Links of the Week – April 17, 2015
* 18 Puppies On Their Way To Their New Homes!
* The Great Garden Gnome Massacre
* Long Exposure Light Photos – (Gorgeous!)
* Doctors To University: Fire That ‘Quack’ Dr. Oz
* Defeating Polio: The Disease That Paralyzed America
* Anne Lamott Shares All That She Knows: ‘Everyone Is Screwed Up, Broken, Clingy And Scared’
* MLB Teams Boost Mental Health Support Systems
* Love Is Not Supposed To Hurt… Then Why?
* New Study Says Tylenol Numbs Emotions – (Rushes to weekly grocery list…)
* 7 Things To Do When Your Kid Points Out Someone’s Differences – (Great stuff!)
* Hidden Cameras Reveal Airport Workers Stealing From Luggage – (Why are people so sorry?)
* Yogi Berra, Ready For The Game!
* Mindfulness Meditation Can Help Relieve Anxiety And Depression
* What Self-Love Means: 20+ Ways To Be Good To Yourself
* Anne Lamott – Becoming The Person You’re Supposed To Be: Where To Start
* How To Get To Know Yourself In 5 Fool-Proof Steps
* Baddest Mother Ever: Ten Signs I’ve Found The Right Biscuit Joint – (Link of the week!)
* A Boy and Her Dog: Owning My Shame – (I feel so much of this.)
* Fisticuffs And Shenanigans: Pride, You Made Me Proud
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“You can only go halfway into the darkest forest; then you’re coming out the other side.”
— Chinese proverb
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Unpacking Boo
Clearly the time has come to work through all the issues surrounding my “relationship” with Boo. No one should absolutely lose their shit because somebody they work with is moving to a job across town. But my shit I did lose. The very real, desperate pain I felt over the weekend was incredibly out of proportion to the actual event.
I have to figure out why this has such a hold of me – why I can’t let it go. I can’t allow this delusion to continue to control my life, obsess me, and craze me. I think the easiest way to work through it is with some lists with occasional narrative thrown in for explanation.
Who Is Mythical Boo?
*Emotionally available
*Caring
*Attentive
*Sensitive
*Committed
*Accepts me
*There when I need him
*Open
Who Is Real Boo? – The Good
*Funny
*Sweet
*Inquisitive
*Handsome
*Sexy
*Manly
*Best first date EVER!
*Never completely lets me go (no matter what dumb shit I do)
*My friend?
Who Is Real Boo? – The Bad
*Emotionally unavailable
*Wrapped up in his work
*Undependable
*Not there when I need him
*Never completely lets me go
*Closed off
*Coming out of a BAD divorce
*Mean streak disguised as humor
Why I Deserve Better
*???
Clearly, the real Boo and the Boo I make myself sick over are not really the same person. That’s not fair to him. That’s not fair to me.
So why do I continue to cling so desperately to my delusion of “SuperBoo” and to my efforts to forge a romantic relationship with him?
Why Do I Continue To Fight To Keep It Alive?
*I’m desperate for male approval.
*I need to know that I am desirable and lovable.
*I don’t want to be alone.
*He’s my only option. He’s the only straight, single man in my life.
*I need to win, not fail.
*I can’t stop believing I can make him love me if I say and do the right things.
*I need to prove that I can “do anything I put my mind to.”
*I can’t accept that I can’t control him or the relationship.
*I want to fix him and heal his emotionally broken places.
*I want him to cherish me for fixing him and showing him how to love again.
*Letting my hopes for SuperBoo go means giving up on the hope for love, acceptance and companionship.
*If I stop looking at him, I have to look at me.
*I have no intrinsic identity.
*If I stop chasing this, I don’t have anything else to concentrate on.
*I have no other goals or dreams or desires for my life. (Sadly, I’m serious.)
The self-identity piece of this fascinates me. Boo is not the first man who I’ve gotten super-crazy about like this. First of all, I didn’t date growing up. I had a boyfriend for two weeks in 9th grade and then a couple of short term boyfriends in college. And then I got married when I was 25. So I never practiced relationships. I’ve always been so desperate for them that I clamp on like a bear trap as soon as a possibility arises, and my hopes shoot through the roof. That’s the biggest problem. I can NOT control my expectations. And inevitably the disappointment CRUSHES me. I can’t just brush it off and let it go.
But none of this started happening until I started graduate school. I got there and it turned out I WASN’T the smartest person who ever lived. I was out of identities. So I started looking for a man to define me – to put the socially-acceptable stamp of approval on me. I didn’t know how or who to be without an extrinsic label. I still don’t
So Who Am I Now?
