is just a way to lack accountability for your part in things.  I think that because my friend loves her, that she probably will just put up with it, but that’s not what I want for me.  I told her, “I just wish that she listened to you, and that she didn’t seem to take you for granted.”  I know that now I will have a roommate for a year.  She is not going to move in with her gf anytime soon.  That’s cool.  I can use the money.

Remember when Tom Cruise’s character agrees with his love interest that he is just looking to be inspired?  I can inspire myself, but I’m looking for a girl who finds inspiration in a hike, a beer on the porch, listening to a song while talking, and hanging out after dinner before putting the dishes away.  I just want to connect with someone around those simple things and enjoy those moments.  I’m looking for a woman who is secure enough with herself, how she presents, and what she wants so that she can connect to me, and eventually, my son.

Busiest Sat

What didn’t I do yesterday?  I dropped my dog off at Day Care, ran a mile and quarter with one of my bosses, I did my typical Boot Camp, but we had a sub, I watched my son play soccer, I went shopping for groceries, I heard back from one of the therapists, as I plan on referring one my clients out for specific treatment, I got 3.5 inches of my hair chopped, I cleaned myself up, I had some water and met the Scorpio, I ran my 5K with a colleague and her friends, and then I had two beers with the bday entourage.  I have to write after church today, and I have to walk my dog before I go.

The Scorpio was back with her ex, so I was very careful about talking to either of them.  She touched me twice, and then her gf took her into the bar on the side, and when they returned, she didn’t touch me again.  When they left–which was way after the 5K was done and they had remained at the bar, she walked over to me and said, “It was really nice to meet you,” so now I do know that my colleague who had a bday told her that I said that she was cute.  She’s very cute.  We had that eye contact thing as we shook hands the last time, and a huge smile spread across my face.  We shall see how long she stays like her ex this time.  Again, that sounds like me.

I ran into a woman who I hadn’t seen in five-years.  I had only recently taken her phone number out of my phone.  Her gf was very cute.  She has lots of relationships, and I always think that it’s funny that I’ve dated so much too, but that is exactly why I plan on slowing down right now.  I honestly don’t want to force anything.  I want to see how girls are with their friends–I got good data on that last night with Scorpio–and I want to do stuff together first with any love interest.  I don’t even know what I would have done with my ex except hang out outside with our boys, eat dinner, and take a night walk.  I guess that we did listen to music sometimes, but often that was when we were having sex.  We had an insta-relationship.  No thanks.  That doesn’t work.  It also has not worked for me to just start having sex.

I really didn’t do that though with the last woman who I had sex with–not meaning my ex.  Peter Pan and I hung out, listened to music, ate meals together, did a summit, and talked very easily.  I was very bothered by the way that she said that she would have to be beaten by her brother to get him out of her parents house (One of her brothers is an addict.), that she lied about her career and then rolled with it, her over attachment to her roommate, and because she had a mythology about her being the most easy person in the world, she was beyond reproach.  I just wanted to have sex after karaoke one night, so I did.  Also, it did help damper the feelings that I had for my ex.  However, I did that right with delaying sex.  I did so for 7-weeks, but she lacked integrity in general.  The thing that I missed was my other new rule, and that is hanging out with friends together.  She has one guy friend who she plays golf with, and then her roommate who is straight, but her bf works out of town all the time.  So, I think that Peter Pan already had a gf, and it’s her straight roommate.

Again, there was no one of interest at the bar.  Everyone really drinks too heavily for me and others seem cliquey and phony.  I had one good conversation with a girl from the east coast who came in on an ancient Schwinn.  The bar owner who I have known for six-years helped her take it downstairs and then she gave me a tour of the whole place.  It is really cool and is definitely the best bar that she has ever run in our city.  She gave me pink boy briefs with the bar names on the crotch, so I put them over my running pants and wore them all night.  This girl on the ancient bike was good friends with Scorpio, so that was good, because Scorpio heard me making her laugh hard.  We shall call this girl Cruiser.  She was smart, but not cute, but could maybe be a good friend.  I’m going to friend her today.  Late that night, I brought her bike up from the basement and she said, “Wow, that’s impressive.”  I assumed because I just carried it up the stairs and lightly placed it right by the door instead of rolling it up, she was surprised.  I hope that Scorpio saw that too 🙂

I’m doing very well single. I know that when I network it’s good.  I want to get my dissertation done and work privately more all summer.  These paycuts from the day job have really messed me up financially.  I know that I’m getting my feet back under me and my heart healed.  I’m well on my way and have not ever actually felt this balanced.

Weekender Readiness

I slept so well.  I think that I’m going to be able to improve that without sex, which I don’t think has happened in years.  I usually sleep best when I’m able to sleep with someone with some regularity–I say, “some” because there have been times that it is just a couple of weekends a month due to just dating with no seriousness.  It was just in my last relationship wherein it was weekly because we got serious and considered blending.  I think though that I will be able to just sleep better.

I cannot wait to be done with work, supervision, and then my family clients this evening.  I’m picking up my race packet and then chilling at home.  My workout partner’s date had to cancel, so she is chilling with me too.  We should probably make dinner together.  We shall see.  I have Boot Camp far away because I need to start working out with my boss due to our half being two months away, and I have to be the first to admit that I’m not ready for it.  I need to get hotel accommodations for it at the end of the month as well.  When I get back, my son plays two soccer games back to back this Saturday, and then I have a dye and haircut.   I don’t do the former too much because it’s so expensive, but I want solid color for the race and this spring.  I’ll probably need some rest time before the 5K and bday party too.  Sunday is just church and writing and then dinner with my intern.

I need to see who can walk my dog between noon and three.  I will walk her first thing in the morning and then at night as well on Saturday, but she has done some destructive stuff a couple days in a row, and I don’t want to leave her tethered in the house.  If she didn’t bark, I could tether her outside, but she is really territorial.

We had to meet with families last night who could meet.  It was pretty slow.  I wound up bs’ing with my workout partner quite a bit. She said that when my ex contacts me again that I won’t backslide much, because I am so much healthier around the entire situation.  It’s simpler because I don’t see her and really don’t think that I will see her until the very end of September.  I’m assuming that by then, it will just be a quick how are you and how is your son.  That’s healthy.  What she wanted was not healthy.  Close friends with an ex is just weird.  Now, it is time for connecting with all my close friends and meeting some available girls.  I hope that Saturday night is a BLAST.

