For the Museum of Bad Advice, Part One (Hang Up)

Sometimes, I’m lucky enough to have paid someone to say exactly what depression itself would say, so I could hang up on them both.

Toward the beginning of quarantine, constant family contact, fear about my job, and general everyone-might-die-ness was making me worry that I might lose any of the mental health ground I’ve gained in the past few years. Insurance was in flux as I filled out every disaster relief form, so I took some of the extra money my brother had sent (He felt lucky to be able to work full time from home.) and subscribed to BetterHelp.

The first therapist I tried seemed insufficiently invested in science, letting slip some Trumpesque complaints about CDC guidelines. The second one was better, but I think she was mixing me up with another of her clients. Suffering from Quarantine Brain myself, I felt compassion for her, but didn’t think she would help with my growing sense of nonexistence.

The third one, I liked. She seemed sensible, grown-up, and (I’ve seldom in my life found this appealing, but in-these-times etc.) like she knew what I should do next.  She recommended The Four Agreements, one of the worst, victim-blamiest self-help books I’ve encountered, (By the Book sums it up pretty well: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/stitcher/by-the-book/e/59267477#/) but I decided to overlook that red flag. She sent me a so-detailed-as-to-be-sleep-PREVENTING Sleep Hygiene Diary, but she also seemed fine when I disregarded some of her advice and took other aspects to heart.

Last Tuesday during an early morning phone session, still weepy and off-balance from saying bye-sort-of to Quarantine Crush, I was sharing my pretty boilerplate 45-year-old-single-bi-woman worries when I heard (not for the first time in my may therapist lifetime.)  third therapist lady become audibly annoyed:

“Well, you have this air of desperation,” she said, and that can be really off-putting. If you really do what you need to do to love yourself, they’ll be more attracted.”

A.    Desperation seems like a TOTALLY REASONABLE EMOTION TO HAVE when:

1.      Tens of thousands of people are dying.

2.      My work life is fairly decimated.

AND

3.      I was relearning how to write poems with a friend I missed so, SO much.

B.     What did attracting anybody even have to do with it when I had:

1.      Fallen for someone who was both taken and

2.      A dear, important friend and

3.      2,500 miles away?!

“I just think you need to adjust what you’re looking for.” She said.

(Connection? Poetry? A creative spark? A window into meaning from the past? Hope? Songs? I know what she meant but it seems like she was oversimplifying.)

“What am I looking for?” I asked, joining her in irritated-voiceness.

“Well, romance might seem really nice in books, but in real life, you might be too sensitive for it.”

(Note: The Highly Sensitive Person book suggests this too, but it also suggests that communities with a lot of immigrants have fewer sensitive people, so I put it in the garbage. Not even good enough for the recycle bin.)

I tried a little bit to tell her how many different kinds of relationships I’d tried, certainly more than the average person.

“It’s just that I’m mostly happy being alone,” I said, “So I’d rather not keep trying casual stuff and then getting mad at partners for being too casual.” (Basically the theme for years of this blog.)

It really irked my soul that she was reading me as a commitment-hungry stereotype when I was willing to love someone I’m unlikely to even see any time soon—seems like maybe it was the opposite problem. I’m still arguing with this lady I unsubscribed to a week ago.

She told me that AT MY AGE (caps mine, she wasn’t yelling) I needed to start changing my expectations.

“Men don’t want commitment after they’re divorced, so you’re probably going to have to go with it and be grateful for the couple of weeks you might get.”

“Well, that is really…grim. I’m hanging up now.” And I did.

I called Sweetie and cried out the hurt and shock that someone who was supposed to be on my side, and also someone who was basically a stranger, could be that cruel.

Quarantine Crush Part Eight: Phew/Sob/Yay!

I couldn’t sleep after I asked him if he meant the songs, so I got up and went to my email, to the poem thread. I didn’t write a poem there, just told him how I felt. It was a pretty unhinged thing to do in the (here) middle of the night, but I’m glad I wrote it. I’m glad he knows.

