Mission Accomplished… Mostly

OK, I didn’t swing my legs over the cargo net because the wind came up too high, and I didn’t do the horizontal one suspended 20-feet in the air, or the leapfrog scaffoldings that were angled, but I will do those in two weeks. Promise. I did everything else and ran 5-miles and all the A-frame fences with just a rope which were super high, and one culminated in a platform 18-feet in the air that you had to run off of to then jump into a 15-foot mud pool. These combined with trail running up switchbacks full of loose dirt were crazy. I’ll be ready for more in two weeks, and have a strong sense of accomplishment right now.

I ate carbonara like a refugee, and I also grilled some NY strip for it medium rare and piled a huge amount of salad on my plate. One of my best friends who I have known for 12-years cooked for me tonight and I got to hang out with a very handy friend of hers and both of her daughters. It is amazing that her daughter is a senior next year and I remember her at 5. She is a wonderful young woman. I love her youngest too–she is just eight-months older than my son.

My son did the quarter mile twice and got very dirty in his new Keens and he stayed to watch me. That was so nice of my ex-husband to do that. I’m proud of him, and I am very glad that he got to watch me jump from the platform into the water. I lost my handkerchief on that one and I looked cute in it, so I’ll have to go back to the Army Surplus tomorrow.

I’m comfy. Lonely girl texted to see if I was around this weekend, and I just called her back. She wants me to call her tomorrow. I’m not sure about her in general. What I’m sure about is that I did a lot of “firsts” today, as did my son. I have wonderful friends. My life is full and happy.

Game Day

So, it’s nearly here.  My five-mile.  Given that I had done my B weights late at night last night, I was sleeping soundly when I got a wrong number at 12:30.  Arg!  Maybe it was divine intervention, but it still made me mad as I was sleeping so well.  I’m groggy right now, and pounding coffee having dropped off my son at school.

Gonna run our dog a little.  She is very hard to run because she is a boxer mix and does a lot of weird furtive movements.  Right now because I’m in a tank and running shorts, she jumps sideways and wags her whole booty when I get up to get coffee and the like.  I was told that she is also German Shepherd–she is very beautiful–but whatever her other half is, makes her FAST.  It is hard to run her.  She outruns all the dogs even at a packed dog park.

It’s cold.  I like it.  I didn’t like biking to the reservoir with my new cycling partner yesterday given the headwinds.  The 21-miles was agony.  Like always though, I’m glad that I do that stuff.  This weather is great for running.  I hope that I feel that way after my 5-mile Saturday!  I was dreaming about my cycling partner when I got the two wrong number calls after midnight.  That doesn’t matter much because she is a str8 girl, and I love her bf.  I just think that I’m ready to sleep with someone, but I won’t do it because I don’t want more of the same.  Sex complicates everything and I want to enter into dating mindfully the next time through and don’t care when the next time through is.  I kinda want to see my psychologist.  I should see if she has had any cancellations today.

I got the most disingenuous text from lonely girl on Wednesday.  I wanted her to bring her daughter to an activity that is unique at my current clinical site.  I’ll be taking girls back there who are clients next week, so I wanted a dry run of the equipment.  The artist is really fun to hang out with as well.  It was cool because the kids got to make art, but it turned out only to be my son.  No biggie.  He loved it.

Lonely girl wanted to reschedule for Thursday, as she didn’t have her daughter much this week.  When I said that joint custody must be lonely–given that I miss my son by Saturday night on my non-weekends–as I’m used to full custody, she promptly followed-up with why that is not true and how her life has perfect balance.  I found it so lacking in normal vulnerability.  When I told my cycling partner about it yesterday, she said, “Maybe she just wants to be perfect.”  I let my workout partner read it and she laughed hard and said, “Wow!  That’s arrogant!”  She continued to laugh and I probed her a bit, and she said, “Really?  That makes it sound like she wants for NOTHING in her life.”  I said that is probably not accurate, because only last month she was asking me questions about how you meet girls. But, then she said, “I think that she is selling herself as perfect and that her life is one that we all should aspire to because she has EVERYTHING that she needs–enough friends, enough workout time, just everything and doesn’t need anyone.”  Either way, I didn’t like the candor.  I’m not going to make any plans with her unless she sets something up.  There is imbalance about her, and she seems really weird.

