The last few days.

These past few days have certainly been interesting.

On Friday evening I went to check out an exhibition opening one of my friends (Ili) was a part of. I wasn’t feeling up for it and the underside of the front of my left foot was inexplicably bruised, but I really wanted to see the art Ili had submitted and hang with him a bit. I also had Ewe’s purple suit to wear for the occasion so I went.

When I arrived, I saw Ili and talked with him for a bit. Fe and his partner were there as well so I hung out with them for most of the night whilst drinking free wine and talking about various subjects, including the reintroduction of zwack into our diets (a story for another day).

At one point Fe had wandered off and I was talking to his partner about what happened when someone I knew arrived. After she came in, I saw her and she saw me. After about five minutes, she took off.

I’m probably paranoid here and reading way too much into it, but I think it was because I was there. This person doesn’t seem to like me that much. A few weeks before the break up, she started to talk to my ex a fair bit, despite hardly a word between then and when I introduced them a year prior.

I think that she may have been involved in some form, but again, I’m probably paranoid and reading way too much into it.

On Saturday I went into work as per my routine. I had planned to study for part of the time I was there. However, I managed to get a good part of the way before realising that I left everything I need to study at home, so that plan went out the window.

After work, I went to meet up with Drew, Justo and a couple of others at the ruins artwork at Circular Quay for parkour.

We traveled around the city for the day, practicing at different spots. I couldn’t do much though as my foot was still bruised, but what I did do felt good.

After that wrapped up, I went home with intent to do study, relax and go for a drink with Je. However, instead, Ewe, his partner (Anna), Si, their housemate (De), her partner and I went to Pyrmont to see a slight bit of Vivid and take on the 1kg burrito challenge being held at Mad Mex because we like doing ridiculous things, although Anna and De came to watch our stupidity and not to participate.

Well, we finished it. It was much easier than expected, although we did suffer a bit after.

What we saw of Vivid was interesting. However, I don’t remember it well as we were only there briefly.

De and her partner headed into the city and the rest of us headed home, approaching a food coma fast. Luckily,  we made it before sleep kicked in.

Except I didn’t get to sleep for another 3 hours.

For some reason beyond my knowing, my bladder decided to go into overdrive.
Every five to fifteen minutes I had to go to the bathroom. Towards the end of it I was almost crying. All I wanted was sleep and my body was denying me this.

It was a good four to five hours of sleep I had that night.

I spent most of Sunday feeling tired and hanging with Ewe. I wanted to study but I was too tired for most functionality.

Drew contacted me at one point. He asked if I wanted to see the new X-Men film with him, his partner and Justo. Originally my ex was going to go but she had to cancel due to a family emergency. I said yes as I really wanted to see that film.

Before I headed out, Je and I moved rooms (Al had moved out and we were getting someone else in). It was fun in a strange way.

Then I headed out to see the film.

When I arrived, Justo was there waiting. Drew and his partner arrived shortly after. Drew told me that I should call my ex, let her know that he told me about the emergency and see if she was ok. I had to decline though.

I found the film to be enjoyable. Didn’t feel sluggish to me.

Patrick Stewart hit me hard in the heart at one point. If you see the film, you’ll know what part I’m talking about.

Come Monday, I again did not have a great sleep.

When I left for work, the kitchen sinks were full of really dirty water. I knew there was a problem immediately, but I couldn’t do anything yet.

I called the plumber for our real estate early on in the day (on Ewe’s advice). Initially they were going to come out between ten and twelve (the time Je was awake before work and the time he was doing damage control as the problem became much worse) but the plumber shifted for when I arrived home at around four.

Well, our kitchen was not in a good state when I did get home. Much water and grime. Floor wasn’t in good shape. Some of the floor beyond the kitchen was pretty wet. The plumber arrived shortly after and had the problem resolved quickly. Tree roots had grown through the pipes.

After he left, I almost broke. I was exhausted and there was a huge mess to clean up. I managed to pull through by telling myself I could do it, but it was hard. I found myself really wanting my ex to hug me and tell me it would be alright, but that’s not happening anytime soon.

Later on I spoke to Ewe and asked him about my ex. The reason being is that Ewe had been at the gym with her in the morning and he had spoken to her about me.

I need to stress here that Ewe did this of his own volition. I did not ask him to and what he would say was dependent on how he felt about the situation. Regardless, I was very appreciative of the gesture.

At this stage I won’t go into the details of what he said, but it was good in that it was honest and Ewe believes I have become a better person and then some. He didn’t tell her we should get back together, but he did say she should contact me.