Single Scorpio

So, my friend was chatting me this evening and asking questions about ASD diagnosis.  I was kinda annoyed having to do shop talk while I was just logging in, and was a little short, but she didn’t even notice.  Then she told me that I needed to race one of her friends.  I had cyberstalked her page and knew the name, and this lanky blond really stood out and had an incredible body, but she has a really gummy smile.  I had dated this cowgirl who didn’t have a nice smile in December of 2008 and stopped in February of 2009.  She also had an amazing body and great ass, but her teeth were terrible.  They even made her lips chap the next morning.  She was stellar in bed too, but the teeth combined with her little girl voice killed it for me.  I’m still probably in karmic hell for my break-up with her…

Anyway, I played the age card and said that this lanky blond would waste me in a running race, and she said that they were both 32. 6-years is a big difference.  And that is opposite in the Chinese Zodiac too.  The woman with whom I had my coming out affair was 6-years older than me, so I guess that I didn’t like the smile of the woman who I should have a race with probably had a deeper meaning.  I do believe in intuition and chemistry…  Then she started talking about this other blond…

I asked her to get onto a computer and tell me when her bday was.  She’s a Scorpio.  She just got demolished by her ex partner and went back to her.  Then my colleague said, “We all screamed about her mixing with her ex,” because “that girl was toxic,” and she is not really “ready to date.”  Sounds like me.  Except I have the darkest brown hair that everyone argues is black.  But, chances are that she has light eyes.

Anyway, she and I should get to know each other if we have chemistry.  That is there or it’s not.  I wasn’t attracted to the picture of my ex, and I was to this girl’s pic.  Now, it’s the face to face thing.  And my upholding what I have promised myself, and that is dates in the daylight.  Maybe we can run or lift?  I hope she likes to hike.  I don’t care if she drinks beer.  I’m just ready to meet her, and am hopeful.

Insomnia and Goals

I have a strange relationship with things hanging over my head–they actually crash into my brain.  I have to get some paperwork done by tomorrow night, or I won’t gather data this spring.  That’s scary.  I guess that it has come to that.  It doesn’t matter much, because I have to get those things done.  I have to stay home from the day job today because I have to move money and write a big check too.

My joints are really sore.  I think that I’ll do a beer fast until Saturday night this week to give my body a break, but I know that I like it better than ibuprofen.  That’s what Saturday night and a cab are for–I get really nervous after I have had 3 when I think about malpractice insurance.  I’m hoping to run for 35-minutes on Thursday so I can get a good time on Saturday night.  I don’t know what a good time is though, but I’d like it to be under 40-minutes.  It will probably depend if it rains that night or not.  I’m assuming that running in rain at night is not a treat.  I just don’t know, because I have never run before now.

Yesterday not only did we run into the wind, but we also were freezing.  It was one of those days due to inclement conditions, you’d have been best off running in ski pants and a hat with flaps, but then the trade-off is that you would sweat buckets.  My son was in basketball shorts, REI under armor, a hoody with the hood on his head, a raincoat, and I pulled his shirt over his head that he got from the event as well.  He did sweat, but his nose also ran like crazy.  I was proud of him for finishing.  He jogged a little bit, and sprinted at least 6 times, but mostly walked at my pace, which is an extremely fast pace.

Now, I’m thinking about money (agonizing), my data and writing, that I don’t want to have clients on Tuesday (So, I don’t think I will schedule any), and my long days on Wednesday and Thursday.  I’m so tired of working a minimum of 50-hours every week.  I also need a distraction.  I don’t contact my ex at all, but I do think about her.  Most likely, much of the reason for the latter is because I don’t have a dark horse in the running.

I read through my entire journal (pen not blog) before I tried to sleep.  I talk about trying to sleep because I woke at eleven thirty and then after one, so I had to leave my bed.  I’m sore and achey, but mostly I’m really just stressed.  Anyway, in my journal, I noted that everything that I voiced and put out as intention came through.  Even though I never wrote, “I want a barista,” I wrote ad nauseum about being mellow and having no temper.  Well, Peter Pan wasn’t passionate about much other than sex in the middle of the night and some works of fiction, and certainly would not ever lose her temper.  Wow.  Careful seems good.

I like sexy.  I like smart.  I like fit.  I prefer light eyes and used to only like tall.  (The latter was removed from my notion of “type” given my little ex.)  I like honest, open, and authentic.  Those three things involve more quiet confidence.  You just are.

Shane and my ex have those elements that are referred to in the vernacular as “The Shit Show.”  However, especially with Shane, when you walked into a crowded trendy spot with her, both men and women would stare.  Probably at her swaggering 5’11” self with the power haircut, flashing smile and sparkling green eyes, but she also had that Steve McQueen thing going.  That: “I’m here and I could give two shits if you don’t like it.”  My ex can get loud and raucous, and relentlessly teases everyone at times–including wait staff–but she has that sex appeal thing and incredible eyes with a good smile.

I’m shifting in desire to more genuine.  Funny is really good, but sense of humor is even better.  Shane is not funny at all, but is much sweeter than my ex is.  She can be really genuine too, but doesn’t often remember those moments given her longterm abuse of alcohol.  I’d trade funny for appreciating laughter.  I’d also prefer a girl who does not take herself too seriously.  Life is not that serious, and there are things that happen that are so difficult that when you can’t just be, laugh, or simply soften, you’re really in for it.  I guess that it.  I do like attractiveness and intelligence, but I’m really seeking: mostly gentle.

Driven

What is it with all the driven people?  I had a massage this morning because these last two weeks at work have actually been a pile of shit from which I can’t wait to come through, and my therapist, who has been rubbing my act for 10-years told me that with our trail (We live blocks apart.) all torn up that the cyclists are getting on his nerves.  I made the analogy of marathoners and avid roadbikers and determined that they are both zealots, prior to drifting off into the land of stream of consciousness and no voluntary movement.

I’m fit.  Quite so for my age, but I would never run all the time or would I bike until I dropped.  I, frankly, have waaaay too many other things that I’m interested in doing with my time and seek balance.  Plus, I’m not driven to the degree where I live under a misapprehension that I can perfect my body or bench 150-pounds.  Well, I would feel badass if I could do the latter, but would never do 3-sets of 15 of those.  I would like to add some heavy stuff to my day C and just have to buy one of the counselors from work lunch at a soul food place for that 😉  Oddly, he is my ex’s type and actually lives just miles from her…  Small world in which we reside.

We run our family 5K tomorrow.  I hope that my ex doesn’t decide to run it with her son and dog.  Frankly, it’s her neck of the woods.  It really doesn’t matter.  I’ll embrace her, choke back tears when I hold her son, and she’ll clap me on the back–“Way to go, pal.”  So, gross.  A woman who is worth TONS of money, raised a couple of kids, and now is single parenting her own, but can’t be even slightly vulnerable.  This woman who sat in her red, wool coat all night buttoned to the top until she left without saying goodbye when we attended an event that was honestly in the memory of her father.  So driven, yet in the opposite vein, one who runs from raw emotion with the exception of when she makes love.  I’ll never understand her and know that I really don’t know her.