His late-even-for-the-west-coast reply brought equal parts relief and heartbreak. He hadn’t meant the songs the way I did. He has a partner and they’re happy. That meant I didn’t have to worry so much (still some though) about his safety. I was grateful to the person, so QC was being looked after. (It’s tempting to say here of course he’s taken, he’s the Actual Best Person, and that does have sort of a fatalistic ring of truth, but lots and lots of perfectly lovely people aren’t taken, I know. Like me!)

What a letter this was. It was the kindest, calmest, most accepting, most platonically loving letter in my collection of I-don’t-like-you-that-way notes. Genuine, golden, shining care for my well-being and valuing of the real-life writing relationship—what more could a person even ask for.

My heart physically warms up when I think about this letter. The only rejection I’ll keep to calm me down in times of jangledness—a talisman, a charm.

The wanted to keep writing poems back and forth and I hope we will again someday, but not now. For me, writing with someone takes so much trust, maybe the MOST trust, and I’m saying this as someone who has submitted to being set on fire for fun. (Oh Fireguy! Here is a cuddle in case you’re reading, and even if you’re not.)

After the (probably shouldn’t have been a) surprise partner fact, the trust was a little harder to access, and what we were doing felt (to me) too intimate to do with someone who belongs to somebody else. Even if we’d done away with the songs and the daily chitchat and the encouragement, I would still have ended up combing the poems for signs of love. I really, really HATE combing through poems for signs of love. I’d rather let the poems and the people and the real feelings just be what they are.

So I said a grateful bye-for-now to the Zoom reading, citing (my new favorite euphemism of ever) “time zone issues.” They’ll be IRL and back to being far away soon enough anyway. I got to hear Adorable Co-Host read a poem and I got to send one last (for now) post-reading high-five to QC. I’m so pleased and proud about his latest.

It felt good to put myself first, to give myself the space (So weird to need space from someone who is 2,500 miles away, but, phones are little Pavlov machines.) to paragraph everything through.

I miss his daily presence in my inboxes and I’m certainly more bored and lonely than I was last week. Way less sobbing though. I really, really wish we could have continued that series of poems, it was really good. Maybe we can write again someday. (In the first draft I accidentally wrote “today” instead of “someday.”)

In the end, I’m a little mad at myself for the crush part, but I think all in all this was a very, very good adventure. It feels productive and hopeful to have let out a love that has lived in my body all this time, to be able to hold it up to the light. I’m glad he knows how I feel, how important he is to me. I’m so, so grateful that I could be there a little while for a dear friend in a harrowing time. I’m proud to have had and been a bright spot.

Dear QC, dear everyone (well almost everyone) in every Kitten Calendar story, thank you. I have the luckiest life.

A Brief Gilmore Guy Revival: Part One

When I got his text, I was in a good mood. It was Friday and I’d just stopped at the bank to make my deposit, then took a rainy stroll in a nearby twinkle-light-filled, very window-shoppingy neighborhood. My life was just so perfectly my life. I got home, got in my PJs, lit all the scented candles, (hygge!) made some tea and settled in for some Gilmore episodes.

After a friendly back and forth about what episode I was on (Season 2, Episode 7: Rory gets Puffed because there’s no Reading and Walkman-Listening Club at Chilton.) (Lorelai and Emily mother-daughtering in the Booster Club fashion show is one of my favorite moments of the whole series.) Gilmore Guy asked, “How would you feel about seeing me?”

When I told him I wasn’t ready to be friends because I still had snuggly feeling for him (I did? I do? Honestly, I thought I’d moved on.) he made it clear that snuggles were what he was after. My body filled with hopeful light and heat. Okay, I said. A treat.

I brought him the painting above, it doesn’t really seem like street art anyway. He made me a gin and tonic, remembering that the fancy Bombay was my favorite from his collection. (“A gin-clear mind…” says The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina in my head for no reason.)

“Should we kiss?” he asked as we settled into Season 2, Episode 8. (Jess is the WORST. Team Wookie forever.)

“Should we? Probably not.” I said, already kissing him.