I hugged him very tightly after. I was fairly overwhelmed by the whole thing and I wanted to cry but I couldn’t.

I was very happy with the news. It wasn’t much, but it was more than I expected and it lifted my mood back up.

Tuesday brought more news of the “another obstacle in the way” kind.

At my first class of the day I found out that a computer test I completed had not actually processed as completed and now I need to redo it. I wasn’t the only one either. I get to do it again next week, with the final exam on the following week. It’s safe to say I was not happy about this.

Well, it’s one more obstacle I can overcome.

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To be Kind review

It’s good.

There. I said it.

There’s not really much I can say about it that hasn’t already been said.

I think it’s much better than The Seer, an album that I enjoyed but did not think much of.

In comparison to this album, The Seer feels much more like an experiment as to what does and doesn’t work. To be Kind is much more refined and tighter overall. It also sounds less dirty.

It really shows what Swans are capable of as a cohesive unit firing on all cylinders.

The album seems (to me) to be heavily dictated by blues and noise rock more than anything else, but I am probably wrong here.

Songs ebb and flow well. They don’t overstay their welcome and instrumentation is appropriate at all times.

Gira’s lyrics are Gira’s, as always. He punches in hard and pulls back whenever he sees it as appropriate. The words do not feel forced, cheesy or immature (not that they ever had been).

To be honest, I have no idea what he’s singing about, but I do get a strong feeling of comfort.

I found the drone sections to be very pleasant. They are reigned in a fair bit in comparison to The Seer, but this is a good thing. It allows the album to flow by smoothly by reducing the risk of over-indulgence; something very important given it’s running time.

I found that some of the songs on the second half brought out a really primal, raw fear in me that I thought only Throbbing Gristle could do.

I’d say that overall the album is really heavy due to the sum of it’s parts as opposed to being heavy for the sake of being heavy. Conversely, some of the songs have a sense of playfulness to them as well (A Little God in our Hands immediately comes to mind).

Something I noticed is that there is a repeated lyric of ‘Here, Now’ at the end of Screen Shot and the last Swans live album is called Not Here/Not Now. I’m probably reading too much into it, but it to me it seems to be a continuity link between the two works.

I’d recommend it to anyone. Even if you’re not a fan or have no interest in heavier music, it’s worth giving a shot.

I’d like to name a standout song but all of them are as equally good as each other.

And my apologies for such a poorly written review. It’s been a long time (roughly five years) since I wrote one and as I said earlier,  there’s not much I can say that hasn’t already been said.

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Cleaning

In the wise words of Ewe: Huhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

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Problem 4: Procrastination IS a Full time Job

Again, my apologies for two posts in one day.

Brain is still on the warpath and is refusing to let me rest until I’ve written enough for a small novel.

Also, this one was written at the same time as Problem 3, so it seemed appropriate.

Also also, I wanted an excuse to plug Life is a Troll. Whilst I will admit that it is partially influenced by her plugging me, I do think her blog is worth reading. It’s written well and the content is similar enough to what I’m writing here that, in my mind, it’s reading as a joint narrative. So check it out.

Who loves procrastinating? I sure do!
I love it more than I love chocolate and I love chocolate a lot.

If there was some sort of world championship, I don’t think I’d win but I would do well.

Then I’d be found out for doping, get some sort of infamy, write my biography and go on a book tour whilst the book would sell like something that sells fast.

Then I’d use the proceeds to fight corruption whilst releasing volumes of profound ramblings and investing funds into rocket clocks, although I have sincere doubts about their ability to take off. They don’t seem like a lucrative financial venture.

Anyway.

I procrastinate a lot. Far more than I should, considering how much I have to do (currently).

The problems that this leads to are obvious and there are a few things I’m falling behind in now.

A great example of my amazing skill in this art would be what happened after I did not see my ex’s visiting family.

I aimed to study so I got right into it… for a whole of 20 minutes.

Then I went into gaming mode until my ex came home (gaming is another problem I’ll dig into next week).

Another example would be working on lyrics for the music Fe and I are working on, as well as the music I work on by myself. I’ve done it highly sporadically and had very little done but if I actually knuckled down I would get, at the least, enough drafts for all my parts done in two weeks.

I should have had that done four months ago.

So, how do I change this?

Well, I have to force myself to keep focus and stop fluffing about. I’ll probably set up a few signs near me telling me to not deviate and stay on task when I’m working on something.

I would prefer to do this without the need to have something in front of me,  but I know that I have to be forceful before I can do it without the need of having something telling me to keep to the task I’d need to complete. This will take some time, but once it’s done, it’s done.