*Not an athlete
*Not a scholar
*Not a runner
So Who Am I Inside?
*???
So What Does That Mean I WANT To Be?
*Someone’s girlfriend so I can prove to the world that I’m straight, loveable, and OK being me.
*Someone’s girlfriend so I can be protected and appreciated and loved.
What I Probably Need To Be
*Alone until I learn to define myself without a man, and learn to know who I actually am inside and not just as defined by the things on the outside – the things I do or wear or how I cut my hair. (I don’t wanna! *sniff!*)
*A woman learning who she is and why she’s OK.
*A woman who likes herself without needing any external approval to do so.
*A student (literally) of casual dating who doesn’t lose her emotional shit over one dinner.
And so here is the stupid postscript to all this. How do I deal with my ongoing relationship with real Boo in light of these admissions and realizations? Is there a way I can step back and start over again looking at him with new eyes? Can I unravel these emotional ties I’ve woven? Will any kind of relationship with him continue to bring me grief and disappointment? Can I ever get to a place where we can just be friends without me wanting him and feeling jealousy and hurt? I’m just not sure what to do. I don’t want to cut ties with him. But is that just a symptom of the problem at hand?
Hahahahaha! I can’t believe this is a song!
The Valley
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…
Psalm 23:4
And one day your vision will have narrowed to a pinhole. Your heart will weep. There will be fire in your brain and a roar in your ears.
You will lean far over the balcony rail. You will fashion a noose.
But you will wait. And you will hate yourself for it.
The next day you will wake and eat a cinnamon roll. And for no reason, life will make sense again.
You will vacuum. You will take a shower.
Then, unexpectedly, a tractor trailer will pull up outside and carry you out of town. And you will love yourself for it.
Wait for it.
Links of the Week – April 10, 2015
Bike lane – Roberto Clemente Bridge – Pittsburgh
* Study: People Who Love Grilled Cheese Have More Sex, Are More Charitable
* This Dog Was Adopted After Five Years Of Waiting When His Photo Went Crazy On Facebook
* Longtime Couple Found That Clothes Didn’t Make The Man
* Gay Boy Scout Leader Hired In New York: “We said yes to him irrespective of his sexual orientation”
* White House Says It Supports Efforts To Ban Gay Conversion Therapy
* Gay Conversion Therapists Claim Most Patients Fully Straight By The Time They Commit Suicide
* Now Who’s The Moral Majority?
How I feel this week. Thanks, pollen!
* If Single People Honestly Updated Their Facebook
* Everybody Hit Somebody – (A season with the Carolina Phoenix women’s football team)
* Houston Astros Sweater – (Gorgeous!)
* Philadelphia Phillies 1915-1919 Cap – (This will be mine. Oh yes!)
* John Hart May Never Make A Better Trade – (See ya’, Melvin!)
* Reeses Chocolate Peanut Butter Tart
* FLOTUS Michelle Obama Says Malia And Sasha Are Not Influential And I Love It
* We Need Star Trek Back On TV
* Shout Out To T’Pring’s Hairdo
* When My Friend Is Obsessing Over Her Crush Even Though He Clearly Doesn’t Like Her
* Obsessed
* Seven Big Signs You May Be Too Clingy
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“I’ve come to realize that what I always thought was my feeling of falling in love, feels very much like my feeling of anxiety.”
– Deanna Dennis
“[Y]our life is yours and no one else’s.”
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Links of the Week – April 3, 2015
* Shatner Pays Tribute To Nimoy
* Astros Unveil The Eat-On-The-Go Chicken And Waffle Cone
* We Need A Middle Class President
* 5 Charts That Show How The Middle Class Is Disappearing
* Can We Guess What Your Reading Habits Say About Your Love Life? – (Mine was FRIGHTENINGLY correct.)
* How Old Do You Actually Act? – (I got 5-years-old. *sigh*)
* What My Zodiac Sign Says About Me – (Again, correct.)
* “I Thought I Was Bipolar” Shirt – (Need)
* PostSecret: I Feel Like A Hostage
* Monkey Meets Puppies For The First Time, Wants To Snuggle Them As Badly As Anyone Else – (Ow! My heart just exploded!)
* Tim Cook: Pro-Discrimination ‘Religious Freedom’ Laws Are Dangerous
* Moist Chocolate Cupcakes with Ganache Filling – (Proof that God loves us. He’d love me more if he’d magic these to my house.)
* The Problem With Cars And Self-Absorption
* The Spirit Of Atlanta: A Quest For Context Of 1920’s Atlanta – (Awesome old pictures of the city!)
