214

oh, another thing… as of this morning, 214. what… the… fuck… that is over 50 lbs removed from my body.

FIFTY!

that’s a bag of cement! that’s a 5 gallon water bottle! that’s 200 apples! that’s 5 bowling balls! that’s 2 car tires!

🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

discovery

wow… i am… i’m not even sure of the word… surprised? deceived? relieved? happy? sad? shit, i don’t really know.

for the last 18 years i have largely been exempt from most of the household chores. things like laundry, a lot of the cleaning, tidying up, etc… however i was absolutely responsible for a whole slew of other things, yard work, repairs, maintenance and also all of the shopping and meal preparations among other things. anyhow, everything seemed more or less fair to me. k never stopped complaining about never having enough help with her share of the work though. i regularly felt bad, like i was not carrying my weight. at one point we even hired a cleaning lady! i’ve also tried repeatedly to instill a sense of responsibility in the children by incentivizing them to do chores based on their allowance. all the while picking up chores here and there when i knew they needed to be done and i knew i wouldn’t “do it wrong”.

well.. after a week of living on my own, most of which was with the kids, the house has never been tidier, laundry has never been more washed, dried, folded and put away, the kitchen has never been more spotless…

i think i got the short end of the stick for a very long time. sure, it’s work, it needs to be done, but holy hell, it’s not hard and it really doesn’t take much time at all. anyhow. perhaps in another life i was a homemaker.

additionally, i have signed up on “the apps”, just to see. jesus tapdancing christ has that ever been an ego boost for me! wow! never in a million years would i have expected that kind of attention. whether it leads to anything or not, who knows, but it is a nice to feeling when someone thinks you’re desirable, so i’ll enjoy it while it lasts!

routine

i have to remember to do certain things. i need to consciously remind myself.

  • don’t drink too much coffee
  • eat something with nutritional value
  • take a shower and brush my teeth
  • do some kind of excercise
  • practice guitar or drums
  • clean up the kitchen
  • write something
  • practice spanish

there’s obviously more things i need to do in the day, but those are all things which i need to do for myself that no one else gives a crap about. so i have to remind myself.

i have been doing a terrible job at that lately. for example, looking at my health app, i have not done any exercise in like almost 2 weeks. yesterday i finally broke that pattern and rowed for 20 minutes.

i feel my mental well being slip when i am not taking care of myself. it’s a 1 to 1 relationship, just on a delayed timer.

soy un perdador

the last time i wrote anything was almost 2 weeks ago. i feel the effects of that, it is palpable in my mood, in my thought process in my emotional regulation, in my routine, in everything.

i have to commit to daily writing again. even if i have nothing to say. i need to do it for my own well being before i deteriorate further.

a lot has happened in these last 2 weeks. a lot of things which have really twisted and bent my soul into new and uncomfortable shapes. it’s hard to focus on the things which are going right currently because of that, there is so much negativity, it is overwhelming.

k has moved out, that happened on feb 14, of all days. i am bitter about that. additionally, there was no plan for anyone else to help, so i was the singular source of muscle in this operation. the day left me broken physically, mentally and emotionally.

the following day i started rebuilding my environment, first things first, couch delivery and assembly. i was hoping for some kind of help, some kind of moral support, some kind of emotional companionship in this. i had mentioned that to a, but instead of getting anything of the sort, i was left on read all day only be to prompted with a “how was your day?” in the evening. perhaps it was not fair for me to expect anything more, but i did anyways and i was left even more broken than the day before.

k, on her end, was not fairing much better. although she did have c and k, j and n all come to her side and help her, it was not enough to compensate for the overwhelming disaster which was to ensue. it started with a leaky bathtub (which i fixed for her) and continued with a leaky bathroom window followed by a leaky kitchen window which then lead to a leaky basement with water under the floor and culminated with a leaky ceiling in an upstairs bedroom. all within 72 hours. suffice it to say, this is what they would call a “vis cache” here in quebec, or a hidden defect the sellers tried to sneak past everyone… regardless of that though, after calling the insurance and having disaster crews come by, she is left with a half torn apart house, drywall and flooring ripped up, fans, dehumidifiers, mold inhibitor chemicals… all things which make living in that home a challenge. returning it to a livable state will cost tens of thousands which her insurance is likely to deny her, and will require her to hire a lawyer to go after the seller for. in the meantime… she can’t have the kids of cats at her place.

and of course, as you may have been able to guess, this was indirectly blamed on me. “i only bought this house because it was available and knew you wanted me out of your hair as soon as possible” is a statement that when said to me fucking stabbed me right through my heart. the guilt, the shame, the regret, everything that washed over me in that moment was, and continues to be unbearable. but bear it i must.

adjacent to all of this, last night i had a long talk with a about things. it’s nothing good at this point. seems like i bring undesirable feelings there too.

everywhere i turn lately, i am a disappointment, i am a loser, i am a problem, i am a burden. it’s funny how sometimes when you feel like you have hit the bottom and will start inevitably rising back up, you then discover there are even further depths to which you can sink.

