• Thursday, November 30, 2006

    HNT: Where I Live.


    Here's my bedside table. The books are, from left to right, top to bottom: a gratitude journal, Schott's Original Miscellany, Toddler Owner's Manual, Poet of the Appetites, Crazy Time, Eat Pray Love, and America's Women. Hmmm, a lot of non-fiction I guess to get me to sleep. I'm also reading The Zahir.

    There's a little tray where I hold earrings and ponytail holders. The dark pink case is my manicure set. A bottle of ibuprofen, the strongest sleep aid I need these days, thankfully.

    And that's a picture of my mother, propped up by an arrowhead. We were on the beach in winter. You can't imagine the look of joy on her face, even though we were going through a tough time. This photo keeps me going; if she could do it, so can I.

    Wednesday, November 29, 2006

    The First First Time

    So in that last post I said that I didn't orgasm until my seventh sexual partner. In fact I described that here. But that wasn't the first time a guy made me come.

    I was a very very bad long-distance runner in high school and apparently caught the eye of a senior on our way to a meet one day. My friend Diane set us up even though I really wanted to date Steve, who only wanted to date Carla who wound up marrying the first guy I kissed, Mike.

    Anyway.

    This runner, Dave, took me out on a few dates and was truly a nice guy and very sweet but not really a match for a crackerjack like me. During one date we watched Young Frankenstein at his house, me for the first time, he for the thousandth. I laughed at the joke about the violin still being warm, and he looked at me in surprise; it had previously gone over his head. Hmmmm.

    Anyway he borrowed either his father's Fiero (awesome!) or mini-van. The Fiero was actually a big pain in the ass as far as dates go. The mini-van had a leak in the ceiling over the center console and was inherently dorky. Dave drove me home one night in the mini-van and we parked in my driveway; I was technically home by curfew if the car was in the drive. We started making out across the front seats so fairly soon we undid our seatbelts to lean closer. I had kissed maybe only one boy before then, sloppily drunk and in another country (the aforementioned Mike) Wet lips and gasping breaths were still new to me, but at least a concrete reality after so many frantic late-night teenage fantasies. Here was a body pushed against mine, just as needy and sloppy, enthusiasm short-circuiting any attempt at skill.

    I must have really gotten into the kissing because before I knew it (eek!) we were on the floor in the back. He lay on top of me, both of us fully clothed. The swell in his pants ground the hot seam of my jeans against me, while I lost myself and clutched him harder. Finally we pushed us over the edge. My mind snapped out and back as my body shuddered and shook with the pulse of orgasm and the quick hot breathing of my co-conspirator, my witness, in my ear.

    We got out of the van and I, with a red and sweaty face and dazed eyes, walked up to the house to greet my parents. I was sixteen.

    Tuesday, November 28, 2006

    How I Lost My Virginity (Sorry, Mom)

    I almost lost my virginity to a guy named Tim. He had popped the cherry of my friend Lisa in the back of his Toyota in a cemetery one night, and she advocated that I do the same (her dubious judgement extending also to the fact that Tim was dating her best friend at the time). This was the spring of my junior year and Getting It Over With was taking priority over A Meaningful Experience. I knew Tim from my honors and music classes; he was smart and funny because he liked to provoke people, but not cute. But what the heck, good enough, right? Lisa clued Tim in that I might be interested. He was game. We spent a little time on the telephone mostly making small talk, and alluding to specifics, I don't remember. It was during one of these conversations that my dad came home having been diagnosed with cancer. The plan fizzled.

    So I held out.

    By spring of my senior year, I was dating Jeff. He was Italian, but the puppy-dog type. He wore a varsity letter jacket for music but was not being ironic. We were in the same band geek/theater geek/Depeche Mode/neo-goth straight-edge crowd so dating was not unexpected.

    He was not a virgin having lost it to his long-term girlfriend Heather. Well, the longer story is that Tim fucked Lisa. Heather fucked Mike. Lisa fucked Mike. Heather fucked Jeff.

    Anyway. After about a month of going out, Jeff and I were making out when he said 'I can't wait to be inside you.' That was hot. That turned me on. We talked about sex and agreed to, you know, do it.

    The plan was simple. We had a day off from school so I would go over to his dad's house, which would be empty because the adults were working. He would steal one of his dad's condoms and away we'd go.