I’m hoping to have some new adventures to blog here at some point, but whenever that shall be, will be.  I have a new blog that I’m keeping up with well, and I use my identity as it details some aspects of my clinical work.  I like to write there too, but look forward to someday having some sexy stuff again.  Right now is not the time.  Time to run our dog.  I’m grateful for friends, cool weather, a workable schedule, and our house.  It’s not that I want for nothing and that I think I’m perfect.  I’m simply really good where I am, and trust my journey.  I hope that all who make my day by interacting with me here, enjoy their weekends.

Hmm

I had a wonderful day yesterday, so now I’m reflecting on it.  Now, I’m looking forward to my hump day, which would have started out with a 30-mile bike ride, but it seems really cloudy and like it could continue to rain.  I don’t like slipping around inclines on trails on my very light road bike.  I don’t think that it actually rained much at my house, but there are huge gray clouds, so my new cycling partner and I are going to do an afternoon ride tomorrow.   I did my Day A yesterday, and it combined with humidity and heavy clouds promoted the best sleep that I’ve had in weeks.  However, I had a really somewhat unsettling dream.

I was in my black cocktail dress that is fitted at the waist, and I am not sure why I was because I had a slew of adolescents in a day treatment program with whom I was working.  Lonely girl was there and working with them as well, because she was giving information on psychopharmacology.  It should be noted that I would never be in a slinky black dress if I was working with adolescents or if I was at work, but I was.  She was talking to me, and then when I was talking to a group of boys, I turned around and she started touching my back, and then started tending to a blemish that I apparently had on my low back.  This dress is not backless, but it was in the dream.

Later after the clients were in her huge backyard in a group, she and I were drawing on a white board and talking about ethnicity, and I told her what everyone who just meets me and is somewhat gauche says, and that’s “What are you?”  I get a range.  I think that I look Italian, but I get Greek, Asian, and sometimes get asked if I’m Latina, which is more confusing since I do speak some Spanish.  She laughed.  We talked more and I sat on her back porch.  She sat down and put her legs around the back of my right arm and moved herself against me.  Then she pulled me to her with her legs, and wound up having her lower body completely pressed against my upper arm and her knees were against my stomach and back.  I could feel her heat.  At that point, I was really turned on and she asked if I liked her.  I said, “Well, I certainly find you attractive, but we have a house full of kids.  I’ll have to come back tonight.”

Wow.  I think that all the manifest content of that is that I really do miss sex in general.  It’s been a couple weeks shy of six-months.  I told my workout partner last night that I know that I let my ex say abusive shit to me for as long as I did because she met companionship needs and that I knew that when I stopped seeing her (completely) that I would have a dry spell.

This particular round of celibacy is somewhat self-inflicted because it’s rare for me to be attracted to someone.  I was not attracted to Peter Pan, but thought that she was sweet and earnest and it was really flattering to have someone so into you when your ex was doing more push and pull, and you hadn’t had sex with her in three months.  That was last summer though.  I am not attracted to lonely girl.  And she only texts very rarely.  She has a nice smile, gorgeous dimples, and I like her hands, but she really is not someone who you’d want to date.  I’m done with rich girls too.  I think that I also dreamt about her because one of my best friends just broke up with her bf who slept with his best friend a couple weeks ago.  He had been in love with his best friend his whole life.  She said, “It would be like if you and I got drunk and hooked up.”  I said quickly, “That would actually be a mistake because it would affect our 12-year friendship.”

Sex does affect a friendship.  With Shane and with Bette (my actual exes), I was not friends with either of them first.  So, I’m cool with both of them, but don’t seek them out or makes plans to see them.  This particular girl who I dreamt about and I are pseudo friends.  It’s not a friendship though.  It was odd that I lain in bed for sometime this morning before I got out because I was given pause.  I was aroused when I woke up.  In the dream it was easy for her to pull my arm against her with her knees.  I think that it’s good that if she does get into touch to hang out, I will have my son and she will have her daughter.  That will put a halt on any moves she might have.  Maybe it’s a cautionary thing.  She has a terrible reputation with the 40ish outdoorsy set who I met last September.  It’s all regarding that she is not one that you’d want to get into a relationship with, but I think if both parties are open, that is their business in terms of who they sleep with, but I’m not into open.  I don’t have time for it either.  I also don’t want to have sex with someone who had a relationship with one of my ex’s best friends.  No thanks.