I’m fascinated and mystified by the way that our bodies were so SMART together. Making out on the couch, we fit together so smoothly, easily, power trading back and forth between us in such a seamless, joyful way. As we made our way horizontal, the closeness I felt to him was startling. Sometimes I held him so close to me like this was something romantic. I guess in my head, it always will be.

Hours later, when I asked him to hold me down, I felt such pure, uninterrupted happiness as I giggled and struggled. The instinct of our bodies together is a monument in my heart, a shiny obelisk of mystery. I know, I know, I KNOW it’s just sex, but I can’t understand how our bodies seemed to know each other so well. Creating such beauty together, and then not, I don’t think I’ll ever understand it. I’m more than happy to keep trying, though sadly not with him.

The Sparkly Festival of Awesomeness, Part 6: Hot Sex, Hot Hand-Holding

As I’ve been writing my way through this story, I’m conscious of being the least experienced person in the tent, at least when it comes to this kind of sex, and trying to keep things in perspective. I’m thinking about oxytocin and other bonding chemicals and how they might be the source of these lovely deep feelings of connection. When I write about it, I’m agnostic about energies and such, but in the moment, none of those thoughts or doubts were relevant at all. I was, for those few hours, a true believer in magic, men, myself, and everything else, like a horny mystic on ecstasy.

So back to where I was, snuggled between two radiantly warm guys, one-in-each-hand, hands in my hair, on my back, everywhere. Legs intertwined. Kissing, kissing, kissing. I was enveloped in the smell of them—one smelled fresh, the other, more dark and musky. Both smells made me ravenous for them.

We paused for a moment to go over our testing situations, of course. The guys geeked out for a while about STI science facts, and then it was back to the snuggles.

Mr. Shiny Eyes put on a condom and a glove. He slid his hand in and I was as wet as I’ve ever been. His fingers jolted my inside awake and alert and every nerve ending lit up like Christmas. I wanted so badly for him to fuck me. There was a little fuss about positions (remember, we’re on an air mattress, and one that could use some inflating at that) and he ended up deciding to lay back and have me climb on.

“But I’m a bottom…” I complained only a tiny bit.

“Okay, then I’m making you be on top.”

Friends, it had been since last August. I’ve had plenty of adventures, as you know, but for whatever reason it’s been much easier to get a guy to spank me, flog me, tie me up, set me on fire, drag a knife over my (pajamaed) clit, etc—for some reason this part of things has been elusive.

I was so, so happy to have Mr. Shiny Eyes inside me. All of him is so smooth and assured—his arms, his kisses, his penis. As soon as I straddled him and pushed him in, waves of delight sparked up inside me and I started making ridiculous sounds. As the Mayor of Kittentown’s neighbors would attest, I can never contain my joy when a man is inside me. I am super, super loud, and since I’m a showoff, I was glad to feel like the whole festival could hear me.

Since up until this point, I’d only Googled two-(or ten, or a hundred) guys-one-girl, and so even though everybody knows life isn’t like porn I feel compelled to talk about the contrast. In videos, the men always talk around the girl, either egging on the other men or talking about practical things like which way to bend her. Sometimes they might as well be moving a couch, for all the interaction they have with the lady. Of course, that objectification is fun to watch, but would never be fun to do.

This was the complete opposite of that in every way. Even as I was being bent into ways I didn’t know I could bend, (thank goodness for yoga) I felt like they were both so there for me, like they were being so generous, that we were all working as a team to get what we needed.

As Mr. Shiny Eyes fucked me, Mr. Sweetheart was kindly there to help, kissing me, pulling my hair, giving my ass the occasional helpful smack. But my favorite, the part of the day that I revisit the most, is when I reached out and he just took my hand. That hand-holding was so tender that it might have been a friendship oath. That support is a magic thing to walk through my days with.

But back to Mr. Shiny Eyes. After I first met him, back at that conference, I asked around and folks told me his dance card is really full—and no wonder! He moved in me like an expert. I kept saying/panting “Oh, you’re so perfect, no wonder you’re so popular.” He kept going until I exploded into fireworks, and we all piled up again for snuggles.