    Holy shit I'm actually remembering that it was a Wednesday.

    As an alibi, we set up our algebra books and binders on the dining room table. We went up to his bedroom and lay down on the bed. I don't remember being nervous about being naked or his tongue somewhere new; I doubt that real foreplay, the good stuff, the hot sweaty pulsing juice, was on our minds. My body shivered from the cold and I couldn't get warmed up through that hot flush going from my scalp down through the gut into my legs when my old date Matt and I dry-humped in the back of his van. Probably my teeth chattered. Jeff put his hands and mouth on me and I let him. Even with my legs spread and my arms around his neck, my body never thawed. He ducked away to score the rubber, and left me alone to wait, shivering. Finally he returned, empty-handed. Somehow the condoms had disappeared.

    We decided to go get some and yes, it was an ordeal. There were stops at at least two drugstores, him running in, me behind the wheel, engine idling, conspicuous in my vintage car that everyone knew. Finally, we blasted back to his house.

    Up the stairs, into his room, out of our clothes. Time was drawing short and frustration was high depressing the moment from the Meaningful Experience down to Getting It Done. He lay on top of me, talking to me, asking if I was ok under his weight, ok with going on. Yes, yes I gasped. There was conscientious but not tender or skilled attention. The goal was the simple one of destination: get him in. He slowly worked inward with some care, but finished with a searing, popping thrust. Done.

    But not really because of course then we had to keep going. I held on and let him fuck me, assuring me that I was yes fine and ok and good. He must have come but I don't remember his face or the mystery of its tightening and release. I didn't orgasm, and in fact it would be two years and six partners in the waiting. Somehow I managed to let me enter me again within the hour and thought 'This is what we do. I do this now. I am a girl like this,' not knowing what was possible but wanting to get my feet on the road to finding out.

    We had sex a few more times before breaking up after prom, but that is another sordid tale involving, tequila and of course, another Toyota.

    Monday, November 27, 2006

    Monday, Monday.

    I was fine.

    I had a carefully constructed equilibrium of determination and emotion. The edge was fine and honed. Life was about tasks. My friends treated me with care and concern. I shared what I could, and when I descended into despair, I stayed until I pulled myself out again and did the laundry.

    Then someone touched me. Someone looked at me, rather, into me. Someone held me close. Someone reached in and caressed the most tender and neglected part of me, and it loosened up and opened to receive him. And for a little while, I simultaneously felt my profound loneliness and its fulfillment in his intimate presence.

    But now I'm back on my own. And like a cracked egg, the sadness oozes and gunks every surface.

    Well, I have too much to do to dwell in the squalid reality of my life. I'll give myself today to rest. Then it's Tough Girl all the way until I get it done, and hope that the next time I'm touched like that, I can stay there as long as I want.

    Tuesday, November 21, 2006

    Holiday Break.

    O let me just rant here for a second. I can't wait until I don't have to problem-solve for this bumbling idiot! I'm trying to pack for the trip, manage all the details, do job training, clean up the house...NO! I'm not going to be particular helpful when you call me because you can't figure out how to get car insurance. Gah. Gurg. What a relief it will be to take care of only myself and my son.

    Rant over.

    I'm off today to pack and travel for the holiday. See you all after the weekend.

    Happy Thanksgiving!**



    ** Can't you just feel the gratitude around here?

    Monday, November 20, 2006

    Life Is Strange.

    My husband and I have entered the business phase of our marriage, wherein we make plans, trade off childcare, and run the house. It's a strained aloofness, I guess. Right now there's a bed in the hallway until we can get the third bedroom cleaned out and set up as mine. I'll sleep in my own bed, in my own room, next door to my husband of ten years. Isn't that weird? It's weird.

    Things feel a little funny with my friends, too. My guy friends, I mean. They all know my marriage is ending. Now every time one of them puts a hand on me I think "Are you touching me?" All of a sudden, I assume every man has sinister urges.

    Like, DUH!!!!!

    Let me restate that: Now I wonder if those urges are directed toward me or if these guys are just being their usual friendly selves.

    Yah right.

    I guess the important thing for me to notice is that the attention makes me go 'Ick.'

    With one very notable exception. Hi.

