Me, looking down at my sweats: Why do I look good?
Cupcake: Because you’re stylish.
Me: Oh, thank you. I’m stylish?
Cupcake: Yeah, but you’re not a rock star. You’re just mommy. But you’re stylish.
———-
I just really wanted to record that. The things that come out of her mouth somtimes… three and a half is a wonderful and terrible age, all at the same time.. but this was wonderful.
I believe that getting your bitch on is part of the human condition. That’s why I just couldn’t pass up this Girl Talk Thursday topic – Pet Peeves.
Here’s a short (ahem) list of mine:
Breathing Very Loudly: If you didn’t just participate in a foot race, I should not be able to hear you breathing from across the room. Stop it. Stop it now. I would rather see you passed out from lack of oxygen than hear you breathe like that even one. more. time.
Related: Breathing Very Loudly WHILE Eating: This is even worse than just Breathing Very Loudly. Unless you just hunted and killed your meal after nearly starving to death (without stopping to cook it, because that would have given you a chance to catch your damn breath), you need to stop. So unless you are Breathing Very Loudly While Eating With Blood Dripping Down Your Chin, it’s unacceptable.
Almost Putting Things Away: If you got up off your fat, lazy ass long enough to pick up your glass and walk it over to the kitchen, don’t you dare put that next to the sink on the counter. You either put it in the dishwasher, or IN the sink. If the sink is so full of dirty dishes that you cannot fit it into the sink, then guess what? IT’S TIME TO DO SOME FUCKING DISHES ASSWIPE.
Related: Almost Putting Away: groceries, toys, toiletries, laundry, papers to be filed, etc etc. {yes, I am totally guilty of most of this. And it pisses me off when I do it, I don’t need you doing it too, ok buddy?}
Yawning Without Covering Your Mouth: This is not your annual physical. I am not your doctor, nor your dentist, nor your prey. Cover your damn mouth when you yawn, I can see all the way to your tonsils and it’s just indecent!
Arguing About “Over” or “Under” re: Toilet Paper: Who the FUCK cares? Seriously? Is your life SO MUNDANE?! {not YOU, of course. I can understand why YOU care.}
Nicknames When You Don’t Know Me: Don’t nickname me. You don’t know me. And if you continue to call me whatever stupid nickname you’ve chose, you never will. Possibly because you’ll spend the rest of your days in a coma.
Wiggling Your Toes Within My Line of Vision While I Watch TV: Yes I know this one is a little insane. But if you are sitting on the couch next to me, and your legs are crossed such that your foot is next to me, please do not wiggle your toes. It’s all I can see and it’s driving me fucking batty.
Breathing On Me: When you breathe on me it makes my soul shrivel up into a tiny, wrinkly, crushed version of it’s former self, and that allows me to do horrible things to you. Don’t breathe on me.
Related: Breathing On Me While I Am Trying To Sleep: I cannot sleep if you are facing me and if I can feel your breath on my face. It will keep me awake. Please turn the other way, I like to lay facing this side.
Exemptions: Breathing On Me While I Am Trying To Sleep If I Gave Birth To You: You are adorable. Breathe where ever you want. But stop kicking me, you little fucker, or I’ll shove you off the bed.
Not Calling When You Said You Would: I understand, life gets in the way. But if I expect you to call and then you don’t, my mind goes bad places and I start to panic and consider calling hospitals and patrolling the dark alleys to find your rotting corpse. So call me when you say you will, OKAY?! ::crazy eyes::
Catty Behavior: Everyone hates high school for a reason. It sucked, everyone acted immature and petty, and you weren’t as cool as you wanted to be. Yes, I understand that the blogosphere brings up all those emotions that you repressed after you got to college because you wanted to be more adult. I don’t care. Repress them again, go to therapy, whatever. Just stop sniping at each other, ok? We’re all human, we all fuck up, we all have our own issues. We get attitudes, we make rude comments… Do Unto Others, y’all. Just be nice.
Touching My Eyebrows: Don’t touch my eyebrows. It’s a thing with me. And don’t touch YOUR eyebrows while I’m looking. That’s a thing with me, too.