I vow never to be like that.  I don’t want to appear cold.  I’m not formidable, nor am I impervious.  Although I am driven to make a better life for my son and I, I do believe that true love is rare and connection means everything.  Here is to you, sweet girl, wherever you are.  I know that you’re out there and one of my drives to see you; although, I don’t know you or have I yet seen you.

Dinking around

The biker doesn’t have a gf, but I don’t think that I should fly far away just to hang out with her and have sex.  Although I could really use some sex, and believe me, I could, I don’t think that something just for the sake of doing it is a good idea.  We all have patterns.  I don’t want to go back to mine.

My last relationship was different, and I think that it is simply because I’m at a different level with respect to what I know that I do honestly want.  Just hooking up when some girl is available, or having a here and there long distance fling is not ultimately what I’m seeking.  I was different and in the end I was more heartbroken afterward because I thought that my ex and I would work through our constant fights–actually saying her jumping my shit all the time and me being in shock is more accurate–and then we’d raise our sons together.  That was a fantasy though, because she goes off on everyone, and I have left my childhood behind.  I don’t need a woman to alternately complain and yell at me.

In that song “Detours” by Sheryl Crowe she seeks someone who is awake, and while I do that, I’m not destroyed as a result of my last breakup.  She also wishes to love with a “paper thin heart.”  While the slow, year long death tore me up, and I cried a whole bunch last fall, I am not altered in terms of my ability for passionate and intimate love.  With the turn of this calendar, I have not shed a single tear and we will be midway through this year before long.  I have definitely changed though.  I didn’t know her.  I had written to church girl and I told her that I don’t want to get caught up in the land of dopamine and the elixir of passion before I truly know who a woman is.  My ex and I got sexually involved after just under two weeks, and honestly I knew that she pushes away when she thinks that someone is being casual to her.  I ignored it.  Now, I’d be less likely to ignore something weird like that, but I want to have open exchanges about how a girl fights.

Describe for me, your temper?  Is a a slow, burning kind of thing and then you finally release?  Do you fly off the handle a lot and are you easily irritated?

Have you fought with a good friend?  How did you work through it?

I used to be really hotheaded.  I’m just not like that anymore and it’s rare for me to raise my voice.  I never raised my voice at Shane–not once.  Although I must admit that she and I had that free and easy dynamic wherein we sat quietly.  In fact, she would have a soliloquy for sometimes up to two-hours because I was the only one that she talked to, and I was like a captive audience.  She didn’t ask me any questions, and I was finally glad for her to simply shut up.  I wound up really missing my friends too when I was with her for two-weeks, because we have an even talking and speaking exchange.  Some of my friends do irritate me, and if talking about it doesn’t resolve, I just take space from them.

I need to admit that I have not ever resolved conflict well with a lover.  I need to work on fighting well in my next relationship.  I know what good communication is when you fight, and when Shane was completely sober, which was rare, we could talk through things.  However, the resolution never involved her compromising with me.  It was her decision.  So, in that way I have improved.  I won’t allow a girl to bowl me over and make decisions for me either.

I think that I’m just done dinking around.  I probably won’t go home with anyone at the party in 10-days.  I may not even get any phone numbers.  I think that more than likely, I will just have some fun and laughs.  I don’t want to go back to hooking up, and I don’t want to second guess my instincts with a woman who doesn’t want to compromise either.

Snow Day

Well, it took until April, but I got it!  I always have these lofty plans that I’m going to work lightly and let my intern hold down the fort, but yesterday we had some stuff come up that only I could address.  I got up at my normal, ungodly hour, checked my email and then my job’s website, and went back to bed.  It’s so great when I can fall back asleep.  My son came in and cuddled me about an hour-and-a-half later.

So, today I’m very happy, because my son is contentedly playing Legos and I’m typing with coffee.  I’m going to make ham and cheese omelets with green onion (And I will have to omit cheese from his, because he doesn’t care for cheese much) and then work some.  But, NOT my day job.  That is closed today as are many city entities.  I won’t even check my email.  It’s not bad in my city though…  I think that most of this storm is where my ex lives.  I’m NOT complaining.  🙂  It is nice to be home, and know that I don’t have anywhere to see clients this evening either.

Our family 5K is this weekend.  We will have to get some sleep on Saturday night because we have to get up really early.  I hope that we don’t have to run into the wind.  I found out on Sunday that I don’t like doing that at all.  Rain is forecasted, so we will need our raincoats and some dry clothes.  I think that there is live music and such afterward.  I’m going to time myself, and then see how much time I can shave off of it six-days later when I run mine solo.  I would like to learn to do 5Ks in 30-minutes and 10Ks in about an hour and fifteen.  That’s my goal.

I’m in that loathing of dry spell mode.  That means that I could go home with a random girl next Saturday.  I hope that I don’t.  My preference is fun social stuff in the daylight with plenty of girls.  That is the good thing about my second 5K, because I will meet a bunch of girls during and after it when we go out for my colleague’s birthday.  I should promise myself to get phone numbers only.  These girls are way younger than me and party a lot.  I outgrew that phase about four-years ago.

I have these strange fantasies wherein I meet a girl at the Art Museum or a book talk.  I’m looking for someone who doesn’t give me shit when I make literary references or when I make jokes that are more metaphorical.  Shane used to tell me how weird I was all the time, and while that’s true, I didn’t like the way that she always had to say it.  My last ex used to give me shit about my use of polysyllabic words, and it was obvious that she was at least slightly bothered that I had made time to continue my education.  I would like to meet a girl who is comfortable where she is, and doesn’t mind that I like music, books, and art.  Peter Pan loved books and music, but she lied about where she was so she could sleep with me.

There have got to be authentic women.  I’m one.  I want to run into one.

 

4

I like Astrology.  I don’t have much use for anything past an ascendent, but I think Sun, Moon, and Ascendent are cool, and of course, I do think about Venus placement right now too, but I don’t think much of the other planets in daily stuff.  Anyway, in the summer time when my ex was planning her coup (Meaning that she was ready to sleep with me after a three month hiatus.) she said that her soul number was 9 and that mine was probably 9 too based on Astrology and bday and stuff.  It’s not. It’s 4.  Apparently, you get along best with your soul number when it’s the same or if you’re even, being with another even number.

I had some weird stuff transpire on Tuesday and a friend of mine gave me some immediate feedback.  In the end, she had seen a sign off of a road with the word, “Fair” on it, and the first date of the fair was her Mom’s bday, and the second date of the fair was the day that she was in surgery to save her Mom’s life. (Her mother did not live.)  Later she sent me a HeyTell at 4:44 having no idea that 4 is my number and said that she was thinking of that sign “Fair” and that she was between two cars.  One was 444 in the number section, which her Mom always said is an angelic number, and the one behind her was 999.  So, I don’t think that it is time to do the “friends” card with my ex.  Some day, maybe, but right now I just don’t want any of her energy and definitely not her non-emotional, rational, and combative self that she is championing at this point in time.  She is on her own path.