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Problem 3: Stick to the Plan

This one will be short.

When plans are made, I need some notice if there are changes made.

I don’t know why, but if I get anything less than a day, I shut down.

I can’t think of any justifiable reason for this.

Possibly the worst instance of this was a close to two months ago. Some of the extended family of my ex was visiting and staying near the central coast. She hadn’t seem them in a long time, so she was understandably very excited. I was looking forward to coming and there was a set time for being picked up to see them.

However, about two hours before we were meant to leave, we were notified that we were going to be picked up 30 minutes earlier. I shut down and ended up not going.

Very poor form and something I have nothing but regrets for.

So how do I change this?

I thought about hiring a big band and doing a huge number where I sing about how much I love my ex whilst possibly naked, but no one needs to see that.

On a serious note, I need to deal with sudden changes. No excuses. It’s somewhat ridiculous that I love someone and yet shut down instead of push through to do something with them at the slightest alteration.

Well, that’s that then.

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Melting Down

Yesterday I melted down hard.

I woke up very tired and barely able to walk as my second jog took much more out of me than the first. I ended up having to catch a cab into work, something that put a strain on my low finances. There wasn’t enough work to keep me busy enough so even though I had two strong black teas, I had to fight the urge to fall asleep most of the day.

Then my mind began to go south a bit.

I started thinking to myself as to what the point was in chasing after someone who didn’t actually seem to care about how I was doing or who I was.

I was wondering as to why she was happy to tell so many other people about what she felt was problematic about our relationship but not me, despite my telling her that I wanted honesty.

I’m aware of the hypocrisy of that though, as I myself did not communicate. Whilst I did talk about problems, I refused to talk about my insecurities as well as offer support, something that ended up manifesting really badly. I wondered why she didn’t give me the full reasons as to why she broke up with me when she knew how much I hated it when people did that.

That people had taken sides was really bothering me because I didn’t want anyone taking sides at all. I know that it is inevitable sometimes, but it really brought me down.

I had (and still have) a strong feeling that some friends of mine are working against me. Admittedly I haven’t been a great friend, but I don’t think I deserve to be written off before I’ve shown my worth.

The whole break up itself wasn’t making sense to me. It was incredibly sudden and came completely out of nowhere. Although, there is some slight relief in that other people were taken aback by it just as much as I was.

Obviously there were problems and there wasn’t a great deal of communication in the last few months, but even so, it felt more like it was a snap decision more than anything. That some members of my ex’s family wanted to make sure I was ok and still want to talk to me but my ex has cut off as many ties as possible with me was confusing me. I understand that it’s all still fairly fresh, but I don’t understand why you’d tell someone you want to be friends with them still and when they pull their head in and accept, completely cut them out. I’m glad that some of her family is still talking to me though. It means that they see something worth being around in me.

I managed to recover a bit when time for body conditioning drew closer, but yesterday was hard for emotions. Still sticking to my goals though.

Gotta get back up and keep walking.

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Three times

There were three times I seriously considered breaking up with my ex and all three times I decided not to.

The first time was back around the middle of 2012. I was very happy but at the same time I was quite stressed and unsure of what direction our relationship was going in. I saw Ewe that evening at a place he was house-sitting and discussed it a bit with him.

When I say discuss, I of course mean that I talked a lot about what I felt problems were.

He told me that relationships require a lot of work and that I should really discuss it with my ex instead of with him, so I did just that when I got home.

The second time was late last year. I was struggling hard with uni at the time and one of my aunts had passed away. Whilst we didn’t have a close relationship,  I felt quite messed up by it. This was compounded with my team leader at work not really being appropriate for his position and creating a ridiculously stressful environment. I stopped thinking clearly and one day decided that I couldn’t handle the relationship any more.

I cycled to uni that day as I normally would but as I had no focus, I left early (with permission from my teacher) and cycled a longer way home than usual, just to really think. By the time I got home, I had decided not to break up with my ex because taking out a less than stellar situation on her was unfair and I needed to deal with my crap like an adult.

I told her what I had felt and that I was not going to break up with her because of the reasons above. She was quite saddened, but I didn’t think it would’ve been fair had I not told her.

The third time was a few weeks before the break up. I was far too wrapped up in my own crap at the time and getting grouchy for little to no reason. I was thinking that I should just end it with her because she wouldn’t do anything with me anymore and not understanding that I couldn’t do much in the first place because I had to study a lot (which didn’t happen due to my extreme dedication to procrastination, something I’ll go into detail about another time). I was quite ready to do it as well, but I didn’t. She made me feel very lucky to be with her just by being with her and I wanted to do better by her but I didn’t know how, so I decided that once the semester was over I’d do more for her as well as more stuff with her.