——–
Runners up:judging my list of pet peeves, reading over my shoulder, not saying please and thank you, leaving your shopping cart in the middle of the grocery store which makes me wonder whether I can take it or whether you’ve left it there for a reason, leaving your shopping cart in the middle of the parking lot so I hit it when it’s dark and scratch my car, leaving your shopping cart in the parking lot in an open space which means that a) I can’t park there or b) I can’t pull through YOU WHORE, obvious twitter ads filling up my twitter stream all the time don’t you ever tweet ANYTHING else?, following me on twitter and then not accepting my follow back request because you are protected, MySpace just as a general rule, people who want to purchase something from me on Craigslist as a general rule, overuse of hashtags, using IM/Twitter speak in a real conversation (i.e. SAYING “lol”)
This post is exactly what you think it is. Brace yourselves.
Hubby is away until Thursday night. He’s in Florida until then. In fact ,as we speak, he is attending his Uncle Frank’s funeral. Not what we expected to be doing this week… apparently he had high blood pressure. No one knew, he hadn’t been treated for it. Please, folks – go for a yearly checkup with your doctor. Meanwhile, I’m single parenting it until he gets back.. but not really. Uncle J (who is not really an uncle, but DaddyGeek’s best friend from childhood, who moved here last year and who is also Geeklet’s Godfather) has been a huge help. I mean, above and beyond. Seriously. He shoveled a space for my car at the apartment complex. Just for us. He helps with the kids, he helps get Geeklet to sleep and puts up with the incessant questioning and requests by Cupcake. He cleaned my kitchen. He cleared the snow off of our second car, which we aren’t even using this week, just so we didn’t have to do it later. He takes the trash out. He’s been awesome. Last night my mother did a whole judgy-thing about why he was there helping… apparently I’m not allowed to have help? I don’t know. Whatever – he’s been awesome, she can keep her opinion to herself. Things could have been far less awesome this week. For example, I could have had to deal with my massive head cold, the girls’ massive head colds, plus Cupcake’s puking on Sunday night 4 hours after DaddyGeek’s plane took off all by myself. But I didn’t. Mother can judge away, but the kids are doing better for J being around.
Work. Work work work. There is a lot of it and I am barely keeping my eyes open after the kids go to sleep, so projects have been moving more slowly than I’d like. Thankfully I punched out a lot of work last night and today, so I’m nearly back on track. I don’t see it letting up this month at all. Oh, PS — did you know January is ALMOST OVER?!
I got a new planner. It’s a GTD planner, and I love it, and it’s helping me be organized, and I love love love it. Seriously. Love. It. I’m usually a digital gal but I truly enjoy literally penciling something in. Or, penning it in. I hate pencils. It’s a texture thing.
I am behind on blog reading, and I feel sorely out of the loop. It’s making me cranky. I have over 350 unread posts that I can’t get to. Also, my fishes, farm, deserted island, restaurant, cafe, zoo and pet on Facebook are feeling neglected. (lol)
Taxes soon. I do taxes for my whole family (incl. brother, mother, sister, us) and I am not looking forward to all. those. fucking. numbers. I hate numbers. Speaking of taxes, next years taxes are going to be all sorts of borked. Also I have to start setting aside money for estimated tax payments. Not fun, y’all!
I have about 4 posts planned in my head about songs that are meaningful to me, but I never get around to writing them.. I really should, because they are cluttering things up. Do you care about songs?
I’m pissed at Mother Nature for starting 2010 off with the Haiti Earthquake. I’m pissed there isn’t more I can do.
I finally decided I really do need to stop eating such disgusting food and do something about my weight, and my health, and my general fitness. I ate four donuts yesterday morning. FOUR. And another today, even though it was stale. Not good. So for lunch I had a Lean Pocket. It was hardly satisfying.. though could have been worse. I wanted to eat two. I ate one. Now if I can just keep that up, I can lose the baby weight, which is no longer baby weight, and is actually pastry weight, but saying pastry weight doesn’t sound as legit so baby weight it is.
Speaking of babies, I don’t have any anymore. I have two toddlers. Geeklet is 14mos now and is walking and running and climbing and doing things she shouldn’t do, and saying things like “ceiling” and “nana” and “daddy” and “yes” and she thinks it is funny, oh so funny, when you shake your head yes or no at her. She also loves: spinning, trying to eat lightbulbs, the TV clicker, anything that is electronic that she isn’t allowed to have, mashing the keyboard. Cupcake is 3.5 and is amazing. She’s getting ready to be rid of her bedtime bottle (no judging you whore) and we are so close to really getting somewhere with this potty training (again with the lack of judging!) and bedtimes have been better on a whole. She is saying adorable things, and her favorite joke right now is to substitute the word “underwear” anywhere in a sentence unexpectedly to make you laugh. She also loves jumping around, playing tag with herself, saying grown-up things like “You can say that again!” and “Oh brother!” and she knows how to work the DVD player. She also DM’d @chibijeebs for me the other day, which was oh so sweet of her. (lol)
Since I can’t get over to your blogs/twitter/whatever why don’t you tell me in the comments what’s up with you?