So, I had an incredible day yesterday.  I had to confront a colleague about her insensitivity and general lack of professionalism.  I had to give a parent a good news, bad news scenario about her 11-year-old in terms of ability and possible diagnosis.  My client who really needs to (by her own admission) stay consistent with her counseling just skipped session without so much as a text.  And, I ran a 5K on the treadmill.  My heart rate average was 160 as well.  I also was able to talk to my workout partner for the duration, so I have built up some endurance.  I would like to run outside on Sunday, so I’m going to with her.  I have not ever done pavement–well, not since 6th grade.  Our family 5K is next Sunday.  Our dog is so crazy that I’ll have to get in a zen place with her darting and beg the nature Gods not to put a rabbit in our path.

It sure is rare to be a licensed psychologist in the area where I work.  I’ll probably have to leave, which is just part of my journey.  It’s inconvenient, and will involve probably my getting on the road thirty minutes earlier than I do now, which will be challenging for my son, but I think that it’s time for me to move on to a place where I can get settled.  I also have to complete this doc, so it’s the last step.  I will need to stay put though, if they complete my training.  That sounds like I’m becoming a Jedi…  I wonder what Yoda’s soul number was?

Leave the fear

I am going to do some vertical climbing.  I’ve never done it, and am very scared of heights, but it’s guided and was only $50.  I have to wrap my brain around it, but I just don’t believe in living with fear.  I started climbing mountains in 2008, and I have done some ledges and the like in addition to being on all fours when it gets steep, but I have not done vertical….  Yet.

I was driving up a forest road in my old Accord in 2008–it’s actually a very nice car, but I had to give it to my ex out of fairness–and parts of this road were missing at the time.  People kept turning around and I was like, “Nah.”  So I did this weird maneuver around the side of the ditch and then swung the wheel 180-degrees, but I dented the shit out of my oil pan.  It’s not like when you do something like that you can exactly turn around, so I just bombed up, but my car was smoking and lead to my having to repair it later.  The roads were turning from private, to missing, to zoned for parks, to National Forest Roads, so when there was a switchback later and a little driveway, I just turned around.  It was 5:45 in the morning.

I wound up driving around an old mining site and to a paved road, and finally parking low in a pass area.  That is how I completed my first summit, and I did it solo.  It was a much more difficult mountain in terms of technicality at the end and hugging a sawtooth and some scree when you would wind up a bit off trail, but I did it, and I did it completely on my own.  The latter was kinda stupid, so I did wind up climbing with another person after my first summit.

I think that is interesting, because I’m actually terrified of heights, but that’s the whole thing… I don’t believe in being hobbled by our fears.  People say trite stuff like “Face your fears,” but more than that is examining what you can do to pass through them.  I don’t think that when you live somewhere as beautiful as I always have with the exception of when I was in undergrad and my first round of grad school that you should let things that make you anxious rule you.  So, I just don’t.

I have given away my heart and been nakedly vulnerable.  I have completed 11-summits.  I have paddled down a strange river through tree roots and under swampy trees and weird spiders.  I have hung onto the back of a girl on motorcycles and jet skis.  These are not my comfort zones, but I have changed as a result of engaging in these activities.

So, now, in June, I’m going to climb some verticals with equipment.  Ultimately, I will be glad that I tried it.  Face what terrifies you.

I think that the path to being whole is truly being authentic and honest with yourself.  That is so easy to say, but really difficult to work through when you examine and then change.  With being vulnerable and naked with your emotions, it is worth the gamble, because you just change.  I think that when I give the sermon, I would like that to be a thematic tie.  I need to take a peek at my readings and face that fear too.  I speak in public all the time, but don’t have to talk about things that I’m not deep in understanding or require me to connect to my experiences.  But, that is the whole approach to being spiritual right?  It’s not dogmatic, sanctimonious, or does it suggest that one way is right.  It’s scary, but I want to face it like my vertical that is coming up too.

Lucky lessons

Church was cool and like a culmination of things, which is probably what it should be like, on Easter Sunday.  I had a pretty damn busy Monday with two acute cases in addition to my regular afternoon caseload.  I think that I finished set A, but I can’t remember, because the weight room was packed when my partner and I got there and I was not in the mood to keep good count.  (I mean my workout partner, and not my partner-partner.)  I was angry yesterday, and the weights helped, but I know that I didn’t spend what should have been my last 30-minutes of my night wisely, because I drank beers and chatted two of my work colleagues who have become friends.  I stayed up way too late and had pretty shitty sleep.  The nights that I have class can be long if I don’t get down time in between.  I will think about tonight, which is only 11-hours of work including a run, as a gift as is getting home at 6.

I was thinking about the message today, rather than yesterday or even in particular during church.  (I had a lot to do during the service.)  Our pastor told us that the gifts that we have been bestowed were freely given, so they are to be used as an extension of our hearts and our true selves.  Meaning that we can express them in a manner of our choosing.  That gave me a lot of clarity this morning.  I figured if you get anything from a relationship with someone that is actually a gift if was freely learned.  You simply cannot make someone understand or get something from you, but if you come out changed, it is ultimately a good circumstance for you.

I’m ready to date again.  I know that I am.  I wish that it was simple to meet nice girls.  I also wish that the bar scene was a bit different, but it’s not, and I don’t think that I will meet a wonderful girl in a bar, but I could.  It will have been four-months since I have kissed anyone in just two weeks.  That is a good amount of space.  I had heard that half the length of your previous relationship is optimal, and interestingly, that would be during my evil mud obstacle race.  Can you meet your one when she is covered in head to toe with mud?

Nelly’s “Just a Dream.”

Ever notice when stuff happens to you, others in your sphere experience the same sitch too?

I love this song, and I think that it’s odd that on my bad days this is how I feel about my ex, and this is how my ex who moved (Shane) always feels about me… Life is pretty synchronistic and cannot be dismissed as coincidence.

Happy Easter if you believe. And if you don’t, good luck with reconciling lost love and starting anew. I feel spring viscerally this year.

Runs together

I think that I’m actually still sick.  Last night I took my son and his best friend to a musical presentation and story hour for kids, and it was actually overrun by toddlers and preschoolers.  They were good for over half and hour and then the running, jumping, yelling, and crying while they were trying to listen to the stories and songs got to them, so they wanted to look at books.  Such sweet 7 and 8 year-old boys–they wanted to sit by each other on the couch and read books.  They are so innocent, and sit right by each other and hug and talk close.  I swear when the inevitable happens and some stupid kid calls him, “fag,” in 5th or 6th grade, because he loves his best friend, I will have trouble not coming unhinged.  My little guy is sensitive and sweet, and I would prefer him to stay that way and not become sexist and homophobic.  I loved watching them watch the musician last night; although, I realized that I was still very sick.