I wonder what I will have capacity to do on Saturday night.  Probably not much.  The race is only five-miles, but it’s got a lot of climbing and lifting combined with water.  My son is doing the quarter-mile, so it will be really nice to see him on a weekend that is not mine.  I’m proud of him for trying.  I imagine that when I get home, I will not be into doing anything but taking a hot bath and using ice and Tiger’s Balm.  My intern and her best friend are going to eat dinner with me, so I am pre-cooking on Friday night.  These are those times when it’s really nice to have an uncomplicated pinch hitter.  Like an ex who you’d never want to be with, but are cool with.  If I’m being completely honest with myself, if Shane were still ten-minutes away, I could see myself saying, “Hey, can we hook up for a couple of hours this weekend?  Is there a window wherein you will not be having a drop?”  That would probably piss her off, but she and I had the most consistent sex of anyone who I’ve slept with, and I would never want to be with her.  It’s rare to have something so uncomplicated.  Gotta eat, clean and write.

Day off

I can’t see clients tonight…  In about an hour my son and I are going to start working in the food pantry in our church.  We will go back to distribute the boxes of food this evening for awhile.  We will have to leave late afternoon to go over to my parent’s house.  My Mom is making something for us for dinner.  I hope that it is ok to hang out with them tonight and they aren’t fighting too much.

I have been reading through all kinds of blogs before I go to bed at night.  It is really interesting when I encounter one in which the author does something for a living similar to what I do.  I’ve not run across one who is raising a kid solo–and tbh, I have never read one yet wherein someone has sole custody of a kid in general.  My friends asked me yesterday why that was and I said, “I’m the one who is most equipped to be a parent.”  This task includes when he is amped up by the moon, and alternately non-compliant.

I keep him engaged.  I taught his best friend to ride a bike yesterday, and I introduced him to my cycling partner and her bf yesterday while we picnicked.  He played in and around an irrigation ditch with various little boys at the park while we three chilled on a blanket.  My cycling partner made the best quinoa salad that I’ve had in my life.  Usually it’s just fine, but this was phenomenal.  I managed to dump it in my car and garage getting the cooler out last night.  Consequently, I wound up cleaning for nearly an hour last night though, so there is little of it to eat today.  Sad.

I need to straighten things up in my house today so I can just happily work this week.  It is pretty cluttered around here too.  What I’m hoping for is after we work in our food pantry I have a second wind of some sort that can carry me through some household stuff while I have a break in between food distribution and dinner.  I’ve been really tired lately.  After I had the cough from hell that did not lift and had to take antibiotics, my immune system has been complete shit.  I have a sinus infection, but I want to treat it without medical intervention.  I have my dangerous five-mile on Sat, and it would be keen to have full lung capacity.

Summer is in full swing.  It’s a matter of my following a good writing schedule.  Cooking great meals.  Connecting with friends.  Doing a variety of things with my son, and basically just staying happy.  I think that I can do that, and I’m off to great start.

Mix it up

I’ve gotten really good at this single thing.  I like it too.  Oddly, I do especially at night.  I can work out.  Read and write.  I can drink a beer or two after I’ve worked out, or I can determine that my walk is enough cardio and not work out extra.  I don’t have to worry about anyone’s moods or do I have to explain my client schedule or have feelings of guilt when it goes into the night.

I did have clients through the night, which I won’t anymore!  Woo-hoo!  (My class ends June 30th and my job is open 8 – 12 as of next Tuesday.)  I was at the art studio for about an hour on Wednesday, and when I’m not working with my girls on projects, my son and one of his friends can make art.  That is going to be amazing.  I think life is going to be keen.