    Friday, November 17, 2006

    It's Never What You Think It Will Be.

    So let's suppose, perhaps wildly, that I'll have sex again in 2006. I could imagine all sorts of scenarios and moods and nuances about how it would be: slow and shy on the couch, in each other's laps on the bed, my shoes on but tights pulled down and panties hastily pushed aside, silent and intense, gleeful . . .

    I could spend hours fleshing out the details of a particular idea, substituting one detail for another until it felt like the fantasy I needed. I could even plan a particular thing 'So when I see him on Tuesday, I'll do X and Y and then a little Z if he lets me.' I've done that before.

    And it's always wrong. It never turns out that way.

    And it's always right. It always turns out as it should.

    That feels like a miracle right now: put two people together with one clear intention, and there are infinite variations. We're amazingly flexible, fickle, and fallable. Nevermind the plan, we say, I want something else, something selfish. Oh that thing you wanted to do? Let's do it twice as hard as you told me. Fall on the floor and keep going, baby. Leave the lingerie in the suitcase. Cancel dinner. Climb into the back seat. I'm coming first, and in your mouth. Pull out instead and shoot on me.

    I'm here and you're here and we're starting from scratch every time.

    Ah, and I miss it. Life is certainly different when there's no one to desire you or play with.

    Wednesday, November 15, 2006

    Hump Day

    What a difference a few days makes. Monday I went to the shore and got my head together and my attitude has really shifted since then. Enough 'woe, woe, woe.' Now it's time to move forward and love my new, uncertain, and exciting life of separating from my husband. Time to start doing, really investing myself in this process.

    For example, today in therapy I said that I thought we should move into separate bedrooms. Husband actually said that sounded like a good idea.

    I said that we needed to rely on other people for comfort and support instead of on each other. He agreed, but was tearful for a while about these concrete changes. I felt good.
    _____

    The fizz has been missing from my soda pop these days. It seems the only thing that can get me hot is gay porn on pornotube. Maybe it's so over-the-top, it's the only thing to cut through the fog of antipathy.

    Also, there's so much I want for myself that can't be addressed through masturbation. It just feels pointless and stupid, 'Yup, here I am alone again.' Why bother getting all worked up if I just wind up feeling frustrated?

    That's all I got for now, folks.

    Sunday, November 12, 2006

    Last Notes of Tonight.

    I spent tonight in the city. At 11:30 I drove home through the middle of mid-Saturday night hype. I turned up the radio and cruised through the streets, exhilarated. It was that spring-night-in-college feeling, of the world in front of you.

    Halfway home it turned to longing and despair, the in-love feeling turning onto itself and onto nobody. The gushing and excited but nowhereness of divorce. A new life approaching but not yet arrived. The missing comfort, the lack of touch, no tender caress or kiss to absolve me of my grief. The sadness. The solitary. Missing a mother's arms. Absolute stark self-reliance at starting over, older and more complicated, at 34. Cutting the seams between me and my ally of the last 10 years, feeling untethered, unheld, pulled mercilessly toward the void of dark matter.

    Saturday, November 11, 2006

    The Tipping Point.

    Just thinking about that moment when your body goes from Standby to Go.

    You know the feeling I mean. There's something latent that bubbles around in your gut but at a certain moment, the engine catches and the gasoline burns hot and furious.

    Maybe when you're kissing and he pulls back to draw his thumb across your lip. . .

    Or he slips a hand to the front of your jeans and kneads the heat. . .

    Or it's morning and after lazing around in bed for a while, his fingers burrow into your naked hip to pull you close, quick. . .

    . . .it's the escalation from feeling good and fun to drive and need. It's when the nattering self shuts the fuck up and the body, this gorgeous thing that I have, takes over. Yes, I'll do it. Yes, this is happening and oh how I want it, need it.

    Do it.

    Do it do it yes.

    Go.

    Friday, November 10, 2006

    Flip. Flop.

    Last night the only post I thought of was this:

    I am deeply deeply deeply deeply scared.


    This morning the only post I can think of is:

    I hate everybody.


    Not you, of course. But where are all my friends? Why have none of them offered to come visit? Why is one of them leaving town this weekend instead of having eleven thousand beers with me? Why do I have to go to pick up my son and go to a kid's birthday party on a Friday afternoon? Why does my son have such an ear-piercing voice first thing in the morning? Why does my husband throw his mail on the floor? Why is his weather report always wrong and I'm stuck wearing a wool sweater in 72 degrees?