When I came home, my head was pounding and I felt like complete shit.  This thing hangs on even through 1700 mg / day of antibiotics.  That is one scary infection.

Coffee seems good.  I’m not coughing when I drink it.  I’m only supposed to drink two cups instead of 3 – 5, and that pisses me off.  I went and had my annual on Monday and the Nurse Prac gave me some shit.  I felt like saying, “I parent.  I work constantly.  I’m writing a book.  I haven’t gotten laid since 12/15.  I’m going to drink as much coffee before 10 am as I’d like.  Thanks.”  I just said, “Well, I’m doing 60-hours a week right now and don’t have any that effects my night sleep.  I also like to drink beer and won’t cut that out either.”  I think that it would be one thing if I had health problems and was hefty–neither of those things are true.  For my age, I look smaller than nearly every woman who I see with the exception of runners.  I’m muscular though, and people under-guess my weight by 20 – 30 pounds.  I just don’t want to be sick with a head and chest thing any longer.  I’m all set.

I keep thinking how the ocean air and sun would knock that out.  I can’t afford to fly though, and I’m not positive that I have a place to stay in reality.  My best friend from grad school (Well, my first round of grad school.) called me and was shocked that we had the same break.  Her “I don’t want a relationship, and I have made myself fall out of love with you because we are open, guy,” is in town all weekend.  He’s introducing her to his kids.  They have slept together for a year.  It will be interesting to hear about how that stuff goes.

I feel badly, but I wonder if I could handle one of my best friend’s from middle school live-with bf either.  He seems like a misogynistic pig from his posts.  Like a southern-guy GUY.  I can’t stay with my ex because I don’t want to be in party central and her parents live with her.  I also don’t want to have sex with her ever again.

I guess that I’d have to stay with the biker ;).  Sometimes she has a gf, so I’d have to see…  My ex has two motorcycles, but when I say “biker” in this case, I mean beach biker and urban cyclist.  She actually looks a lot like my ex, but is way thinner and lankier–that’s what I like too.  Gigantic muscles, mostly blond, and huge light eyes.  The difference is that this one has great legs.  That is a good fantasy while I wake up.  We have amazing chemistry too.  I’ll text one of her best friends who lives here next week.  I should actually feel that sitch out a little.  That’s a safe hook-up if she is single, and I know that since everyone tells me everything, I can get her best friend to tell me if she is currently single.  I sure as hell am single.  Good Lord, I have not been this single in almost three years.  Sex seems good.  I run the risk of turning into a pig.

Damn Good

I have had an incredible three-days off.  My Lit Review is drafted and turned in, and I gave my prospectus to my professors too so they can make changes before I get it through IRB.  I’ll call the profs on Friday and see when I can get the whole thing reviewed so I can collect data prior to mid-May.  I think that I only have about ten more pages to write and now I really need the guidance part from faculty who have done this kind of thing before.

I have seen clients and completed evaluations for many years.  I think that not including school, it’s been 13-years.  So, my clinical hours, with the exception of being time consuming are pretty simple for me.  However, I have not written a book.  It’s probably obvious that I write all the time, and do well on papers and such, but putting together all of this stuff for what will be 150 – 200 pages is daunting.  I did write 100-pages in a week, but didn’t actually pass my comps without submitting a revision, so I know that re-writing will be paramount.

When I completed my first grad degree, I piloted a survey and then sent it to practitioners in four states in this region.  I published that study on-line; although, it was solicited by another bound source.  I was simply sick of my topic by then.  I had presented it as a paper in Washington DC at my current profession’s national conference and then was done with it.  I’d prefer to get several articles out of this study while I work on my curriculum that I’m developing.  While I do realize that will happen with this current venture, I know that I’m more part of this topic, because I have had experiences with it for at least 10-years.  Naomi Wolf says, “Do nothing without passion.”  I get that.

Space helped the crush on the girl who is soon to be promised to her girl.  Good for them.  Amidst cultural differences too that would tear them apart if they were “found out.”  This fact is apropos given all the media stuff about partnerships and civil unions.

My ex has been in contact.  She did the Pepsi challenge, and I know that even without her telling me.  She dated a woman who she never would have–a blond–and still had the same things come up in terms of her vicious tongue.  Again, that’s not shocking, and looks are superficial.  I do have to note honestly though that I have only ever been physical with two women with brown eyes.  I like what I like too.  I’ll go to dinner with her in a month and ask what she is going to do about her lack of conflict resolution skills.  I have nothing to lose being that direct.

There is some girl that a girl from work is going to introduce me to next month as well.  I asked when her bday was as that stuff is actually important to me.  I have chemistry with some signs, but it’s fine for people to disagree with that.  In fact, I can pick a Pisces out of a room.  I’m done with that though, and know that my journey is for my BFF’s new son.  You see, he shares Shane’s and my ex-husband’s bday.  He is 42 and 37-years younger to the day than they are.  I can dote on that lil’ guy.

I feel springtime.  I need to pack a few outfits for my boy and I.  In just over an hour, we drop off our dog at the day camp / boarding and then head up to the mountains.  I can’t wait to watch him snowboard.  He seemed excited about it too.  I’ll also look at girls in the lodge and in the little city that we are staying in tonight.  It’s time for me to network with women.  I can feel many things shifting and coming to fruition.  Life is very good.

Productivity

There is this piece of erotica that I really like…  The book is based on something real–it’s about sleeping with virgins.  Not full-on virgins for the most part, but female virgins.  (The Gemini musician who was smoking hot, but bat shit insane, used to say, “When I lost my girl virginity.”  Hell, lady, I did that at 15!)  Anyway, in one of the very good stories in it, this woman who works for a firm in which she has to talk to folks in other states, starts flirting with one of the women who she must talk to weekly.  At one point she says, “So, are you family?” and the poor str8 girl says, “Like whose?”  Good shit.  Anyway, the protagonist tells the story of celibacy wherein she works out constantly and gets really buff.  Good ol’ sexual frustration!

I’ve been one productive lil’ girl as of late.  Got TONS of stuff done today and also, sadly, had to fill my script for high-powered (octane) antibiotics.  Sadness.  Draining and coughing up scary things for far too long.  So, I will just write, and write, and test, and counsel.  I know that I need to do someone, but seriously, I melt women’s brains.  Gone are the days of casual sex for me.  I may go to Vegas and do the “No numbers, no last names bit.”  That would be the ONLY option.  There are 54 lesbians in ______, and they all talk.  I wouldn’t want to have two break-ups in three months 😉  (Can’t do that anyway, because I haven’t had sex since mid-December.)