home stretch

last night you said something to me and it really upset me. not because what you said was mean or anything like that, but because of how you see things.

i was making myself some tea and you said you’re seeing things in me you never thought you would ever see. you said i remind you of you when you are trying to be healthy.

ok first thing…. how do i even put this in to words? what exactly do you mean by that? did you never think i could possibly want to make my own personal existence better? i mean, i know i put myself on the side for a very long time and only focused on everyone around me, but still… that’s kind of hurtful, no? to say you never thought you would see me give a shit about myself? the assumption that i would forever disregard myself? maybe i am reading too much into this.

secondly though, i remind you of you? what… the… fuck… i’m sorry, but i do not see the comparison, and frankly, i am a little offended.

i’m happy i didn’t say anything and just let this slide though. i can’t permit an argument now… it’s almost time.

today you will sign the papers which signify the start of your independence. i know this will be difficult for you. i’d like to say i wish i could be there for you, but i don’t think i do. not out of malice mind you, but out of a weird twisted kindness of sorts. this is something you need to do without me. if i am there to support you though this, it will be impossible for you to gain the independence you require. you will continue to use me as a crutch, further eroding any goodness left inside of me.

i don’t want you to be sad, i don’t want you to be angry, i don’t want you to scream and cry and yell and punch a hole through the wall, but i know you will, and i think you need to do that to be able to process everything.

it’s going to be ok.

m,n,a

will you miss me? will you even really notice? you were never “mine” but i think sometimes you liked me best, right? once in a while, i was your choice? i know it wasn’t often, but i like to think that i was, at least sometimes.

i was never the food giver, but i was always there for head scritches, tummy rubs, butt pats, so much petting and chin rubs. all i ever wanted from you was to let me love you.

m, i’ll miss your hard leans and incessant drooling. i hope you feel safe in your new home and don’t always feel scared. i know exactly when that changed in you, when you became a scaredy cat, and i wish i could go back in time to prevent it, but that’s not how these things work. keep making those pathetic little meeps of yours, everyone laughs, but also everyone is so charmed by them too.

n, you fat fuck. i think i will miss you the most. you absolutely chose us that day when you and your siblings found your way into my back yard. the rest scattered into the field, but you walked right up to our back door with your little rat face and decided we were your people. i will miss our conversations, i will miss forcing you to snuggle under the covers, i will miss the way you grab on to my shoulder when i pick you up. you’re a good boy.

a, you’re new, you were supposed to be mine, but i knew you would not be from the start. that’s just what i was told in order for me to accept you into this home. but still, you managed to charm the heck out of me and i wish we could continue to get to know each other more. sadly, that will not happen now. keep being a menace. keep forcing the two boys to move around and be active, they’re both too fat and lazy. keep being adorable and curious and full of the loudest purrs.

in a week from now we will say goodbye. i’m sorry if i make it quick, i’m not sure i can handle a long goodbye, i can barely handle writing this note.

better help – conclusion

back in july i decided to try out online therapy. i went in a skeptic, and to be honest, i still am but… BUT…. i understand the value of this kind of thing a little more now.

so, the funny thing i’ve learned about therapy, is that it is only as good as your therapist, and then also, even if your therapist is amazing, if you don’t want to do it, it’s still going to suck. at least for you, at that specific point in time.

another interesting thing… no one has ever talked to me about their own therapy experiences, until i told them i was trying it myself. so… there is some possibly unintentional gatekeeping involved with this too. likely because most people will consider this something they need to do because something is wrong with them (a negative thing), not because they want to better themselves for the sake of betterment (a positive thing).

in learning about other people’s experiences i have to say i feel rather fortunate to have met my therapist, linda. unlike some of the horror stories i heard about other people’s therapists, linda’s approach was overwhelmingly pleasant. maybe even too much at times, which really is the only genuine criticism i have. it made it feel very fake at first. she’s very much been my biggest cheerleader, my biggest fan, my biggest source of encouragement about everything. so much so that i found myself kind of calling her out on it and ultimately arguing whatever the appropriate counterpoint would be with myself, while she cheers on both sides.

in the end… that’s maybe what her plan was all along because it’s been quite helpful for me and over the last few months. i have developed a habit of kind of doing that exact thing on my own now. it doesn’t always work, sometimes i get myself caught in some kind of loop, but many other times, the thing, whatever it is, ends up getting resolved in my head, all on my own. neat!

that said, i’m finding myself in a spot now with this where i kind of know what linda is going to say when i tell her something and so our conversations are more like friends catching up, except very one sided. and the problem with that is that it is a rather expensive one sided friendship. i don’t really want to put an end to this, because i actually really like my therapist, but i can’t justify the cost anymore. at least not right now.

so tomorrow will be my last session with linda for now. would i recommend better help? yeah, i think so. the platform works well and if you find yourself a decent therapist to talk to, it can be pretty helpful. they make it easy to switch therapists whenever you want, so you can flip flop around until something clicks.