Then she broke up with me.

Now I’m not trying to vindicate my behaviour here. I can’t speak on my ex’s behalf either (relationships being a two way thing and all) and as you all will see as I put more up, I was quite the bastard.

What I’m trying to say here is that at times, you’re really not going to be in the right frame of mind for decision making of any scale. There will be times that you will really not want to be with your partner (whether you have one now or in the future). Make sure you think it through first and discuss whatever it is that is troubling you with your partner. Do it with maturity and calmness. If there is something serious that your partner is doing that is really going on far more than it should, then get direct and give them a kick up the bum. Most people are far more willing to work through things than it would seem and you both come out of it better for it.

Sometimes you will be in the right frame of mind, but you should still at least consider the above options anyway.

There are as many relationships that end up being wasted opportunities as there as there are relationships that are worth ending. Do I feel I should have been given a massive kick due to my massive bastard behaviour, despite the fact I should have recognised it myself? Yes. Do I feel it should have come without the break up? Absolutely.

But at least it’s inspired me to try for another chance and be a better me.

And maybe it’ll inspire some others out there before their relationship becomes much harder to have.

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Problem 2: Children

Two posts in one day. My apologies. I didn’t intend for this to happen but apparently my brain decided it would be a good idea to put more out than what I would normally consider sensible, so this post is brought to you by my brain.

My brain: For the times when rationality has no place.

In my opinion, children are great. They can certainly teach adults a lot.

However, they aren’t for me.

I’ve wanted to have kids for a long time. I always tried to justify it in some way and I tried to discuss it a lot with my ex. Not so much to convince her (as she doesn’t want children), but because I liked to talk about the possibility.

I’ve never wanted them out of love though.

Parts of my family are seriously screwed up. It’s nowhere near as bad as a lot out there but that doesn’t mean I had a completely healthy environment growing up (although there are certainly things I am grateful for) and it had a strong negative impact on how I percieve myself.

Eventually I decided that one day I would have kids because it would validate me as a good person. Nothing more. I gradually started to add other reasons to justify my thinking as something more than completely selfish desire.

Thinking you’ll be a good person if you have children is not a good reason to have children. You’re not thinking about them. You’re making it all about you.  Sure, you may succeed and raise a family well, but that is a bad place to start.

It put a massive strain on my relationship because I didn’t recognise that I was already being validated as a good person.

So, how do I change this?

That I’ve recognised the issue and that I need to stop pursuing it is already a good start. It means I can move on from the problem very easily. But if the idea of children ever comes up again, I’m really going to need to think hard about whether I would be having them for something beyond selfishness.

I also need to be able to validate myself as a good person instead of relying on trying to achieve serious external commitments like starting a family. Although I am now, it doesn’t matter how much I do if I don’t accept that I can and will be a good person.

Hopefully my brain doesn’t decide to put more out today.

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How not to Write a Letter

I was thinking about putting this up last night but my current rate of over-saturation is probably better suited for me at the moment.

HAPPY MONDAY!

I’ve decided to put the letter I left for my ex with her stuff on here for entertainment and also to show what a badly written letter can look like when you’re trying not to unleash a torrent of  unbridled sadness, angst and dashing romanticism. It goes on a bit some of it comes from in-jokes. I was trying to keep the mood light but I think I failed.

image

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Why I Still want to be with my Ex

I figured that if I’m going to go on about my life at great length and discuss my progress in self-improvement as well as my trying to earn another chance with my ex, her family and my friend, then I might as well say why I still want to be with my ex.

Aside from the wounds still being fresh, my loving her still and probably youthful naiveté, I have a few reasons.

She is the only person I know that is able to give me breathing space from all the crap and stress I bog myself with just by being around me.

She showed me that the world is a beautiful place.

She supported my decisions, regardless of their stupidity.

She gave the best hugs.

She made me laugh better than anyone else.

She loved me for who I was; not what I was.

I know I am able to make her laugh.

I also know I can make her happy and feel good about who she is.

It felt natural to be with her as we did work well together (until my negativity).

I also love her for who she is.

I want to be able to show her that I can be relied on and be fully supportive all the time.

My brain is listening to my heart for the first time in a long time and both agree that trying here is the right thing to do.

I saw (and still see) a future with her as a feasible life choice.

I know that I can be worth it.

Off the top of my head, those are my reasons.

With that being said, I’m still going to become a better me for me and not others, but what I’m hoping to achieve is still part of my focus.

And that’s the end of that embarrassing post.

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