So, we’re mostly all bloggers here. Not all of you blog, I’m sure, but a good deal of you do, in fact, bloggity blog blog your little heart away. And that means you’ve probably played that game where you look at your Feedburner stats, and your various page rankings, and your visitor tally from your stats, and the number of average comments on each post, and grabbed a calculator and a calendar and your old grammar school math textbooks in a desperate attempt to figure out JUST HOW MANY PEOPLE are reading. Because it matters, even if it’s only a little. We want to know. We’re putting ourselves out here, we want to know!
So.
I’m totally joining in on Rude Cactus’ Delurking Day 2010 today and asking – if you read here, regularly or sporadically, just say Hi in the comments. If you want to say more, cool. If you are a person of few words, that’s fine too. And if you have a blog that is public? PuhLEASE tell me about it, mkay?
You were a good man. A great man. You welcomed me into your family with open arms and nary a look back. You were a NASCAR-watching, beer-drinking, grill-loving, handy redneck from B.F.E. Florida and you were a great man.
Summer, 1998. I am 14 years old. I dance several times a week at a dance studio in my town. I have long brown hair. I don’t usually wear makeup but I feel confident, and pretty.
My first job was at a local convenience store. The owners were Peruvian, an older married couple. The wife was my boss, and her husband worked the counter with her. He smiled a lot, spoke little English. He had white hair and was affectionate. At first, I liked to think of him a the Grandfather I didn’t really have.
It all started innocently enough. He would comment about how skinny I was, that I should eat more. He offered me tata and snacks for free. His wife was so austere, so stern, so harsh, it was a welcome reprieve when he spoke to me. It was a small store, and it was usually just me and them.
I can’t pinpoint when, but at some point he started to make subtle advances. He would put his hand on my waist as I walked by, murmuring about how tiny I was, about my “beautiful dancer’s body.” He’d come up behind me and put his hands on my waist, my shoulders, touch my hair. I didn’t do anything about it. I was young. I didn’t quite understand what was going on, though I knew I wasn’t entirely comfortable with it. I rationalized that he was just a nice, lonely old man. Like a grandfather. I clung to that thought, using it as a rationale to continue working there, continue talking and joking with him, continue ignoring what was really going on.
He became bolder. He would tickle me, taking the chance to slide his hands under my shirt and touch the soft skin of my belly, the smooth curve of my back. I giggled, I danced away, I pretended it was ok.
Even bolder. He would slide his hand up underneath my shirt, complimenting my beauty, my grace. I tried to ignore it. I joked, I spun away, I stopped rationalizing and went with a full-on mental block. It wasn’t happening.
One Sunday morning at 5am, putting together newspapers, I hit my breaking point. My mother was there with me, helping me put the papers together. While she was in the back and I was carrying papers out to the front of the store, he pushed his hands up beneath my shirt and touched my bra. I ripped away from him. I didn’t speak to him again. I quit my job a week later, and it was a year or more before I told my mother what had happened. Not until my sister wanted to apply for a job there. I couldn’t bear the thought of her going through the same thing.
———–
May, 2009. I am 24. I am working at a corporate office, and I am pregnant and happily married. I love my job.
Nearly 2 years ago, I discovered I was pregnant with Geeklet. We were thrilled, and after a couple of months I decided it was time to tell my boss. He took me out to lunch. He drove. We talked. He was a good friend of mine. We worked in a small department, all sitting together in a large office. Three of us, only three of us — young Greek guy that I was sure was gay, whose attitude often rubbed me the wrong way, and Gustavo. He was from Peru, and he was a true gentleman. He held doors for me. He opened car doors and offered to get me a drink at company functions. He was proper and kind and sensitive.
He was even kind, and gentle, and a gentleman, when he asked me to have sex with him.
He was kind, and sweet, when he told me he’d nearly cheated on his then-fiancee (now wife and mother of his child) while she was still in Peru.