I’m doing my scary obstacle half in three-weeks, and then two weeks after that I’m learning how to rock climb.  Everything else for the last month of my partial vacation will be easy, and I just have a little 10k, but I’d like to have some social stuff in between all the writing that I must complete.  That will start tonight.

After I had my dinner party with the women who are in longterm relationships (We can’t have marriages in this state.), I have kept in touch with all of them.  I’ll see at least two, if not three, of the couples tonight, because one of the couples are going on a year-long vacation.  They don’t have any kids right now, so it’s a good time to do it.  I invited lonely girl and church girl.  We will see who shows.  I don’t really hustle for newer friends.  It just has to have a good show-up factor, and if it doesn’t, I don’t add them as friends to my life.

Being out and about tonight is something that I’m really looking forward to though.  I’m going on a 35-mile bikeride with my supervisor this morning, and then am eating lunch and having two beers with my colleague who is my new cycling partner.  I only have one client before the party.  Summer is getting in full swing.  I’m lucky.

Zeitgeist

There was another natural disaster that killed 24 people this week in the US.  It left a lot of debris and devastation.  Like many people, when weather tragedies occur, I wind up thinking about wars, because they are tragic too; although, entirely human made.  I’m thinking of those families and will do so in church.  For some reason, I don’t talk about war or weather extremities with my son, and he doesn’t ask.  I guess not having a tv with reception does shield him from scary thoughts in his seven-year-old head. Anyway, I wanted to reflect on tragedies a little this morning, and thank people going into this long weekend.

My Dad is a Vet.  He didn’t see combat, but he decoded conversations which were intercepted.  He doesn’t speak Vietnamese, but it was easy for him to pick up German in school and he spoke it well enough to transcribe phone conversations.  He can’t really hear much now though.  That’s ok though, because he doesn’t really like people.  I know that he likes his grandson though.

I thought that I should say thanks before we come up on a weekend–and mine is actually a four-day one–to people who believe in God and country.  I know that I don’t have those kind of convictions, but I do think that there are many people who don’t see things as I do and believe in this type of service.  That’s following your passion.  Now, I will tell you that my heart skips a little beat when some of my more concrete high school kids who I know enlist, because they will not test as officer material and will probably be on the front lines in various imperialistic and capitalistic ventures.  Scary.  I don’t like dwelling much there tbh.  May God and well wishers keep them.

I read a post today, which was old, but was surprised that my opinion was not included in the 60 comments.  I know that I’m weird.  Some of my odd approach is the courtesy of dear old Dad, but I was actually shocked to not see anyone elude to what I think is behind many slow recoveries after a national disaster.  The writer wrote about the earthquake in Haiti, which I knew killed hundreds of thousands of people.  I knew too that it killed people who were indigenous to the island.  They are extremely poor.  The irony is that the hotels on that island are apparently unparalleled.  Scary contrast, but much like the way of the world.

My Dad is a Marxist.  I think that posting something like that could cause an onslaught of rage.  Socialism and Communism are threatening topics about which to blog.  People have in their heads that the country China is Communist, but it’s actually an Oligarchy of rigid control.  Anyway, the purpose of this post is that I’m really just thanking little people who follow their passions, and people who have deep convictions to serve an entire country.  Thank you for your beliefs.  Thank you for your commitment.  And with Father’s Day coming up very soon, thanks to my Dad for always making me think.

Finality

I have had this damn email for too long.  I’m not sure how long actually, but today in my son’s class (while I watched him dance), I realized that it carries energy in my draft box.  I don’t want that energy.  I like, “Good.  Hope you two are well.”  I don’t want it to be anywhere, but here–namely–because it invites reengagement in conversation and the like.  I burned her name on a piece of paper last summer with a sentence that I wrote.  After I blew the ashes and it had gone out, I unfolded the paper and it was blank.  All my handwriting had disappeared.  I have decided to put this email here, and then I don’t want to say much more about her.  I got what I needed and want to go to my friends’ party this weekend with it already “sent.”

I’m going to be as clear as I can.  I don’t want to pre-arrange seeing you.  I’m sure that we shall run into each other by chance in the future, but I don’t feel comfortable with a friendship or actively cultivating something close.  We had a good trial run of things for 15-months, and I don’t want to try to convert our old situations into a “friendship.”  I’m not there, and want to heal and move forward.