Guess that I’ll motor through my dissertation shell this week.  Thursday my boy and I are going out of town.  He is going to learn to snowboard.  He is a good dancer, so he ought to be pretty good.  We shall see.  I’m excited to get to give him things like this.  My parents just wanted my brother and I to stay out of the house.  Conversely, I love being a parent.

Wonder if “the girl next door” wants to carry a baby ever…  My friend who I don’t have 100% trust in said that per my descriptions, her relationship can’t last.  You can’t be someone’s secret from her family.  However, she warned me not to fall into the role of rebound.  I wouldn’t want that.  I’ve done that before too.  My coming out affair was trying to get away from her volleyball mate who was in love with her when she slept with me and stole my heart.  I wouldn’t want to be a homewrecker either.  Getting shit done and Vegas sounds good at present.

Not shocking

I really thought that she was pleasant on Friday morning because she was getting laid…  Turns out that she broke it off with her girlfriend (ALREADY) and she thinks that she says / does things without realizing their impact although she tells her that she loves her.  That gave me a lot of pause.  She would honestly do her lovers a good favor if the stuff that she says that they do, she’d do.  Wow.

Months ago, I’d have called her and flirted a bit and then would have gone up there to have sex with her tonight.  Those days are gone, because I’m not in love with her anymore, and grew really tired of the three C’s.  Those are critical, controlling, and competitive.  It’s really cool in that song “Hallelujah,” which I do know has been covered three million times, when it says, “love is not a victory march.”  It’s not.  While I do love her, I think that one of my dear friends is correct when she says that she is confused and has lots of interpersonal work to do.  That is independent of me.

Speaking of issues…  Here is one of mine.  Damn crush on “the girl next door” has not subsided and it is SUPER sucky.  I think about her all the time, and have darker thoughts about stuff that she confided in me about the way in which her relationship is going.  Then I think, “Well, this really might not last.”  That is hideous and makes me feel so badly.  If I was still Catholic, I’d stay up in there all Saturday night talking about that.

“Father, I commit sin a lot because I love women and can’t pray out the gay at all.  And boy, have I tried.  I know that I’m telling a celibate this, so probably on a lot of levels it is difficult for you to wrap your brain around it, but that’s not what I’m confessing.  I’m confessing that I am perhaps falling for a girl who is in a committed relationship and I listen to problems that they have and that sometimes makes me happy.”

GROSS!  How did I become this person?  Gotta get back to morality.

I need to meet some girls, dammit!  The snow is gorgeous right now and it’s sunny today.  I think that since it is my turn to pick (and pay for) lunch with my bday twin so we are going to eat in Cap Hill.  There were TWO lesbians at the cool fundraising thing last night and they were snotty and married.  Beyonce says that “all the single ladies” are supposed to put their hands in the air, and they were not doing that last night.  Damn, damn, damn.  Honestly, I had a lot of fun last night though, but they str8 guys were the ones talking to me.  Oh well.  I can work on my dissertation.

Pleasant

I was getting ready to get in the shower very late yesterday–well, late for me, given it was ten of six–and I got a text notification signal.  It was a voice recording from my ex and was pleasant enough.  She said that she wanted to catch up with me on the phone.  So, I called her and we had a good conversation.  My two friends at work asked why I didn’t then send the email.  I said, “Well, it would be apropos of nothing given that I laughed twice and the convo was innocuous.”  I think that email exists as a “Don’t push it,” boundary if I’m being honest with myself.  And she pushed nothing.  She is truly in sales and marketing–even with her social skills.  The conversation was completely business-like, and could have been a couple of colleagues who have known each other for a few years who are warm for the most part with each other.  I still hold that she is glad that I’m not dating, and I do believe that the email will be sent when I am after she is not comfortable with my heart moving with another woman.

I have to intern next year, so I am collecting a few letters of recommendation.  Given that I had just done a presentation for our department two days ago, which is about 25 people, I asked one of the big bosses to do one.  My immediate supervisor had already written one as well, and I talked with my ex about an upcoming interview and gathering stuff.  She said, “I want to read the letter,” and I said, “I actually haven’t read the whole letter because one of the first paragraphs are some of the nicest things that I have ever read about me.  I had to stop reading it.” After I forwarded it to her, I did read the whole thing and it accounted for all the things that I have to do as a professional.  My immediate supervisor had said earlier in her letter that I was the best one in my role that she had worked with in 29-years.  It’s bittersweet to leave next year… I wish that I had two doctoral supervisors in the site so I could just stay.

My former colleague who I don’t have 100% trust in, texted last night that she was with the woman who was my coming out affair for an hour last night.  I tried to call her and she wouldn’t pick up because she said that she couldn’t multitask and was putting her girls to bed.  Very odd that she and my most recent ex had been somewhat in my circle on the same day.  And of course Peter Pan and I spoke after she was texting night before last.  Again, exes seem to come out the wood work at the same time some days.  Of course, there aren’t really coincidences anyway.

Potayto

Are you kidding me?  You talk to me on the phone and argue semantics?  Peter Pan asked if I had sent her CD and said she was moving.  I apologized and asked for her new addy.  She said, “No, I’ll pick it up.”  I said, “Tell me when to leave it in my door,” and then just like her she got all sad sack about it.  For the love of Pete, dude, I haven’t seen you since either the end of July or the first couple days of August–I’d have to check my blog–and you didn’t even miss this CD until I realized that I had it.  She said, “I understand that you don’t want to see me,” and I said, “I just got home.  Give me a few and I’ll call,” and she said, “No worries.  You don’t have to talk to me.”

Sooooo intense and dramatic.  We had sex a handful of times.  You were my rebound.  I told you after we’d done it one night that you needed a nice, young sensible girl who wouldn’t be doing clinical hours next school year.  We had an understanding.

She then started in about how great she is.  I told her, “You are pretty lacking in integrity,” and she said, “I’m the most integrous person that you’ll ever meet.”  Now that cracked me up.  She never finished college and introduced herself to me as a teacher of kids with special needs.  And she let that run for seven-weeks!

Later in our convo tonight, she asked me if I was seeing anyone.  A bit later she asked if she had introduced herself to me as an assistant, would I be her friend and still be dating her?  OMG!

You tell me that what you did was not a lie and that I’m the one with the problem and then it’s obvious that you thought you could date me again.  WhoTF do you think you are?  I couldn’t believe it.  She said that I was wrong several times, and that she is the best person she knows.  Good.  I don’t like untruths or lacking in authenticity.  I’m fine with not knowing the best person in the world.