He was gentle when he told me that he wanted to have sex with another woman, but didn’t want to pay for a prostitute. But I seemed nice, and he thought I might have sex with him.
He was sweet when I refused him.
He thanked me for not slapping him.
He drove us back to work, and he was polite throughout the entire afternoon.
He was polite when HR called him in and questioned him about the incident.
He was gentle and remorseful when he admitted to asking me for sex.
He was gentlemanly and polite when I changed departments because I could no longer work next to him.
He was polite when I confronted him months later to tell him that I thought I deserved an apology.
———–
I’m at a new job now. I work in a department of women. My husband works here. It’s a good arrangement. ‘Nuff said.
I’m calling this a “Green Post” because it’s been recycled from my old blog. One of the challenges of the Mominatrix #sexualrevolution was to do a little down-low landscaping, and I thought I’d share one of my experiences with waxing. This is supposed to be funny, so LAUGH DAMMIT.
————
I understand that there are some cultures where body hair is accepted, even admired. There are cultures also that demand that women or men remove all or parts of their body hair, either as a religious rite or simply because it is culturally unacceptable otherwise. I tried to do some research on this, but have you ever tried doing a Google search for pubic hair and cultural perspectives? Yeah, don’t. Or turn safe-search on.
Anyway, other cultures aside, my own personal preference is to be clean-shaven – pretty much anywhere that I can be. I love the hair on my head But I also keep that short. I don’t like long hair. Hubby had long hair before we met. If I had known him during his goth or subsequent quasi-goth stages, we would not have dated. When we did meet, he had a nice military haircut. Totally acceptable and attractive!
My reasons for wanting to be hairless “down there” are numerous, from simple to upkeep, to cleanliness, to the “eww gross” factor during oral… the list goes on. No landing strips for me, either. Not a fan. It looks funny, to me. And it’s more upkeep! I’d have to trim and shave. I think that’s asking a bit much from a girl who doesn’t even get to shower as often as she’s like. (Aren’t you glad that you only know me virtually? lol. )
So, with that oh-so-essential background information, my candid account of getting a Brazilian wax while 7 months pregnant last Saturday follows:
***
The spa room was very nice. There were nice fresh sheets and towels on the table in the center of the room. The walls were painted in calming earthy tones, and soothing music played in the background. There were some nice iron scrolls on the walls, a hook and hanger for my clothes, and a display of creams and lotions. I had just come from getting my hair cut and my maternity massage, so I was relaxed and feeling sexy and fun and flirty. The clinician, Rachel, offered me a drink of water or some tea. I politely declined – I think that peeing on the woman clearing out your bush is rude, right? I’ll be honest, I’m fuzzy on the proper protocol during a Brazilian wax.. but I think peeing on people is out unless you’re filming a crazy porn or something.
Rachel, by the way, is absolutely gorgeous. Long, dark, curly hair, big big eyes with long lashes, little cupid mouth. It was almost a little insulting how pretty she was. I mean c’mon. If I’m going to have someone staring at my vagina for an hour, I’d rather that she be less attractive than me. If she’s going to be more attractive than I am, and she’s looking at my vagina, she better not be down there to give me a Brazilian.
(Whoops, just outed myself. Bisexual, anyone?)
So, where was I? Oh yeah. Gorgeous girl, first Brazilian wax, 4 months of growth because I can’t reach my own hoo-hah and a huge pregnant belly.
She told me that I could hang my clothes on the hanger and get up on the table, she’d be right back. That’s right folks, she left while I undressed. She also left while I dressed, at the end. How weird is that? I mean, it’s not like she wasn’t going to see it anyway!
Then again, after I had stripped and gotten up on the table, I draped a towel over myself. Even as I arranged it to keep my bits from showing, I questioned why I was bothering. I mean, she was going to be getting up close and personal. And yet… it would have felt so weird to leave it all hanging out!