I think that we struggle to understand one another, don’t get along, and live far apart.  It doesn’t make much sense to attempt to turn a painful lost love situation into anything when it’s so difficult just to get together, and even relate to one another.  If we were meant to be friends, it wouldn’t be this hard, so I think that is life telling us something.

I don’t think that you know me all that well, tbh.  I think that if you did, you wouldn’t believe that I had “zero compassion.”  But, what I have come to is that it doesn’t matter at all what you think I’m like. If I’m creepy, negative, and selfish and don’t have compassion for others that is just what interactions with me yielded.  It gives me pause, because I don’t know anyone who possesses those qualities or have I ever told anyone that he or she were that way.  Such a strange thing for me, and I can’t wrap my brain around why that is the result.  Honestly, I’m not sure why that is your pitting of me, but it doesn’t seem like I should be part of your circle.  You should be around nice people.

I’m simply not that way.  I’m a lot of things, have tons of drawbacks and the like, but I just like to laugh and connect with others.  People who I chose to spend time with help me understand the world better.  I surround myself and am blessed with wonderful friends.

I can remember not being able to wait to wake up to email you to share about my day, get information on what you were doing, who you were, and what motivated you / made your heart tick.  I quickly fell head over heels in love with you and had an incredible three months with you sharing my whole self and feeling so gratified looking into your eyes or being in your arms.  I wouldn’t trade fall of 2011 for anything.

As I’ve said, I also yielded being able to make sure that my son has a wonderful meal when I don’t see him until the following morning, I realized that he actually needed a dog, and I really am in phenomenal shape now, which I know may improve my overall health and life quality.  The last thing that started toward the end of September nearly two years ago was that I trusted myself enough to give my heart away.  Those are pretty good lessons resulting from ending a relationship.  I am lucky.  Sorry that it only worked in my direction and you never got your four quarters.  They are coming for you or are already there with a really great girl.

Glad that we are cool.  It means a lot to me that you and I will be able to comfortably greet each other when we do see each other.  Peace and light your way.

Intentions

  1. Accomplish what I’m meant to without guilt when I don’t conquer an ENTIRE To-Do List
  2. Connect with my son and hold him close
  3. Listen fully
  4. Laugh
  5. Write everyday
  6. Host a monthly party with different themes in June, July, and August
  7. Add weight to one of my weights days
  8. Run one to two times weekly
  9. Research new music artists
  10. Learn my bike gears

Tanked

I probably got six-hours worth of sleep.  The light comes in so strongly in the morning.  I got up, had some coffee and then went to my Boss’ Boot Camp, and it was brutal because it was on asphalt.  Our Boot Camp is on grass and trail when we do it outside.  I didn’t even bear crawl because I didn’t want to tear up my hands.  So suburban…  Crawling in a dusty parking lot in between traffic cones.  But, hell, I wear my gloves so my callouses are smaller on the palms of my hands where my fingers start, so I’m not going to tear them up on asphalt.  I did 26-minutes of cardio stations though with no rest and did manage to cut my wrist, forearm, and bicep flipping the tractor tire at one station.  Butch moment 🙂

I rode my bike with my colleague again, but we didn’t go all the way to the reservoir today.  We rode an hour, and then my client was a no-show, which stunk.  I shopped for books for graduation presents.  I love book stores.  This one used to be on the trail from my house and now it’s more downtown, but I love it so much.  Although I cannot afford it, I bought Brene Brown’s new book, and think that I’m going to stay home to read it.  I’m supposed to go to another graduation party, but the one for my intern really wore me out.  Tons of exercise and oddly in my old age, I’m becoming more introverted and don’t want to make idle conversation with former students.  I like one of them quite a lot, but I’d rather just send her the book and card.  Laying on my couch and typing feels really good.

Earlier this evening, I thought that I would go to the bar, but I don’t want to now.  I’m so happy here at home.  I told my workout partner who accompanied me to my intern’s graduation party that I know that a girl is not going to knock on my door tonight, but I’m not willing to disrupt my happiness right now.  That’s what I’ve come to.  I’m happily tanked from Boot Camp, a bike ride, a few errands, and one party.  That’s enough.  I don’t want to seek much of anything right now or do I want to explain why I drank three beers late afternoon and talked and laughed, or that I ate two big plates of pasta.  I think that it would take a really special girl for me to disrupt what I’m doing and what I seriously enjoy.

