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Borderline Personality Disorder Blog. Bipolar Disorder Blog. BPD. DBT. Cleveland. A Fragment in Orange.

12.08.2007

I like the time between eight and ten. Bellies full, but not too full. Showered, pajamaed, content. We kiss and you taste sweet, but not too sweet. I moan into your open mouth and the thoughts of fighting are gone. If we could take the time between eight and ten and link the years into infinity, discarding the time between ten and eight, we would be happy. Always. (Barring sickness and a death in the family and too-long telephone calls and mandatory overtime and holidays.)

12.02.2007

There are things that you don't know about me. Some of these things I didn't know about myself until, well, until recently. I've changed. These changes -- some of them are unperceivable to me. I accept this. People tell me, You're so different, You've changed. I take their word for it and add those unperceivable changes to all of the other changes that I've witnessed with my own two eyes, so to speak.

Do you wonder about the difference? Of course I'm thinking of it now, but I don't know if I really wonder about the difference in you. I picture you the same as you were. As if a person can't change their stripes. With wisdom and insight, with effort, can we change who we are? Introvert to extrovert. Asshole to angel. Egoist to altruist. Glass-half-empty to glass-half-full. Maybe we'll have this conversation one day, twenty, thirty, fifty years from now.

Ten thousand years from now, will I then be able to talk to you without thinking that maybe she's just pieces of me you've never seen?

12.01.2007

I have a yellow bath mat. The yellow of diet margarine. The color is in sharp contrast to the dullness of the rest of the bathroom. Stained-tooth white shower curtain. Day-old-cheerios-in-milk beige toilet. Big-toe-toenail yellow-grey sink.

Over the past few days when sitting on the toilet, I've gazed, transfixed, at the new stain on the yellow bath mat. The stain of one droplet of blood. I don't know whose blood it is. I suppose it could be mine, but I can't remember the last time I bled, and if I can't remember the last time I bled, I'd think I would have noticed it by now. It might not be blood at all. I don't waste the time on thinking what else it might be, because it really does look like blood.

We showered today. First me, then you. At the end of it all, the bath mat was wet, and the blood stain had bled. Now, each time I go to the bathroom, I sit on the toilet and wonder at how that one small droplet has slowly become a very large, watered-down patch of overripe watermelon red. I wonder how it will end.

11.24.2007

I am not impressed that you are depressed. I understand that we take turns with our moods. That's life, they say. We do not have enough time and history invested to be able to take a crap on one another, willy-nilly, guilt-free, in this love-me-as-i-am way. Don't you ever talk to me that way again. I am man enough to say that I'm wrong, when I am wrong. I am man enough to say that I'm sorry, even when I think that what I've done isn't that big of a deal. If it matters to you, it matters to me, and I'm man enough to wrap my arms around you and expect nothing in return.

You are gone now. I welcome the break, but I am a little too drunk a little too soon.

10.05.2007

My mother has been here in my house with me for one week. When I got up this morning, on my way to pee, she stopped me in the hallway and told me that I need to start recycling, and that I need to stop drinking pop because it leaches calcium from my bones. That was just one trip to the bathroom. I've been told I need to stop eating so late at night. That people shouldn't eat after 7 p.m. I've been told that my guy friend will break my heart. I've been told "Well fuck you too" when I never said fuck you in the first place. I've been told that I will end up in a nursing home by the time I'm fifty because of the way I treat my body, and that I will be all alone. My mother threatened to clean my room so I opened the top drawer of my dresser and showed her my glass dildo. "Oh yuck" was the response. She's left my bedroom alone since then.

Guy Friend saved me from my mother and I waited in the car with my legs propped up on the dash while he went into Walmart to buy a new car battery. It's this one Walmart in a particularly impoverished part of town. My favorite one to people-watch at. The late night customers saunter in and out, unlike the daylight Walmart trippers with a purpose. Watching these late night people makes me sad, and feeling sad makes me feel better. Maybe that makes me a bad person.

Mom and I sat down to eat dinner in front of the tv the other night. The night before I'd played a detective show, lots of blood and guts, my mom grimacing as she tried to eat her food. I forget sometimes about the gore factor. When we sat down in front of the tv this time, I went through my tivo list two or three times, trying to find something upbeat and blood-free. The best I could do was play a documentary about a young woman who was raped in Sudan. We tried watching for ten seconds and could not continue. Then I chose a documentary about sexual abuse at the hands of a Catholic priest. It's too bad that I'd already watched this weeks America's Next Top Model episode.

Sitting outside of Walmart Guy Friend told me that he had a pit in his stomach. I had been wondering, since I heard his voice on the phone, what was going on. Aloof. Withholding. "I don't want to be the man who makes you give up on all men forever," he said.

I miss the relationships of my youth. Believing in romance and fate. Optimism in anything that feels good to the skin, to the lips.

Guy Friend hadn't shaved since I last saw him, days ago. He was wearing a ball cap and a white t-shirt with holes around one armpit -- holes from repeated washings and repeated wearings. I watched him walk into Walmart, the sense of familiarity subsiding when I realized that perhaps this was the first time I'd watched him walk away from me.