Next time: Pillow talk and being held down a lot.

The Sparkly Festival of Awesomeness Part Three: Two Kisses, One Cake Flower

After the nature walk, I was feeling oddly standoffish—I was sitting on the side of the hill overlooking the afternoon ritual. Some folk nearby promised some “Ritual Science Theater 3000” and that’s kinda where I was at: ironic, detached. I’d had a lot of fun but I wasn’t sure what else I could get out of the day. Plus, I was sad that all of the guys had sarongs on. I was not seeing anywhere near a nude beach number of penises, and that made me grumpy.

But! After the ritual, which took place in sort of a picnic-pavilion thing, they had a feast where you weren’t allowed to feed anything to yourself—foodstuffs could only be put in your mouth by others. This seemed like enough of an icebreaker to get me over my wallflowerness. And then! I saw Mr. and Ms. Sweetheart! (Not married, but I’ve paired their nicknames for the sake of simplicity and also because they happen to both be sweethearts. Also it should be mentioned that she looks like a beautiful kickass goddess. Freya maybe.) I hadn’t even known they’d be there!

Mr. Sweetheart and I had been in touch a little bit since the hotel party. He even tried to matchmake me with the cute ex-fireman guy, but that didn’t go anywhere. Recently, Mr. Sweetheart had started following my blog, so he was really really on my good side. Any guy who can read those heartbreak-laden posts I’ve been writing lately and still want to hang out with me—that is a man.

Aside from the collared human platters who ringed the pavilion covered in fruit, I was the only one at the feast completely naked. I worried that it might be bad etiquette, but no one seemed to mind. Mr. and Ms. Sweetheart wrapped me up in a big hug and said they’d keep me from being a wallflower, and I was so grateful for that. With them there, I felt a nice homey healing feeling, like I could really open up and join the party.

My friends Sheandhim arrived, looking flushed and sleepy from whatever Tantric magic they’d been getting up to. We all took turns feeding each other apples slices, strawberries, and other yummy things.

And hooray! Mr. Shiny Eyes was there, chatting with a pretty lady on the ersatz dance floor. I interrupted their conversation to ask if he remembered me and tell him I DEFINITELY remembered his rope-pulling skills. It didn’t take us long to get to a kiss and ohboy was he good at it. Some kisses are just like a key finding the right lock, and this was one of those. “Hmmm, maybe we should spend some time together,” I think he said, and I was inclined to agree.

He went back to his pretty lady and I went back to my friends. After I ended up with an entire mocha mini-cupcake in my mouth at once, one of the dolled-up hostesses kindly explained that I could touch the food after it’d been fed to me, so as to take smaller bites. Predictable but enjoyable things were said about my mouth’s capacity.

Sheandhim looked into licking honey off of one of the human platters, but I’ve never gotten that licking-sticky-stuff-off-of-people thing.  However, I spotted a fancy white cake on one of the (nonhuman) side tables. I thought it was a birthday cake but it occurs to me that it might have been some magic couple’s (or triad’s or whatever’s) wedding cake. It had one flower left on it, a big white blossom that I absolutely had to have, but he fed me the cake part first. (I know, life is hard sometimes, isn’t it?) “Ahem,” I said, “That cake flower isn’t going to feed itself to me…”

I was sheepish for being such a brat, but he seemed impressed. “Not only have you been working on you no, you’re getting really good at making your desires clear.”

He fed me the flower and it was delicious—crunchy, vanilla, crystalline. And then he held me and we kissed. It was sweet and not just because of the cake flower. It was an old-friends kiss, even though we haven’t known each other for long. The kiss of an ally.

He held me tight and pressed himself forward, the front of his kilt all happy to see me—I lovelovelove that feeling.

(Sidenote: The whole kilt-as-pagan-boy-uniform thing? AWESOME. I mean, if they HAVE to wear something on the bottom.)

I feel a little nervous about the romance I’m maybe writing into these kisses, but I really like being in a world where kissing is this easy, where people are just so generous with themselves.

Next time: The hair-pulling contest: Best. Idea. Ever.