Shift

So, of course Shane would send my son a package yesterday.

One of my clients got called into her job last night, and another one moved her session, so I decided to move my on-going family who I will be referring out to a couple of providers to late afternoon tomorrow.  Last night, I ate dinner WITH my son–he only saved me half of a biscuit though–and talked at length.  We walked our dog, cuddled, and seemed really connected.  He is awake now, because our dog already busted in his room, but I am staying home with him until his father picks him up for the weekend.  My son’s school has a planning day for teachers and so there are no classes.

I had a good shift today.  I think that because lonely girl has been contacting me and she is really pretty, I was thinking about an FB again.  She is a quick bike ride away.  However, it is not good to sleep with someone who you know has done shady things which have resulted in losing friends.  That is pretty complicated sex.

Shane and I had the uncomplicated thing for a summer.  When she told me around Labor Day that because she had been sleeping with one of the girls from work for 7-months, that when she said that they should be exclusive so she just agreed, I was like, “Peace out.”  This was four-years ago.  She was shocked.  I think that I meant more to her than 1) I had thought, and 2) She meant to me.  I never contacted her again, and we reconnected four-months later on NYD.  At that time, I figured that I maybe meant a lot to her, and it was flattering.  That’s really all lonely girl is.  It’s flattering, but it needn’t go down the sex road.  So, it won’t.

The funny thing about roads that you travel is that they can become circuituous.  I don’t want to circle back to an FB.  I do think that lonely girl will either put the moves on me or proposition me for sex, but I can just go home.  I had an FB last summer when my ex and I were on a summer hiatus, and I just don’t want one.  Even if the new prospect is super gainfully employed and independent.  It means a lot to me that the women who I met that she hung out with over a year ago don’t speak to her now.  Begs the question…  What did you do?  I know that lesbians are cliquey, but damn.

I’m fine with friendships with lots of different people.  My father had us move about 13-times as I grew up.  I was in 7th grade when we bought a house and stayed, and that stability lasted a year wherein my brother was killed and I was seriously injured.  I knew mobility and then debilitating loss.  Those were my frame of reference for my first 14-years.  It was my journey though.

The lessons from that is that I can easily make friends, but that it is more difficult for me to give myself away.  I’ve gotten really good at the latter over the last six-years.  I can tell new people my story, because I have worked through it.  The biggest shift for me is that I know it’s critical to be vulnerable when you are making a close friendship and that it is a foundational attribute when you are with a partner.

I was vulnerable with my coming out affair, Shane, and then really very much so with my ex.  That is where I am.  I’m ready not for an FB, a conversion of FB to a gf, or a woman who flips and flops and never really settles on committing to me.  I’m shifting for being ready for that real thing whenever the time is right, and it will be with a woman who I know well and have already spent lots of time hanging and connecting.

6-years

That is the age difference between my coming-out affair and I.  Those are also opposites in the Chinese Zodiac.  Well, she and a former boss of mine covered state guidelines that have changed for brain injuries today.  It was odd because today–my work load for my day job is lightest on Wednesdays–I had told one of my newer friends (who I had run a 5K with nearly a month ago)–all about her.  And there she was, presenting for our team with a former boss of mine.  I was pretty shaky when I realized that she was there too.

Then, it was fine.  After her portion of the talk was done, I smiled at my former boss and then when she would jump in so she could present more, I could just look at her.  It was completely neutral.  So, I put on my big girl pants at the end of their presentation and talked to and hugged them both.  I talked to them at length about a case we had just completed and asked if they could look at it.  They seemed surprised, but said that they would.  Next week, I’ll just email them both at the same time and say nice to see you and I think that we have what they discussed covered.