The most intimate details of a person -- you find it funny what strikes you as sexy. For me it's to see how he acts in public, not knowing that I'm watching. Who is he when he's not with me? Almost as good is when he knows that I am watching and doesn't know quite how to change his mannerisms into those that would be most appealing.

Sexy is the awkwardness another feels when being watched. I am cruel, lusting after that which causes insecurity in the people I claim to care about.

Before my mother arrived I imagined that she would find my bottles of whiskey in my kitchen and dump out most of the liquor and replace it with water. Like what I did to her vodka when I was in the ninth grade, the light pencil mark almost invisible on the white label. I suppose if I drink it and can't tell, we'll all be better off.

We sat outside of Walmart, in the car. I've had this song in my head for days, one that repeats a lot on my favorite alt country station. It played in my head as Guy Friend spoke about how we'd never make it work, like a soundtrack making the moment seem a lot more hopeless and sad. Thinking that at the time made me laugh. I will see him tomorrow morning and try to figure out what exactly we were talking about. Or maybe I'll ignore it all and kiss him until I'm thinking of nothing. I have never kissed anyone as much as I've kissed him. He may be the best lover I've had.

Side note: We do stupid, hurtful things not realizing how much hurt we cause. All we can do is feel truly sorry and try to never do it again. But we do do it again. Not the same way as before, but in another way. Stupid humans. We are. And my efforts to be a better person, to be less selfish, to cause no harm -- all of this just annoys people. Maybe we should just be who we are.

I gave head to a twenty one year old boy a few weeks ago. It was incredibly mechanical and, ultimately, a non-event. Afterwards he explained to me why superheroes are so cool, and for the first time ever, it made sense to me. Superheroes ARE cool. We all have our things. I have documentaries on genocide. He has comic books and role playing games. It's all the same, isn't it?

9.13.2007

One lone maggot found its way to my counter top. We mused on its age. I checked my pockets for maggot brothers, sisters, mothers, daughters and fathers-in-law. Instead, I found a piece of gum, examined it closely and popped it in my mouth. The counter top maggot was not good enough for my trash can, and was deposited elsewhere. I don't know where as I did not care. I had ordered its removal by the man who had entered the room simultaneously and accidentally upon maggot discovery. He casually shrugged off my order and continued on his journey until I blocked his path and stood my ground. This is not a racial thing, but you are my slave and must do as I say. I did not put any thought into that comment until now.

I am alone in the light of one red candle. A mosquito lurks in the dark shadows of each corner in this four-walled room. I've covered much of my vulnerable flesh and am sweating bullets. One maggot's life ended and one mosquito's life begun, to avenge the death of the former. Aesop could write much about the two. I wonder what the lesson would be.

The mosquito lands on the pale skin of my inner elbow. I watch as he steadies himself, his legs thin like a beard whisker sliced lengthwise into fifths or sixths. Goosebumps appear in anticipation. Goosebumps on that one arm only. Why not a bilateral phenomenon? Bob once came up behind me unexpectedly and placed his fat hands on my shoulders, his fat, cock-like fingers kneading me in a gesture of friendship, goosebumps came up on my right arm, but not on my left. Don't leave me this way. Oh baby, don't leave me this way. Why not a bilateral phenomenon?

The mosquito is gone. Engorged, I imagine. It does not know that my blood is bad. I wonder what this will mean for the next inner elbow. This does not upset me. I pick up my fiddle and play.

8.19.2007

I had a few patients this week who had just had strokes. The crazy kind of stroke that takes the words in your head that make sense and replaces them with nonsensical words. One of these patients couldn't talk at all. It's hard sometimes when you have so many patients in and out of your department in the day, because you only have a few minutes to assess their situation. Sometimes you think they're not with it, either loopy from meds or dementia, or sick beyond the realm of normalcy. Sometimes you mistake one of the stroke patients for the loopy ones. You assume that because they're not talking to you, or are not talking sense, they're just not there mentally. I had one patient who could only make guttural noises from her throat. She was only sixty. No matter what their mental state, whether they're sleeping, or brain dead or totally with it, you always make the effort to explain to them what you're about to do to them. You tell them your name, how long the procedure is going to take, and whether or not it is going to cause any pain. You never know if they can hear you, but you say it anyway. This sixty-year-old looked me straight in the eye as I talked to her. I began to understand that when she shook her head no, it really meant yes. This woman was very much with it. I asked her if she had had a stroke. She shook her head no. I asked her if she's been unable to speak since. She shook her head no. I asked her if the stroke had done anything other than take her speech and her ability to move. she shook her head no. I asked if she felt as if she was trapped in her body. She shook her head no. The other patient was still able to talk, but the words she wanted to say came out as a bunch of unrelated words. She was very frustrated. No doubt.