    Grrrrrr. Not scared today, that's for sure.

    Thursday, November 09, 2006

    HNT: Yank Yank.

    I mentioned the pigtails a few posts ago. I can be such a stubborn and cranky girl these may be the only way you can get a handle on me.

    If you're in the mood for something less wholesome, hang out here or any other archived post named The Plan.

    Wednesday, November 08, 2006

    Whoops.

    Spoke too soon.

    I met with a lawyer today and when my husband came home, he asked how it went. He kept probing for legal information, which I gave.

    Before I knew it, we were debating the very money thing I dreaded most.

    So much for amicable.

    Then he left for class and left me here, stewing. I just have to have faith that the emotional temperature will cool and we'll work through it.

    Breathe. Breathe. Breathe.

    Breathe.

    Tuesday, November 07, 2006

    The Mutha of All Updates It Ain't.

    It seems there's so much going on and so little time to write about it. The last two days have meant job interviews, getting everyone to school and work, cleaning the house, doing laundry. . .in other words, the mess of everyday life. Plus the weirdness of having decided to separate but no doing it yet.

    Now the boy clamors for attention and I must create the culinary masterpiece known as Taco Night. It seems there is never time. Or, as in last night when the house was quiet, energy for writing. To be fair to myself, I did actually plan to post last night and surfed the internet for -- er -- inspirational material, but then I just got off. My husband came home early and I never got that writing done...what a pity.

    The short story on the separation is that my husband proposed we sit down and draw up two lists: what it would take for us to stay together, and what it would take for us to separate. An hour later, we both said that the separation list was more appealing. The staying together list had things like 'Be Different,' or 'Change Sexual Dynamic.' We lived with the choice for a few days and then consulted our various therapists. Neither of us recanted. I called a lawyer, with whom I'm meeting tomorrow. If things stay this amicable, I will have won the lottery.

    More soon.

    Saturday, November 04, 2006

    A Strange Comparison

    "I feel like this is the real climax to your striptease. Now you stand there naked."--m.k.

    In C.S. Lewis's Voyage of the Dawn Treader, a boy, Eustace, is charmed into a dragon. His friends pity him and keep him company, but there's nothing they can do. He furtively slips away to hunt, morosely chomping small animals and wanting only to be normal again, like his friends. Aslan shows up and directs Eustace to peel the dragon skin off. Everytime he does, there's a new skin below it. He tries over and over, in tears with frustration and loneliness. Finally Aslan digs his claws in deep and rips scores of layers off at once. The pain is terrible. But Eustace finally steps out, naked, himself once again.

    Friday, November 03, 2006

    Things About Me.

    I can eat nine tacos but only if they have ground beef, hard shells, iceberg lettuce, shredded cheese, salsa, and sour cream...I have a morbid fear of catapillers, also of spelling the word catapillers...I hate it when you're out to eat with, like, one person and the waitron stands there with your food and is all 'Ummmm, you had the.......' There are only two of us! Keep it straight! I get the tacos!**...I am galled that there are giant muffins as big as my head for sale but you can only get crullers in mini-size instead of the gigantor tractor tires that I like...When I am feeling good, I talk to myself and make silly jokes and crack myself up. I did that today...I can't sleep with the insides of my knees touching. Eeww! Help!...I had tacos for lunch...Once I let my baby crawl off my bed because I was busy curling my eyelashes....I will eat just about any kind of food if it's good. Street vendor hot dogs with mustard and sauerkraut. Snails. A ham sandwich. Wendy's. Sweetbreads. But it really upsets me to eat bad food. Sometimes I go into hypoglycemic spaz because I need to eat but refuse to take the crap that is offered, like a piece of cheese that is hardened and refrigeratery tasting. That makes me angry...I won't make ice...My yoga teacher said that not many people can get away with pigtails but I can.

    My husband and I have decided to separate.




    ** Yes I have been a waitress. It's hard work. But come on! Two people! Two plates!

    The Plan: Part 11

    Thursday, November 02, 2006

    HNT: The Plan Part 10

    Wednesday, November 01, 2006

    The Plan: Part 9