I told her that I wish her peace and the best, but I am sending her CD (It’s already in a cardboard mailer–photo type one.), but I don’t desire to see her and that she thinks that it’s fine to let someone run with lies of omission for weeks, and then only say after you’ve hung out with someone for seven-weeks, but only just after you’ve had sex a few days, “I have let you believe something that is not true,” is completely lacking in accountability imho.

She said that: “I have let you believe something that is not true.”   How is that not a lie?  I told her that we don’t see things the same way, have nothing in common, and that I’m good on the friends front.  I did also tell her that on the off-chance that I run into her, I will say hello and exchange pleasantries, but we don’t need to prearrange.  After all, it’s me with the problem wanting someone to mean what she says and say what she means, and I don’t know, be honest.

Recipe

I think that I have a list of deal-breakers.  I read an entry this morning while I was waking up, which gave me a good idea for writing. The author explained that many blogs are about the writer’s ideas and is her or his platform.  Having realized that I have written for five years about dating (one of which is in this blog), I thought that a post regarding deal breakers was appropriate this morning on a day that I have to work 12.5 hours.  Here are the things that yield:

You are not my life partner

1)  You cook like a pig

  • When she makes you a “special” meal and treats your kitchen like a war zone and the top of your stove and cookware like a dartboard, she is probably not your life partner.  Respecting the area where you make meals is key to her approach to many things in this life, and breaking bread and sharing food is often good foreplay.

2)  You don’t sleep worth shit

  • You can’t be with someone who doesn’t sleep much or is so high strung that she wakes up all the time or tosses and turns.  Even on a King sized bed, you will sense this unrest and it will prevent you from getting much sleep, and long-term, it will ensure that you have shitty sleeping patterns even on your non-conjugal nights.

3)  You don’t eat what I eat

  • Drop the phone, and it’s not what I meant; although, I do have opinions about that, it is not the purpose of Item #3 in this list.  I think that people with weird diets or those who eat things that have 27 ingredients because they fear weight gain as if it’s a cliff with zombies chasing you, won’t really be your life partner.  Sharing a meal can be a great time for conversation and connection, and if you have to take out good things that feed your mood and provide you with fullness, it’s going to be a long haul.

4)  I have premeditative thoughts when we travel together

  • If she trashes out the sink, doesn’t pull up the covers and strews shit all over the hotel room when you travel, she expects “help” and probably just cleans up her place when you visit.  This is her game day face and maybe there isn’t enough alcohol in the world to continue to date her.

5)  You live like a Rock Star

  • Girls who party hard every weekend and want to lay in bed until 11 half-assed sleeping tend to depress people who have to / want to do something productive with their weekends.  Someone who smells like a distillery each morning and can’t string together sentences until late afternoon or evening on Saturdays is probably not someone who you plan to champion around your friends.

6)  When you speak, many recoil and others exhibit the “must run away” look

  • We all know these girls (and sometimes perhaps guys).  These are the ones who actually force you to listen to them and talk over people or do so in a loud voice that says, “Look at me, and I have wonderful things to say, but when you speak, I will say, ‘Uh huh, uh huh,’ and will nod like a bobble-head in an Oldsmobile that is driving way too fast, so I can quickly talk again.”

7)  The sound of your voice doesn’t give me chills, pause, or make me hot

  • Even if you are stellar in the sack, there is something about the sound of a woman’s voice, and it should, to you, be pretty damn sexy even when you are not in the act.

8)  I never laugh around you

  • Life is short.  Few things are serious.  Laughter creates all kinds of beneficial things for our bodies and souls.  If you can’t laugh with your girlfriend, you will change your outlook on your days and even hours.

9)  Kids?

  • Oh the proverbial dichotomy!  You either want to raise them or you don’t.  I come from the school that NEVER asks, “So when are you going to add kids?”  Let’s face it, it’s another full-time job and there are plenty of people who keep mental health service providers in business, so don’t feel obligated to cave or vacillate on what will really change your whole life.

10)  I have been with you six-months and don’t know any of your family or friends

  • If you haven’t met anyone, there are only two possible explanations.  She is really not into you, or she has no social circle.

That’s my lessons yielded.  This entry is my platform.  Would love to hear comments or what you don’t agree with in this entry.

A little dangerous

My weekend was good all and all.  My friends made us a simply wonderful dinner on Saturday night and hanging with them is always incredible.  I have great friends.  My son got too tired from all the activity on Saturday, so he was a bit grouchy and annoying on Sunday, but today he made up for it.  I love watching his dance class.  I have only rarely missed it–like maybe four times in a year.  He talked my ear off all night otherwise, we had a wonderful dinner and our house is clean and nearly all organized.  I also made a helluva dent in my dissertation shell today.  All very good.

The weekend had a small thing come up…  I was with only one of the girls who made me a dinner a couple of weeks ago (It was the one who actually cooked.) over on Sunday.  She hung out with me for about three-hours too.  I wish that she wasn’t 5’8″, hot, and smart.  We laughed.  She played with my son–which would NOT be occurring if she was a love interest–and we took a walk around the pond and then she did the cutest thing…  She asked to swing with me.  Damn.  Can you say, “CONTRAST?”  So sweet and tender.  It is a bit worse because although I’ve known her a little less than a year, it feels like more because one of my best friends (who now lives in another state) is her BFF.  We just gel and click and I’m so comfortable with her.

I told two friends today that means that I can’t really hang out with just her again.  And, I won’t.

Now, I just really do need a distraction.

I ran finally tonight.  I don’t know how long it’s been since I actually worked out at all.  I’m drinking chicken broth with garlic and cayenne currently.  I could only run a little over a mile.  I had some wicked coughing fits today.  Tomorrow is my A weights, which is probably my least favorite day of the week, so “Yay, me!”  It’s really nice not to have clients tomorrow.  I have to work tomorrow night, but will score and write a report after my son goes to bed.  I don’t have to be away from him which is very nice.

That’s it.  A dirty confession.  Given that I was raised Catholic, it actually makes me feel like shit, but I have never cheated and am not going to start at 38-and-a-half.

Going great

We got my son’s room organized completely with the exception of his closet and a toy box.  I have sooooo many plastic guys, metal cars, and just random crap to take to the Thrift Store in addition to all his size 6 clothing.  I would say that we probably have about two hours or so left in his room.  Not only can you see his floor, but his closet is not barfing out his art supplies and old cleats and such.

I just have not been able to locate one of his shin guard covers.  However, he has worn those for two seasons, so the guard may not be big enough anyway, so I could justify buying new cleats and shin guards.  You can buy those in a bundle and his soccer cleats are size 2.  My son is a horse, so I will have to buy him 3.5 as it is for his new shoes.  It was cool because his best friend’s Mom had gotten him his basketball shoes for his first season.  It was not cool that our dog found them and ate the pull strap off the back of one shoe.  Those were thrown out, because he doesn’t have need for them again.  He can wear his high top Chuck Taylor’s this August for camp.

