Category Archives: Life or something like it

PAD, April 4

I will help you
but when I do,
understand that now
I’m the keeper of you.

I will determine
if you’re living “right.”
And I’ll need you to be home
by nine every night.

You’ll need to prove monthly,
to my satisfaction,
that your disappointing state
is not due to lack of action.

Make me a list
and pee in a cup
and I’ll let you know
if you’re still “good” enough.


April is National Poetry Month so I’ve pledged to write 30 poems this month. Theoretically, that’s one per day but as long as I finish the month with thirty, I’ll consider that a win. Read more about National Poetry Month at the WordPress Blog.

PAD, April 3

For years, I searched for you
within the soft embrace
of quilted cotton
and darkened walls.

At the end of the hardest days,
I felt certain you were near
and would rush toward the refuge
I felt just as certain
you would bring.

Night after night,
you slipped from my fingers like rain
down my window in spring.

Then one glorious night,
my head found his chest,
my ear found his heartbeat
and I, at last, found you.


April is National Poetry Month so I’ve pledged to write 30 poems this month. Theoretically, that’s one per day but as long as I finish the month with thirty, I’ll consider that a win. Read more about National Poetry Month at the WordPress Blog.

PAD, April 2

She was twenty-five
before she could drive,
a challenge to her mother.

She lived for school,
followed all the rules,
never even took a lover.

She was twenty-nine
when the fairy tale died
and she had to run for cover.

She spent the next ten years
hiding from her tears
and never took another.


April is National Poetry Month so I’ve pledged to write 30 poems this month. Theoretically, that’s one per day but as long as I finish the month with thirty, I’ll consider that a win. Read more about National Poetry Month at the WordPress Blog.

PAD, April 1

She was soft and round,
with hard edges
I couldn’t see.
When she laughed,
the neighbors heard
and when she cried,
no one did.

She planted a vegetable patch
end-to-end where a rainbow of irises bloomed.
Her back porch was covered with Astroturf
and baskets full of bleeding hearts.

She had two husbands,
but needed neither one.
She bought my first Easter dress
and sold me my first house.

On a good day,
I hear her in my mother’s laughter.
On a really good day,
I see her in mine.


April is National Poetry Month so I’ve pledged to write 30 poems this month. Theoretically, that’s one per day but as long as I finish the month with thirty, I’ll consider that a win. Read more about National Poetry Month at the WordPress Blog.

Nothing As It Should Be

My world feels off today. Actually,  my world feels off lately. I think it’s just too much change all clumped up together. J got locked up. I started my new job. Hershey’s gone. My routine is non-existent. I am a big ole Capricorn and I live for the constants in life.

One of the things that I love most about J is that he pushes me to step outside of my routine and enjoy myself once in a while. He was one of the first people to ever give me permission to let go. It’s hard when you grow up the honor student… the eldest child… the predictable one… hard to remember that it’s not just okay to live for today sometimes– it’s actually kind of good for me. Continue reading Nothing As It Should Be

My Cat Is Dying

1348107906964 (1)

My cat is dying. My sweet, affectionate, lovable, precious, seventeen-year-old, atypical cat… Her name is Hershey and she has been with me basically my entire adult life… all the way back to when life was as expected.

I’m thirty-nine years old and have no children of the human variety. Hershey is my baby. She was here when I was young and thin and carefree… working my first real job after graduating from college. She was here through a divorce, multiple moves, the entire lifespan of my beloved Jack Russell, Jake and what was, in hindsight, a scary bout with depression. Continue reading My Cat Is Dying

Revival

I need to start writing again. I don’t know why I fall in and out of the habit when there are always so many thoughts and words rolling around in my head… This last lapse has been from lack of an internet connection in my home sweet home but I’m thinking it’s time I started figuring out a way to write anyway. It’s not like it’s hard, right? Compose on the laptop whenever I feel like it. Take it to work the next morning and post. Simple enough.

I’m writing this here for all the world to see not because it’s interesting and not because I think anyone is still reading my randomness but because I want it out there in the digital doman… recorded forever… so I’ll really do it.

Stay tuned.

 

-k

New traditions are good, too

The holidays are all about tradition in my family. We visit one grandmother at one very specific time and the other side of the family at another. We eat the same dinner, play the same games, exchange the same gifts, tell the same stories. There’s something comforting about going into an evening knowing exactly what to expect, I suppose. But what happens when time or distance or circumstances threatens these traditional activities? Continue reading New traditions are good, too

Own it

When I resurrected this blog a few weeks ago, J was less than thrilled. “Why?” he asked. “Who reads it? Who will you be talking to?” You see, as insane as it may sound, we deleted our Facebook accounts a while back. We’ve seen far too many friends and acquaintances lose what appeared to be solid relationships in no small part because of social networking sites and “secret” email accounts. So we decided, for us, the best move was to kill the Facebook accounts. Naturally, when I told him about the blog, he wondered what was up. Continue reading Own it

Yesterday Was Monday, Right?

