Came across another one today. Lessee, how did I get there??
Went over to Frank Paynter’s blog and read about the Ten New Voices where he mentions…
Susan Mernit and her Ten New Voices in which she mentions….
Hypergene and his/her Fifteen New Voices where he/she mentions….
Amy Gahran’s News and musings on how we communicate in the online age by Amy Gahran: Content Strategist, Info Provocateur.
Amy Gahran mentions a way to get over ‘blogging block’ which I decided to turn into how to get over apathy block.
So, going over to the nearest bookshelf, I close my eyes, spin around (don’t know why I did that) and reached out for a book. I pulled out Feathering Your Nest: An Interactive Workbook and Guide to a Loving Lesbian Relationship by Gwen Leonhard and Jennie Mast. Oy. What a book to grab. Could be worse though; the one next to it is Lillian Too’s Feng Shui: 168 Ways to Declutter Your Home
Anyway, the instructions are, in case you are too lazy to click Gahran’s list:
- Grab the nearest book.
- Open the book to page 123.
- Find the fifth sentence.
- Post the text of the sentence in your journal along with these instructions.
- Don’t search around and look for the “coolest†book you can find. Do what’s actually next to you.
Got the book. However, page 123 is a worksheet. So, like now what?
The fifth full sentence is: “__4. When I tell my partner I need ‘alone’ time, she reacts in an understanding manner.”
Huh, funny one. When I moved in with Lorna all those years ago, she laid out some ground rules. Okay, one rule. When she said she wanted to be alone, that meant she wanted to be alone. If she wanted to get away from everything and lay in the bathtub with soapy water, candles all around and a bottle of wine, she wanted to do it alone.
My answer is what is keeping us together after all these years. Really. I told her ‘Well, yeah, of course.’ To me, that was a perfectly logical thing to do. We all need time alone, even (and especially) from those we love. Thing is, I was the first person she knew to act as if there was nothing wrong with that request.
With that simple response, which to me was no big deal at the time, she saw me in a different light. She already knew I was special (I bitched at the movie theatre on our first date that yeah, nice well lit exits – up three steps. how was a wheeler to get out??) but that statement kinda pulled it all together.
Funny thing is, she only asked to be alone once. We hate to be apart. We can be miles away mentally but we will be in the same room or else. We do almost everything together. Even if all I can do is ride along to the store while she goes in and I sit in the truck listening to WNCW.
Golly gee, I love that woman. Fifteen years and I am still looking forward to her coming home. Not only so I can talk her into feeding the dogs for me, but also because she’s been gone all day. I’ve done stuff today I want to tell her about, to share with her. She’ll come home and tell me what kind of day she had. Not a good vs bad day, but a bird day or cat day or dog day or even a hawk or heron day. As she drives around on the mail route, she comes across all sorts of critters. Sometimes it seems she sees a thousand squirrels. One day she actually met and got to pet several cats (something mail carriers don’t see often). Another day she saw two herons.
She knows the names of most of the dogs on her route. (want to confuse and de-fuse a barking dog? call it by name) There are several horses and a flock of turkeys she knows too. Oh, and Lewis and Clark, the two buffalo and the herd of miniature donkeys across the road from them.
I’ll tell her about wha the dogs did today. Sometimes she comes in and can tell it’s not been a good day. The dogs are walking on tiptoes around me, she says. I’ll tell her about what birds were at the feeders. And today I’ll tell her about the kid who wiped out on his motorbike and came crashing down our bank. (Bank 2, dumbass kids 0)
Now, analysis time. Has this broken or at least chipped the apathy block? I dunno. I feel the desire to be able to express what I felt for Lorna nearly fifteen years ago and put it into what is going on between Kelly and Grace.