* The Scandal Of A Crucified God (A Good Friday Reflection)
* The Importance Of Doubt (A Holy Saturday Reflection)
* When The Right To Discriminate Collides With The Rites Of Holy Week
* The Right’s Made Up God: How Bigots Created A White Supremacist Jesus
* How ‘One Nation’ Didn’t Become ‘Under God’ Until The 50s Religious Revival – (My favorite read of the week!)
* You Don’t Have To Go To Work On Opening Day Because The Brewers Wrote You An Excuse Note
* Watch Guys Attempt To Explain How Periods Work – (Hysterical. And a little sad. 🙂 )
* What The Hell Is That Tribble Doing?
* Rape Suspect Had Burns At Court Appearance – (I would get on a plane right now, given the opportunity, and go to Ohio and beat this fucker to death with my double wall Miken. PLEASE let me do it!)
* Transgender Elders Show Us The Meaning Of Survival
* ‘Child Abuse’ For A Girl To Dress Like A Boy? – (Sigh…)
* Man Thinking About Just Packing Up And Making Exact Same Mistakes Someplace Far Away
* What To Do When You Hate Yourself
* It’s All About Falling In Love With Yourself…
* The Girl Who Struck Out Babe Ruth And Lou Gehrig
* Girls Baseball Team Wins Championship At Boys’ Tournament – (Not just a little local tournament, a USSSA NATIONAL tournament!)
* Menswear Dog: The Most Stylish Dog In The World – (THIS! Blog of the Week!!!)
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“And when she is done, she will head for town, center, she will board the first bus she sees. Find a seat by a window, ride to the end of town.
And then? She stops. She does not know. She has not thought this part through. But it occurs to her then she can just keep on riding. It is possible, yes. She will just stay on the bus and ride. To some other place, some other town. She will look for it out all the windows. And when she sees it at last, she will know.”
– Some Other Town, Elizabeth Collison
“Death will get us all. Moreover, astrophysicists tell us, even the earth and the solar system will one day be destroyed as the sun explodes in its dying gasp. On a more finite level, life is filled with threats to our existence: accidents, disease, violence, unemployment, poverty. Life easily looks threatening.
If we do see reality this way, how will we respond to life? In a word, defensively. We will seek to build systems of security and self-protection to fend off the hostile powers as long as possible.”
– The Heart of Christianity, Marcus J. Borg
“It’s less embarrassing for people to think I look stupid when I intentionally look like a boy, than for them to think I look stupid when I’m trying my best to actually look like a woman.”
“I am also learning how to feel. I’m learning that it can be safe to experience emotions. Running away – literally and figuratively – only temporarily removed me from the pain I was feeling. In order to exercise in a healthy way, I had to learn how to feel without searching for a way to self-destruct. It’s been a massive struggle to learn to accept myself. I’ve had to work to believe that I am OK exactly the way that I am, that nothing needs to be ‘beaten’ out of me.”
– Kenzi Rome, http://twloha.com/blog/making-my-workouts-work-me
“[L]ook more closely at the hard things in life: They’re trying to tell you something if you’ll listen.”
– Tomboy, Liz Prince
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If I Died…
I often fantasize that when I die, my spirit will stay here long enough and be omniscient enough to know how people react and feel. I’d like to see my own funeral like Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.
First one and then another pair of eyes followed the minister’s, and then almost with one impulse the congregation rose and stared while the three dead boys came marching up the aisle, Tom in the lead, Joe next, and Huck, a ruin of drooping rags, sneaking sheepishly in the rear! They had been hid in the unused gallery listening to their own funeral sermon!
– The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain
Don’t worry. This isn’t a cry for help.
But I wonder about particular people. Would he be sorry? Would he miss me? What would he think? (It’s him I think about and wonder about the most. It’s a sickness.)
Would she come all these miles for my funeral? Would she be able to go on?
What would my funeral be like? I know where I want it to be and who I want to do it. I know what I want done with my body. Would those things happen?
What would people say at my funeral? Who would stand up and tell stories about me? How many people would be there? (Who would run sound? 😀 )
How long would people remember me?
Who would remember me?
Why would they remember me?
Links of the Week – March 27, 2015
* A Beautiful Sunrise Over A Bacon Landscape
* Even In Defeat, Georgia State Was A Winner
* Pope Francis Receives Pizza Delivery – To Pope Mobile
* PostSecret: What Might Have Been
* Man Has Carefully Calculated Timeline For Revealing Negative Personality Traits To New Girlfriend
* Rainy Day Street Art – (I love this so much!)