So when she comes back in, I’m lying on my back, wondering why they didn’t bother to drywall the ceiling because those dated ceiling tiles are really unattractive to look at, when she pulls my leg to the side and plops some sugar-lemon gel on the area with a little spatula. No “How do you do, let me grab your leg here for a sec.” No “How about dinner? A movie? Sex in the back of my conversion van?” Not even a warning “Let’s go!” Just flip the towel aside, grap the spatula, plop the wax and hello, pain. Let me tell you – that gel is hot. And when it catches on the little hairs, it hurts a little. But I thought to myself, so far, so good. This’ll be quick and dirty. It’l hurt, but then I’ll be able to go, and I’ll never have to look this beautiful woman in the face again. Then she grabbed one of those little waxing strips and laid it on the gel. No problem. Then she took her whole hand (gloved, thankyouverymuch) and rubbed the strip down with significant pressure. Let me just say this – not so much a problem on the bikini line area. Totally strange when you get to the “inner” area. I was really, really glad that I wasn’t going to have to see her outside of this context.
Then she started talking to me, asking when I was due, did I have any names picked? I thought it was a little weird, but figured that she was curious and maybe trying to get her mind off of the task at hand (literally….)
I was right in the middle of telling her that I was due on ((RIP)) ((internal scream of surprise and pain)) November 4th, but that my daughter was ((RIP)) ((oh good lord that burns)) about 10 days early, so ((RIP)) ((I bet I’m as red as a tomato down there right now)) this one might be an October baby. With every bit of gel applied, she would apply the wax strip several times and rip, rip, rip away.
I was horrified at the pain. It burned. It hurt. It ached. It was sharp, and tingly, and there was nothing good about it, no way. I had heard that some women like to get this done. I think that whoever told me that was mistaken. They probably said that they like it as much as they’d like an ice pick to the eye. Or they like it as much as they’d like to swallow burning coals. Or that they like it as much as a visit from their mother-in-law while potty-training their first child, who happens to have diarrhea.
But I had started. And I figured that as long as I could just sit there, deal with the pain, and get it over with, I’d be fine.
But no. Rachel was seriously chatty. She would ask me about how I liked living in B-town, and whether I liked it more than BL-town versus N-city, and how her boyfriend wanted to live in B-town but she wanted to live in N-city even though the commute would be worse, etc etc. Every so often, she’d pause, and squint at my lower half. I’m not sure if she was puzzled, or strategizing, or what. It was all very surreal and strange, and somewhat awkward.
It went on and on. This is not a quick process – it took 50 minutes to get everything.It was a pattern. Apply wax, ask a question, furiously rub on waxing strip, wait until I started my answer, RIP. I swear, she was doing it on purpose. She probably got some sort of sick thrill out of seeing whether she could get me to scream in the middle of my answer. (I’m proud to say that I did not! Though there was much wincing, pausing, and flinching)
I tried to rationalize the whole experience and say that it was good practice for childbirth. I mean, pain at intervals lasting for 30 seconds to a minute (oh, the burning!) while maintaining conversation with the people around you. Because that’s totally how we all imagine our birth experience. Discussion about politics and complex science while also bringing life into the world, without any pain medication. I mean, that’s what my childbirth plan reads…. yeah.
The worst part was the end, though. I had told her that I wanted everything – even the wayyy back – gone. She tells me that the last part is the least painful, don’t worry, and if I could get up on the table on my hands and knees and arch my back, that would be great. (Oh, how many times have I heard that? “This won’t hurt a bit, now bend over… ) So, with my big ass and my pregnant belly and my ridiculous stretch marks, I got up on that table and posed like I was asking Hubby to do it doggy style. My stomach rested on the table. My back was arched, my ass was in the air, and she says to me “That’s great.”
Oh goodness.
So she applies the gel and gets the strip, and right after she pulls the strip off, I start to giggle.
A word of advice: the next time that you’re in a table, ass proudly displayed in the air, while someone removes the hair from your body using a spatula, wax, and some cloth strips, do not giggle. It’s weird. It puts a strange mood in the room. No matter that you quickly, VERY quickly explain that you’re just thinking about how funny this will be to tell people later, and that you’re thinking of getting an at-home wax kit so that your husband can see how it feels to have the hair brutally ripped from his body, or that you know it’s totally inappropriate and you’re so sorry you don’t mean to giggle but you just can’t stop…
It’s weird. And for the last few minutes of that waxing session, there will be a silence in the room, like a thick, wet, flannel blanket, dampening everything. And you’ll still be stifling giggles.
Needless to say, I’ll be back in four weeks to get it done again. (That’s right, go back and read that sentence again. No typos, I promise.) (It lasts four weeks!) (And Hubby is paying!)