This is expressly why I know that there are no coincidences.  I talked about her today–I hadn’t seen her in almost 3-years–and there she was.  For me, the lesson is that I can easily share space with my ex in six-years.  At least my coming-out affair gave me a good and genuine hug.  I think that when I run into my ex, I’ll decline a hug and tell her that I don’t like her friend hugs.  She claps on the back too hard.  However, maybe with the passage of time, she can genuinely connect to me.  Interesting day today.  It’s time for bed.

Change

I know that I will just be meeting girls this summer and hanging out.  I get how to do that and how it’s different than 1) taking a girl home from a bar, or 2) emailing someone so different than any woman than you’ve been exposed to previously, and getting caught up in the elixir of passion.  I can do that.

However, I don’t know what to do about work.  I need to talk with the state regulatory board today and see what supervisors would have to fill-out when they sign off on my work.  I think that I would like to talk to the professor who has been mentoring me.  I talked with a licensed clinical social worker on Saturday and she told me that licensing boards are actually more interested that your supervisors actually work where they supervise you so that they understand the system.  She said that it’s less about the hours that they work and more about if they have adequate knowledge of the system.  I still think that I’m gambling though.  I can’t really do that.

Part of me wants to stay so I can more accurately control the gathering of my data.  That has to take place in August, which is both scary and sad.  I do have a phone appointment with the boss of this department on Wednesday so I can talk to her.

Again, I need to speak with the manager of our dual diagnosis program too, because I need some more experience that is purely clinical.  I think that given that I’m 2/3 done with practicum that I get community mental health, but I would like to see a different day treatment.  I am familiar with this setting given that I tested for it 2004 – 2007 and worked in one up until I moved most recently (2010).  However, I think that ours, given that it contracts with a large mental health corporation, is run differently than ones that don’t have that component.  I need to talk to him this week too.

I don’t know how I feel about the new setting.  When I screened, it seemed like the boss was just neutral.  I think that many administrators are that way.  Then it’s getting used to a brand new set of rules and two new buildings.  That is a lot to deal with, but I certainly have done it before.  It’s been since 2009 that I really thought seriously about moving, and then did at the very beginning of 2010.

I AM SCARED.  I DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FodfkqfJrhQ

I am here… Again.

Decisions and my Deliberations

I had written in the fall of 2008 that I had “little to report.”  I’m not really there, but I do think because my chart is air dominant, I’m pretty bored.  I need some mix it up stuff.  Next weekend could start off a little weird.  I’ll get to that in a minute.

This morning, I woke up in that mood wherein I wanted to start my morning with a cuddle and some sex.  So odd that there is not even a dark horse in the running for that.  I told my ex-husband that I’m not going to date anymore.  I’m not either.  It’s going to be hang outs and show ups and no intimacy. I just want to spend time with some women and start seeing who is cool.  Daylight interactions for the most part and night stuff will be at my friends’ houses or with my friends.  The three single ones who I know are not ever going to be love interests.

I have to make a job decision in two weeks.  I can stay where I am, but I won’t have two supervisors who are full-time.  That’s scary.  I think what I will do is I will call the dual-diagnosis campus in our system and see if I can get a f2f with the guy in charge.  If I can, then I’m going to ask if I can do two-hours a week of work there in exchange for some training.  If that’s a go, then I think that I’ll stay.  Otherwise, I’m going to work in another place all together next year.  The screening interview went well, and they already have didactic components.  I’d have to find a way to make some didactics where I currently work because they are only set up once a month for the current intern program.  Decisions.  The other ones are made.

OK, exhibit A.  Church girl is not interested in dating right now, and really she is smart because she has not been employed at all for many months–I have no idea how she pays for her mortgage unless she comes from money–and has some significant health problems.  All of that is really sad, so I know that she just needs good friends.  I am a good friend.  And she makes me laugh, so that is a good friend.

I have such a good name for exhibit B, but I can’t use it, because it has too much detail and may not be anonymous, so I’m just going to call her lonely girl.  Her friends who I met last September no longer talk to her.  She used to be in a serious relationship with my ex’s friend.  Those two do not bode well for being a love interest.  I also don’t trust her 100%.  I think that she tries to paint herself in a favorable light all the time.  That’s against what my friends stand for, and that’s openness and honesty.