* Neustetter’s ‘Light Experiences’ Illuminate Night – (So beautiful!!!)
* Emory’s Women’s Swim And Dive Wins NCAA Div-III National Championship – (Six in a row!)
* What Does It Mean To Wear Heels?
* Why Men Are Smarter Than Women – (Provocative, but I agree!)
* NASA’s Opportunity Rover Celebrates Mars Marathon Milestone
* “Raising Ryland”: Parenting A Young Transgender Child – (A wonderful short film from CNN Films…)
* The Transgender Life: What To Know, Say, And Understand
* Capitol Police To Congress: No More Drunken 4th of July Parties – (But our congresspeople CAN’T find the time to read legislation before they vote on it. Wankers.)
* Famous Atheists And Their Beliefs
* Ricky Gervais: Why I’m An Atheist
* Mo’ne Davis Asks College To Give Baseball Player Second Shot – (I want to give him a second shot – in the head. What in the world makes a college-aged man think it’s OK to call an 11-year-old girl (or any female) a slut? Men? What is your major malfunction with women?)
* 10 Stereotypes To Stop Spreading About Women
* Paw Prints On Your Food – (Dawwwwwww!)
* When You Finally Find Out Who’s A Good Boy – ( ❤ ❤ ❤ )
* Bullshit Bill With Bullshit Title Bullshitted About By Bullshitters
* Local Idiot Looking For St. Patrick’s Day Bar That Isn’t “Full Of Idiots” – (Perfect.)
* Microsoft CEO Announces He Can Be Mostly Gay By Q2 2015
* Becoming A Better Man: The Single Greatest Moment Of My Life – (Blog post of the week!
* The Greatest Lenten Pun EVAH!
* Cadbury Creme Egg Season Is Here Again At Last
* Insult To Injury: America’s Vanishing Worker Protections – (This is what happens when people stop supporting unions. I promise you, this will continue to get worse.)
* 4 Scientifically Proven Ways To Be A Better Spouse
* Lemond – Missing-Ear Kitty Becomes A Furkid – (Adopt a pet today! They love you so much!)
* Alcoholics Anonymous, Mr. Spock And the Lighthouse
* Spaghetti Toes: If Love Was Measured In Weight… – ( ❤ ❤ ❤ )
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“Lisa, I apologize to you, I was wrong, I take it all back. Always be yourself. If you want to be sad, honey, be sad. We’ll ride it out with you. And when you get finished feeling sad, we’ll still be there. From now on, let me do the smiling for both of us.”
– Marge, “The Simpsons,” Moaning Lisa
“Which is a funny thing about boyfriends, I’ve noticed. they too often don’t know about you and jump to unwarranted conclusions. That for instance it was love, a mate you were after, when you really just needed someone to talk to.”
– Elizabeth Collison, Some Other Town
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For Me
I wonder if hair is sort of like the rings of cut trees. Does it hold the memories of its days? Can it retain the residue of warm, cozy diner breakfasts and awkward sleepovers, of disappointments and poor choices, of hurt feelings and unrequited desires?
Every time I grow my hair long it’s to try to prove to a man I’m feminine enough to be desirable. Love me! Love me! Love me! My desire for him overwhelms and obsesses me, but his desire for me is fleeting at best. Why do I even think that my hair will make a difference. I’m always me either way.
Every time I cut my hair off it’s because I’m done trying, because I’m just tired of fighting the fight, with my hair and for a man. Those other memories need to just go away.
This is for me.
Links of the Week – March 20, 2015
* Justice System to 13-Year-Old Girl: It’s Not Rape Because You Have Curves – (Women, if you’re not enraged yet, you’re not paying attention.)
* Cops On An 11-Year-Old Who Says She Was Raped: “Child’s Promiscuous Behavior Caused This”
* Pope Francis’s Pledge Of Zero Tolerance For Child Abusers Being Tested In Chile
* Alpha Males And Sexual Abuse Of Women
* Understanding Abusers: There Is No Stereotype For Offenders
* “I Am Called A Whore”: Ashley Judd Unloads On The Internet’s Grossest Trolls
* “Son Of A Bitch!” Jon Stewart Hammers “Disingenuous” GOP And “Dumb-Ass” Dems Over Anti-Sex Trafficking Fiasco – (As he should. Fuckers.)
* National Organization Of Women – (Stand up for women! God doesn’t seem to be helping.)