I identify strongly with Britney Spears. Not in a show-my-hoochie-cuz-I-don’t-wear-panties way, or a crazy-behavior-for-shock-value way. I identify with her as a singer, a performer, a young girl, who is desperately trying to find her way in this world. I followed, and still follow, news stories about her closely. I read the gossip mags looking for a shred of truth, I listen to the lyrics of her songs, I buy her albums and I wonder, often, what it would be like to live her life.
Let’s lay it out in black & white:
Similarities:
We are both in our late 20s – in fact, we’re about a year apart in age
We are both singers (though, admittedly, she is more of a performer than songstress)
We are both dancers (though, admittedly, I haven’t danced in years and I am nowhere near as good)
We both married early
We both have two children (hers boys, mine girls) around the same ages
We both have divorced parents
We both gained a little weight after having kids (Gasp, normal!)
We both have our belly buttons pierced
Differences:
Clearly, I am not a celebrity, and therefore, I don’t have the stress (and yes, fun) that comes with that
I’m not divorced
My mother or father are not acting as conservator of my affairs, my life
I haven’t been married more than once
No one has taken my children from me
I haven’t been forcibly hospitalized
She had a personal trainer to help her lose weight and look HAWT again
The differences seem so clear until I look more closely. What is that list, really, except a list of chance? The lines get blurred when I wonder if I were somehow catapulted to stardom at a young age, who is to say that I wouldn’t eventually crumble under the pressure, using my behavior and words to desperately reach out for help from someone, anyone? Who can say that I wouldn’t go a little bit crazy from untreated depression? I’ve been there, depressed, horribly depressed. My family helped me. What if my family weren’t so aware of my depression? What if I were surrounded by an environment where it was not OK to be depressed, to have issues, to need help? What if?
When I look at stories of her from two, three years ago or more, I just see a scared little girl. I see someone screaming for help and I see the world capitalizing on it, ignoring the real message, judging. I want to scream at them – what if it was your friend? Your daughter? Your mother? Would you just sit back and watch or would you do something?
I look at her now and I see someone who, having received the help she needed, has gotten back on track. Who has accomplished more in her young life than I will likely ever accomplish. Who has gone through hell and back and who will hopefully be a better person for that experience. I see someone who needed family and friends to lean on.
That’s not so different than I. That’s not so different than any of us.
I’m sure it’s not just me. Who do you identify with?
I’ve spent a lot of time this past year feeling bitter. I’m tired of the feeling. The aching, gnawing, acidic feeling in my stomach is not welcome in 2010. I’ve spent too much time consumed by bitter, angry thoughts; writing magnificently angry and righteous emails and letters to “friends” and family who have burned me, hurt me.
Just a few weeks ago, I was in the bathroom in the morning, getting ready for work. I was using a round brush to pull my hair back into a ponytail, my typical hairstyle of choice (though with a new haircut, we hope that will change). The bottom layer of my hair is shorter than the rest, from a previous haircut, and it’s hard to get into the ponytail. That day I brushed it down and let it be a little messy. I thought about my friend Sarah K.
Sarah wore ponytails a lot. Except her hair was so short that half of it would fall out the bottom, like mine. I’ve always called her my best friend. Looking back I don’t know why. She wasn’t my best friend. She wasn’t even a good friend. I just wanted her to be my best friend. We’d been best friends a long time ago. Grammar school. Middle school. We were inseparable. We had so much fun … they called us Gasoline & Matches, we were always getting into trouble. We loved every minute of it.
We once stopped riding our bikes near the front of my house and started a fist fight with each other to see who would win.
She once ate so many brownies and popcorn that she couldn’t even remember how much she’d eaten. Then she puked it up everywhere.
We used to sit on the sloping roof overhang outside her bedroom window and wait for the cops to see us and call her parents.
Her room was painted blue. Her middle name is Elaine. I always thought she was so cool. She’s great with children. I always thought she’d be great with my children. And the two times she saw them? She was. She was great with them. {oh god I’m going to cry. This is ridiculous}
I loved her very much, but she spent her entire life forgetting about me.