His best friend’s bday party was fun.  I didn’t get a chance to be able to get my non-dating lower half bikini body ready in terms of maintenance.  It’s funny how carefully shaving gets so rare when you’re not getting laid, but I was super glad that I had not shaven when we got there, because that Rec Center pool was probably 30-times more crowded than the two that he and I use in our city.  The noise was deafening.  Thank God that we had dinner plans at our friend’s house.  I needed those microbrews.

The only thing that was slightly special about the playdate portion of the night was that we had to bring our dog and one of the Moms is so allergic to dogs.  So, of course she was jumping up on the French Doors and being a shit.  We had people scouring our house–I have not been able to hire this daughter-father team since 2010, but they do an incredible job.  Our hard woods are completely clean and the bathrooms are shining.  I had no idea that they would still be at my house 3-hours later.  We took our dog and thanked our friends for being so accommodating.  Our dog had been at Doggie Day Camp for six-hours, but they live across the street from a dog park, so she tore it up there too with a boxer and a whippet-lab.

She is sleeping now while I wake up–again–but this time only with a slightly sore throat.  I’m going to get through this thing with no antibiotics.  I’m proud.  It has been hell.  I’ll do my first round of cardio tonight, so I can lift tomorrow.  I am not hacking up my lungs right now or am I blowing my nose over and over and over.  So, I think that before my week off, which is the week after next, I should be fantastic.

Today is church for at least two-hours given my announcement role, and a small brunch at least with one of my friends.  Then we can do some laundry before we go to my parents’ house for dinner.  I’m sharing the lentils with smoked chicken with them, and my Mom is making biscuits for my son.  I’m not close in particular with my parents, but I am honest with them.  Just can’t see them much due to my boundaries for my health.  They are just grandparents to my son too, but they watched him for over a year before I put him in daycare.  My father is good with little kids, but when they start to talk, he is weirdly permissive and passive-aggressive with my Mom and tries that shit with me too.  “Your grandmother wants you to do that,” and that really makes limits difficult.  I grew up in “The Shining,” because he’s Bi-Polar, and has only been on meds for three-years.  I’m not exaggerating even slightly, and do know that I have chosen an alcoholic and a volatile-cycler last because chaos is normal for me.  It’s not a bad thing to be single for some time.

I asked my friends again why they didn’t know anyone who I could date or chill with.  They said, “Well, the one who is single is butch and overweight.”  I showed her a pic of Shane and said, “See?  Butch is fine as long as it’s soft and you have nice features.”  They remarked on how pretty she was and then asked why we still weren’t together given our two years.  I told just one bar story and it wasn’t a scary one either, but was comical for the part I had chosen.  They both cracked up and said, “Oh.”  That was the end of that.  Honestly, it’ll happen when it’s meant to.  I’m not sleeping much because of the lack of exercise and this shitty cold, so it’s nice not to wake up a girl this week.  Life will calm down and I’ll be somewhere, and a girl and I will just notice each other…

Weekend is nearly here

I’m so glad that it’s Friday.  I guess that I will have to get antibiotics–I don’t think that I’ve had this kind for sickness since 2003–if the cough is still here and bad on Monday.  I haven’t done any exercise at all less some walking and it sucks.  I know that you shouldn’t have this much gunk and not sleep through the night in a week, but I hate doctors and medical intervention in general.  I will have to go though, if the weekend is like the week has been on the health front.  There are times of day when I can’t complete sentences without coughing.  I swim with my son at a bday party on Saturday afternoon, and then two Moms who have a son are making us dinner.  That makes for a good Saturday.  Sunday is busy because I have to do the announcements at church, so I have to get up really early because my friends who I had dinner with last month are coming to the eleven service with me.  I think that one of my best buddies and her neighbor are as well.  I may have to make extra brunch food on Sunday morning in case they want to come over afterward as well.

I’m happy and balanced.  I had one of those weird shifts on Wednesday night and I wrote in pen about my relationship history.  Over the last six-years, I have been with six different women in some fashion of trying to see if a relationship was possible.  I was with Shane for two-years–she wanted to marry me–and with Bette, I guess, for a year and some change.  I guess, because I slept with Peter Pan when Bette and I didn’t see each other during the summer.  Sometimes I’ve been with girls for two months, and another time, I have been with a girl for two years.  Before Bette and I reconnected, I had my eight or nine day thing, but it was a Fix-me-Ms.-Rebound.  Sadly, that worked, and I don’t want that right now.

A very good friend of mine is on the “I don’t want a relationship bus,” right now and has been going on dates.  She had fallen in love with a guy last year, and it turns out that he sleeps with all kinds of different women and is unlikely to ever move from a neighboring state.  She shed a lot of tears over him and really wanted to be his #1.  They have great conversations.  Now, she just sleeps with him when he’s in town visiting his children, and when she leaves town to visit her sister and nieces, but her heart isn’t involved.  That seems like a safe thing really.

I took a walk with a friend last night while my son played in the park.  We just made loops so we could supervise him.  I talked about wanting to meet tons of girls to chill with and maybe to expand my social circle.  I don’t know about my winter of celibacy moving into spring or not.  My friend is really funny, and logged into my laptop and started reading a Strictly Platonic ad on Craigslist.  It said something to the effect of, “Hey, let’s meet up and if something develops that’s great too.  I’m an Aquarius, and I can quickly piss off a Virgo…”  I cracked up, and she was confused.  I said, “That’s what I am!  And that is true.  Look how long my son had his Nerf gun before he destroyed the inner workings of the housing with sand.”  I do things the conventional way, and my son does things any way and argues about strange things.  I don’t think that I have ever said, “I’m not going to engage in this.  I care too much,” more than I did last night.  He is a nut.  I love him, but wouldn’t want anything like that in female form.

It’s funny because church girl said that she is loving being single and not tending to a relationship.  I like this time of silence as well, and can take care of stuff for school and clinical hours without having to explain my schedule.  However, being an extrovert, I’d be fine with meeting up for dinner, hikes, movies, beers, biking, or day trips with new girls.  I’m doing a microbrew and food sampling fest next Saturday.  I’m not going with friends either, and just will probably start at the bar and the mosey about some.  I’d like to do a film festival with discussions too.  I may do some Meetups at some point.  I just have zero interest in dating sites.  People tell you what you want to hear, and really just want to get laid.  Not to be arrogant, but if I stay around a bar until 1, I can do that any night of the week, but that’s just not what I’m seeking anymore.  Frankly, connection has become too important to me.