Exhibit C is not even!  OMG.  Gross.  We were supposed to have this dinner party that she was hosting next weekend.  She asked if it’s ok that she invited people from work, and I said, “Of course.”  Well, she hasn’t invited anyone.  It’s FRIDAY.  WTF?  I was going to make all the food too.  I chatted her that I was confused because she had asked if she could invite girls from work.  She said, “I don’t keep in touch with many lesbians.”  Made no sense.  How is my friend and I–and she used to date my friend–a dinner party?  I said, “Let’s go to a movie and have pizza or something.”  I like those breweries that have theaters in them.  She said, “If u want.”

Then she asked what hot dates I’ve been on.  I said, “Oh, tons.  I work 60-hours a week, I’m working on my dissertation, searching for an internship, and I single parent.”  I also told her that I’m not dating anymore.  I told her a little about Peter Pan without naming her or referring to her as Peter Pan, and I said that my mistake was not hanging out with her friends.  Then she said, *shudder*, “Are you asking me out?”  I was so taken aback that I said, “Fuck no.”  Are you kidding?  She has balls.  She has done one of my best friends!  She is really big.  She is not cute.  She obviously doesn’t really have friends, because she cannot think of who to invite to a dinner party when I’m cooking for it.  So wrong, like Depeche Mode wrong, on all levels.  So, Friday will be interesting, as I said.  I’m really looking forward to the following Friday, tbh.

All of my positive couple friends will be there and so will church girl.  I don’t know if lonely girl will come.  If she doesn’t, then I’m not ever reaching out to her again, because I called her and got her to put it on her calendar weeks ago.  My friends are amazing.  It’s really a goodbye to them while they leave for a year to do organic farming in HI and also abroad.  Lonely girl was saying that she needs to meet people and I told her that my friends are amazing, and that they would be wonderful contacts for her.  If she doesn’t show, then meeting good, quality people is not for her.  And because her friends who I met no longer talk to her, it’s probably not really that she is actually interested in making good friends.  I have them.  I’m blessed.

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.

 

More Randomness

I got so very little done this weekend and it’s sad.  It’s already 5:30 am and church girl is coming over for dinner tonight after my son’s dance class.  That means that I have to sweep, mop, vacuum, and clean the bathrooms upstairs.  I’m not in the mind to care much, which is sad, but I will do it.  I couldn’t run much yesterday and my feet are really sore.  I think that my body is kind of against this half marathon, but I will do it.  I’m just old.  My 26-year-old workout partner has a shin splint and says little about it, so I can deal with my bum leg and creaking feet.  It is not going to be easy, but I will finish it.  Then I plan on running only 1 – 2x a week, because it is really hard on knees and other joints.  Glad that I learned how though before I turned 39 🙂

I have to work on my dissertation today.  It’s down to the wire with data collection.  I also need to remake my night client schedule.  This stuff kills the day job, but my intern can hold up the ship today.  I’ll let her know soon and leave her a HeyTell.

We have had so much stress at work.  It’s unreal.  I will get through this week, and am glad to have taken up running, let me tell you.

We are going to get a large snowstorm.  I guess that my prayers for more moisture are working.  Haha.  The birds are talking about it. I guess that “Snow White,” is not all that fictional.  They are sounding pretty riled up already.  I need to cover up the hole our dog dug when she was still a nut puppy, and also spread the rest of the wildflower seeds so they can cold stratify and come up at the end of May.  My backyard is another thing.  Getting grass to grow in sand during a drought is a real treat.

My son’s best friend’s Mom just texted…  She is taking my son for three-hours on Saturday so I can make all the copies of my taxes to send.  I owe so much to this state.  It’s ridiculous.  She is a great friend.

The dog keeps shifting her weight all over my sore and fragile feet.  Nothing like her joints shifting all over the tops of my runner’s feet.  Lovely.  She keeps sighing too.  I think that she knows that today is a workday and will get bored with her puzzle and PB-stuffed, frozen Kong waiting for the dog walker to come.  It’s going to be so nice to only be about 30 – 35 hours away from the house instead of a minimum of 55.  I just have to get through the next 7-weeks.  You can do anything for seven-weeks, and maybe I can start meeting some nice girls too.