As I stood there in front of the mirror, tears springing suddenly to my eyes, I felt angry. I felt so angry that I had tried for years, reaching out to her, emailing her, calling her, finding her, reminding her that I was here, I wanted to be her friend. Catching one lunch, one dinner, one coffee every 10-12mos. I believed her when she said she wanted to hang out more. She wanted to see me more. She wanted to talk more. Email more. Share more. Be there for me more.I fell for it last year again, after she came home from a trip to Israel. She blogged about it, and I read every entry. {I am so pathetic}
She started blowing me off between Middle School and High School. She stopped being a tomboy and figured out how to be a girl. She hung out with a faster crowd and she did things I wouldn’t do. She would come back to me every so often and ask for my help. Boyfriend trouble, family trouble, job trouble, house trouble. She wanted my help fixing it. I fixed it and she went off, waving goodbye gaily, already forgetting what I’d done for her. Every time.
Senior year, at prom, she was drunk. She found me in the bathroom. She told me I was the best friend she’d ever had. She told me that she never appreciated how I always put her back together. She told me she wished she had spent more time with me, and listened to me when I told her that doing E at 14 was a bad idea. That dating drug dealers was a bad idea. That smoking pot was a bad idea. That coming to the senior prom drunk was a Bad Idea.
I knew she was drunk but I felt vilified. I felt recognized. I felt important.
We graduated and I saw her about once a year. Once each time I was pregnant. Once after Cupcake was born. Once after Geeklet was born, which was the last time I saw her. I called her and left her a voicemail a few months later. Nothing. A few weeks after that I called and caught her – but she was busy. She said she’d call me in a few days. Nothing. I sent her an email. Nothing.
I sent another email and told her I wouldn’t be calling anymore. That I hoped she was having a good time, but that I couldn’t put any more energy into a relationship she wasn’t willing to put effort into as well. I needed some closure.
She responded and said she couldn’t deal with a “friend break up” right now because her boyfriend had dumped her. She’d call me in a few days.
Say it with me, people! Nothing.
I emailed her again, against the wisdom that is Twitter. I had too much history with her. I needed to get some closure. I told her I wasn’t surprised she hadn’t called – that was exactly why I couldn’t play this pretend friendship game anymore. I wished her happy holidays, a good new year, and signed off. She responded and said she was sorry that I didn’t think she was a good friend, then made a bunch of excuses.
I told her I was sorry too. That was the end. I cried for a long time. I mourned the death of a friendship that wasn’t even a good friendship. I was bitter about how long I’d pursued this friendship to end it like this. I’ve felt angry and bitter many times since then. The moment in the mirror, hair halfway to a ponytail, was just one. It hits me randomly in the car, or at work, and I wonder why she was so dismissive of me. Why I wasn’t important to her when she was so important to me. She was right, it was a friend-break-up.
I’m still sad and angry and bitter about it, but I don’t want to be this way. It’s a waste of energy. A waste of tears, which are rolling down my face right now to beat the band and I can’t stop them. It’s a waste, such a waste.
Here comes my 2010 resolution: I don’t want to waste time on this, or any other useless, bitter, ridiculous situation this year. I want to try and accept things for what they are and if I don’t like it, I don’t like it. Bitterness won’t help me. I need to pick up and move on and stop being so angry, so bitter, particularly about lost friendships. I’ve gained so many new friends in 2009. Sure, only one lives within driving distance. Most I’ll probably never meet face to face. I’m of the iGeneration, I should thrive on this, these computer-screen/social-media/internet community friendships and I DO. Sometimes it’s not enough for me, but I can’t be angry about it. I can’t be bitter. If I want more friends I need to find a way to go out and get them.
So. 2010. Less bitterness. More friends.
Let’s go.
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* Title inspired by the book I just finished reading, Bitter is the New Black, by Jen Lancaster. It’s a light, funny read that is autobiographical, which makes it even funnier, and I really enjoyed it. Laughed out loud quite a bit, which is relatively unusual for me (I read books and watch movies with hardly any emotion on my face, causing people to think I am a) bored b)angry or c)asleep with my eyes open). If it were summer I’d say it’s a good beach read, but since it’s winter I’ll say it’s a good read for when you need something relatively mindless and uncomplicated after a very long and complicated day. I have a lot of those, which is why I love Sophie Kinsella so much.
This is the token end-of-year post. I’m not usually one for the token-whatever post, I read too many other great Christmas, Thanksgiving, Birthday, New Year’s, etc posts.. but I wanted to talk about this year because it’s been a big year for me.