* Behold The Unexpected Awesomeness Of The Taco Doughnut
* Racist Oklahoma Video A Sign Of Regression In Race Relations In America
* Millennials Are More Racist Than They Think
* PostSecret: If Jesus Were Here – (He does…)
* Find A Death: The Death Of Jeanine Deckers: The Singing Nun – (“It took fourteen years for Jeannine to give up the ‘friend’ thing and sip from the furry cup and join the Order of the Practical Shoes.” And then I died! 😀 )
* Find A Death: The Death of Greg Plitt – (Leg day! 😀 )
* For When You Think That No One Will Ever Love You
* Disenchanted With Losing, Andy Landers Calls It Quits After 36 Years Of Coaching The Lady Dogs – (A pioneer in women’s basketball, and the only Lady Dog coach I’ve ever known.)
* Psalm 37: How To Receive The Desires Of Your Heart – (As long as God decides it’s OK. And he doesn’t have anything better to do. And he really exists. Now does that really sound like granting the desires of MY heart? No. It does not.)
* A Boy And Her Dog: Mail Is Not A Gender
* A Boy And Her Dog: Topless In The Locker Room
* A Womanonymous: Wild Offering – (Post of the Week)
* Black Bear Lodge Adventure Therapy – (I wonder how much this costs…)
* Workplace Suicide Rates Rise Sharply
* 21 Harsh Truths No One Tells Teens
* 5 Reasons To Suspect That Jesus Never Existed
* Catcher David Ross’ Approach To Game Anything But Routine – (Oh, Rossy! My favorite!)
* Contributions Of David Ross Go Beyond The Numbers
* Joe Maddon Is Binge-Watching ‘The Office’ At Cubs’ Spring Training – (Oh, Joe! My favorite!)
* Largest Group Of U.S. Presbyterian Churches Allows Same-Sex Marriages – (OK, Methodists. We’re starting to look like backward-ass snake handlers now! Left behind, indeed!)
* From Patrick Stewart’s Birthday Party – (Can I get these guys to come to my birthday party?!?)
* When People Ask Me About My Job
* For The Bodybuilder/Weightlifter/Harry Potter Fan In Your Life
* Sheetcake Arrives At Banquet Saying “Stewardshit” – (Also, DAVID TENNANT!)
* Fake Self-Help Books – (!!!)
* “Life’s Lil Pleasures” Mini Book – (The. BEST! ❤ ❤ ❤ )
* Nine Handy Curses Appropriate For Modern Life – (“May your coffee always be decaf.”)
* Creekside Cabin: Pet Friendly Cabin On The Creek – (It may be time to plan a vacation week…)
* You Can Now Anonymously Send A “Bag Of Dicks” To Your Enemies (Or Your Friends?)
* Awesomely Luvvie: “Pastor” Creflo Dollar Is Trying To Raise $65 Millon For A Plane
* Awesomely Luvvie: Dear Fellow Christians, About This Christ Crutch We Use To Justify Foolery…
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“Humans will always place our trust in things that will fail us. We will always insist on giving pieces of our heart to things that simply cannot love us back.”
– Nadia Bolz-Weber, “A Sermon On Addiction…”
“How come if you don’t give up on the person you love, the Hallmark Channel calls that ‘romance;” but on the Lifetime Network, if you don’t give up on the person you love, they call it ‘stalking?”’
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Forgiveness
Reposted from a message board comment I made elsewhere today…
Van Gogh, Sorrow
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I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the meaning of “forgiveness.” We talk about this as something we give to the person who has “harmed” us. “I forgive YOU.” But really I think we need to find another word to use because we’ve twisted the word “forgiveness” so badly.
The forgiveness and letting go we need as professional resenters and progressing healers isn’t really about letting the person off the hook and telling them it was OK. In some cases, it absolutely is NOT OK. (As in the case of my molestation throughout my childhood. I did NOT have a role to play in that. You didn’t have a role to play in your trauma either.)
But we need a word besides “forgiveness” that implies wiping the slate of your own heart clean of the pain and sadness and anger that memory still causes you.
Forgiveness isn’t really about the other person. Forgiveness is about freeing YOURSELF so you can live without the shackles that incident has placed on your life, on your ability to be proud and self-confident, on your ability to live your life without something you can’t control playing over and over in your mind and making your stomach and heart and brain grieve and ache and rage all the time.
That’s totally why I drank. It feels so much better to feel nothing than to feel all that sadness and pain.
But if you can find a way to let that shit go and also stop drinking, think of how light your brain and stomach and heart would be! That’s what we need.
(So let me know when you figure out how to do it!)
*Now we all join hands and perform our inspirational, synchronized dance routine to “Let It Go!”*
A Long Run 
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