The one patient who affected me most this week was an 85-year-old man dying in ICU. As far as I could tell, all of his organs were starting to shut down. His blood was clotting and he was throwing clots to his lungs, to his legs, to his brain. His legs were dead, starved of blood because of the clot obstructing the flow of blood from his bellybutton down. They were bluish white at first. Then darker. Next would be gangrene. I had to do a test on him that I couldn't do in ICU because of electrical interference from all the machines in his room. I told the nurse I'd have to do it the next day, up in my own department. She laughed and said that he would be dead by then. She was taking bets. When you act this way as a health care worker, is it because you're mean and evil-hearted? Or is it because we have to joke to avoid the overwhelming grief that suffering and death constantly around us brings. We all have a little of that irreverent humor. Amongst ourselves, it is normal. But we read the obituaries every day in the break room and remember our patients who have died, talking about the funny things they did, the interesting things they did in life. It's strange to see the cycle of life so up close every day. Death becomes natural, not something we mourn, but something we celebrate when the person who died was suffering and in pain. There is cruelty in the hospital. Doctors order painful tests on dying patients irregardless of the fact that nothing would be done if we found an abnormality. Sometimes we put off doing the test for as long as possible, hoping the patient will die before the pain is inflicted. We rally around our dying patients, doing our best to ease their suffering, and treating their last moments with respect. This dying man was in a horrific amount of pain. He seemed like an animal who would run off to die alone if we would let him. I was helping to manipulate his body for a coworker, taking extra time to hold his hand or foot, to show some sort of love and care. It's a privilege to be one of the last people to share a moment with the dying patient. You show them some reverence. Wish them peace. Imagine who they used to be. What they've seen in their life. How they've suffered. How they've loved. Not like this animal thing reduced to flesh with a bunch of tubes and wires sticking into him. I love my job some days. These days it's more than making a buck. It's being a presence, a friend.

7.29.2007

Friday night feel good. Sun sets over the trees at the Russian Orthodox cathedral one street down, leaving pink fluffy elephant clouds to say goodnight to the daylight. Mama across the street screams at her kiddies. She would be ashamed if she heard herself. One house over the lesbian couple is watering their too-green lawn. They look at each other when the mama yells again. Cars begin to line the street in anticipation of busy bar night in this blue collar town. It's a funny town, this. My neighbor sported a mullet the day I moved in but he's since chopped it off and looks quite appealing. Everyone looks appealing tonight. He had two dogs, then one, then none. I wonder where they went. An inconvenient nuisance put down I suppose. The neighbors right next door to me are a single mom who dresses like me when we think no one's looking, an early twenties daughter who always arrives home in work-out clothes, and an early twenties son who wears an orange t-shirt and khaki shorts every Friday night when he goes down to the corner bar. These three have heard me having sex. I'm quite sure of that. My living room wall is two inches from their driveway. I hear them when they sit outside smoking, when they slam the screen door coming and going, when they're advising their dog to simmer down. One boy I dated thought it was funny that I didn't like to make out on my living room couch against that living room wall. He teased me when I tried to be quiet, made me come harder and louder than I thought was appropriate for the neighbors. Orgasms are one of the things I'm shy about making public. I am not an exhibitionist. I am, instead, a spy. A voyeur. I like to walk the dog late at night so I can peer into the lit living rooms and kitchens of the houses in my neighborhood. I see middle-aged women wearing nightgowns like my mom wears. The kind that are see-through from repeated washings. An unintentional sexiness. I see the flicker of televisions and feel sad for all of us who are too often bored and unsatisfied with our lives. I see old men standing at the kitchen sink taking their evening pills. They are the same men who spend the day in their yards attending to unruly blades of grass with large shears. They are precise in a way that makes me uneasy. When I walk at night, most of the houses are completely dark. I look at the inflatable lit-up snowmen and American eagles dressed up like Uncle Sam and Snoopy dogs with Halloween costumes on and I wonder what the sleeping people inside must be like. I envy their spirit. The lady across the street, her house diagonal to mine, used to decorate her yard and front stoop for every holiday. Several holidays ago she stopped the decorating. I've seen a medical home-equipment supply truck in her driveway a few times and assume that she is no longer physically capable of festivity. I assume that, as with many sicknesses and new disabilities, she is no longer emotionally capable of festivity. It is dark now and I wonder what the neighbors are thinking as they watch me here in my lit living room.
Flat ginger ale and whiskey sucked through a too-narrow bendy straw picked up from the dollar store. Ashtray full, lungs heavy, head giddy. I know what is wrong and I know what is right and I'd die for the truth in my secret life. Leonard Cohen. Legs restless, skin alive and craving touch. Moments like this I might take your breath away.

Something has happened and I'm content with right now. No tears, no desperate yearning besides the desire to have a naked body between my thighs. An evening spent alone, in pigtails and cotton, I've aged a million years, grown into my own skin and am now bursting forth from the seams in an unprecedented sensuality. A full moon hangs sluggish in the humid night air, barely keeping itself afloat. Pods from the solitary tree in the backyard, engorged after the rain, stick to the soles of my feet. I can't keep my hands to myself tonight. How do you explain these things?