Firsts in 2009
Last year was a year of many firsts for me. I branched out and did things I’ve never done before. I had a lot of great experiences. I learned a lot. I fell in love with this community more than ever. I prayed more than I’ve prayed in my life. A few of the highlights:
I got off Blogger and decided to take blogging, and my internet community, seriously. I recognized and tried to accept that my friendships are scattered across the country, and that not having local friends doesn’t make me a loser behind a computer screen.
I flew in a plane, by myself, to Chicago, IL, adding one more state to my small, small list of travels. I attended BlogHer with some of my favorite people and realized that while I was never shy in high school, being around so many women that I admired and respected caused me to clam up and sit on the sidelines. Regardless, I had a blast and got more than a few thrills when people I loved and admired actually recognized my name.
I walked away from a company I loved because it was clear they were going under. They’re still hanging on, but barely. I’m glad I made the move – I found a stable job at a stable company that is growing, and I get to commute with and work alongside my husband every day. Our relationship has grown and deepened and strengthened as a result. I’ll be sad when this era ends.
I figured out how to handle a 2 year old just in time for my little Cupcake to turn 3. Then I realized I knew nothing about parenting and that I’d never keep up. Then I realized that seems to be the same thing everyone is doing, and that my mother holds me to unrealistic standards. She’s been doing this for over 25 years. I learned to give myself a break even if she won’t. Towards the end of the year I even learned to stand up for some of my parenting decisions. I told her that if she wanted the kids dressed in matching, adorable outfits every day, she would have to do it, because in the grand scheme of life? Cute clothes for the kids, or even outfits that match, are not my priority. If the kids are relatively clean, happy, and well fed I consider that a win, and you won’t change my mind.
I started, then stopped, then started college again, as a full-time online student taking condensed classes to get a little further along in that BA in Education. I’m struggling to find time and balance it all, but I’m trucking along, and not just because I don’t feel like making student loan payments.
I grieved, truly grieved, the death of several children that I’ve never met. I learned, again, that life is not fair. I realized how strongly social media and the internet community here affects my life. I cried for days. I still cry. I still grieve for those lost lives. I pray for their families. I’ve prayed more this year than I’ve prayed in my entire life.
I started my own small business, taking on new clients and old friends alike who are in need of blog design, help moving from Blogger or Wordpress.com to self-hosted Wordpress, and graphic design elements like headers and buttons. I learned how to value my work and respect myself. I created things that I am so damn proud of. I helped pay for our Christmas this year with that extra money, and nothing feels so good as doing something you love and knowing you’ve helped your family by doing it.
I went to therapy.
I stopped going to therapy.
I became addicted to Starbucks.
Regrets in 2009
It’s fashionable today to say that we have no regrets and I’ve been known to say it myself. I lied. I have regrets, I have loads of regrets. I wish I didn’t, because that would mean that I’ve lived my life perfectly. I’ve made mistakes and I wish I hadn’t, regardless of how I’ve grown or changed as a person as a result of them… if I hadn’t made them in the first place maybe it would mean I didn’t have a flaw or weakness to overcome in the first place. I don’t know. What I do know is that I have regrets, and rather than shrug them off, I want and need to acknowledge them and remind myself that I am fallible. I make mistakes. I hurt people. I need to own that.
I have made mistakes with my children. Every day. I yell too much. I use an angry tone. I don’t spend enough time just playing with them. I am not always fair. I am not always consistent. I expect too much. I have coddled the baby and expected too much of Big Sister. I forget that Big Sister is still a Little Girl and needs to be treated like a Little Girl not a Small Adult.
I have accidentally (and on purpose) ignored friends and family. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry.
I have lied to my mother. I have screamed at my husband for nothing in the middle of sleepless nights. I have been a bitch many times.
I have tried to make it all about ME. I have been selfish. I have been uncaring. I have said cruel things.
I have held grudges.
I didn’t even try to lose weight. I bitch about my body but I didn’t even try. I was a hypocrite.
It’s been a long hard year. I’m ready to put it aside. I’m ready to go forth into a new decade and say What’s UP bitches?! I’m HERE! I’m ready to make an impact. I’m ready to be the best mother I’ve ever been. I’m ready for, 2010. I’m ready.
I'm MommyGeek - married to DaddyGeek, with two soon-to-be-geek daughters, Cupcake (3.5 years old) and Geeklet (15 months). This blog chronicles the life and times of our GeekFam, in addition to serving as an outlet for our other geeky and techie loves. It's all part of the iGeneration profile. Oh, sorry - is our Geek showing?