I’m feeling overwhelmed the last few days… too many people tugging at me. Yesterday was an exercise in self-control from start to finish and I’m not convinced I made it through without failing a couple of times. I tossed it up to the fact that I was tired (my weekend was jam-packed and went by entirely too fast) and it was Monday. I have at least four people trying to tell me what to do on any given work day and, at this point, it’s just too much. None of them have any respect for my time or my schedule and most of them are completely incompetent and lack the mental capacity to direct themselves in their daily activities… much less direct me. Continue reading Yesterday Was Monday, Right?

He Was Out There

Once upon a time, I believed in love. Don’t misinterpret that though… I was never one of those girls who put a pillowcase on her head as a stand-in for a bridal veil. My dolls were my students or my co-workers… never my children. Most everything my parents did in the way of parenting was to ensure I’d grow up smart — not pretty or popular. In spite of all that, somewhere, in the back of my mind, I grew up believing in the fairy tale… true love… what I saw in my parents and grandparents every day. Continue reading He Was Out There

Hello, old friend

So, three years ago tomorrow I stopped blogging. Doing so wasn’t really a conscious decision. My life was, frankly, upside down (or maybe it was inside out) and I was at a loss for what to say/write anymore.

Hold up — Does that say three years? For real? My how things have changed…

Back then, I was living for work, mostly writing about how miserable I was. I was living not exactly with my parents, but extremely adjacent to them. In about 600 square feet. With two cats and a dog. I wasn’t dating. I had pretty much given up on the idea of having a someone. I had no idea where I was going professionally (that term is used very loosely in this context). And personally, I had given up. I hated how I felt and was disgusted with how I looked. I felt used, abused, neglected and overwhelmed. Continue reading Hello, old friend

Who keeps moving the goalpost?

So I’ve had an epiphany of late about why I seem to have such a hard time being content… finding happiness and I thought I’d share.

I listen to a lot of talk radio. My mornings are filled with call-in shrink shows and sometimes one of them strikes a chord with me. The other day this woman was struggling with “never being good enough.” I feel that way all the time. The host asked the caller if it was really that she never felt good enough, or that the goalpost keeps moving. Her answer (the same as mine), “The goalpost keeps moving.”

Continue reading Who keeps moving the goalpost?

Sakura

Cherry blossom tree tattoo

For those who wanted to know…

Why I picked a cherry blossom tree for my first tattoo.

In Japanese culture, the cherry blossom is considered the most beautiful of all blooms. Even so, it blooms for a very short period of time, sometimes as short as two days, and then dies away until the next spring. It represents the changing nature of life… how a perceived end can also be a beginning… how everything old can become new, better, stronger.

Continue reading Sakura

MDA Lockup in 48 Hours!!

The cops are coming for me on Thursday at 11am unless I can fork over the $2600 in bail money I need for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

I need  YOUR help to reach this goal. Please go to my participant page to make your TAX DEDUCTIBLE donation to MDA.

MDA serves people in our community with neuromuscular disease by providing clinics, support groups, assistance with the purchase and repair of wheelchairs, braces and communication devices, and summer camp for kids. MDA also funds research grants to help find treatments and cures for some 43 neuromuscular diseases that affect people of all ages, right here in the Shoals. Continue reading MDA Lockup in 48 Hours!!

Weakness

I’m really tired tonight… tired from far too many nights of just not sleeping, not resting… tired from putting on my happy face all day long… tired of thinking and wondering and trying to make sense of this life and the people in it.

This life is mostly about relationships. We all have jobs or hobbies or distractions to fill the time, but it’s really about the people we know and share our lives with. But then, when you think about it, how well do we ever really know someone else? All we see is what they let us see. All we understand is what they choose to elaborate on so that we can understand. When was the last time someone asked how you were and you thought about it before you answered? For me, my mom and my best friend are the only ones who cause me to think before I respond. For everyone else, it’s a well-rehearsed, “I’m good. How are you?” And even with those two people, people I love so much and who I know really care what my answer is, I don’t have the heart to say how I really feel most of the time.

I’m blessed with a few good friends and even more people that I don’t know incredibly well but who surprise me with their compassion at times. Some of you are old friends who have become new myspace friends. Some of you are casual acquaintances who I am only just getting to know. And I am thankful for all of you.

But life is hard and when I struggle, I tend to withdraw because I don’t have the energy to put on the happy face anymore. And right now, I’m struggling. I’m too proud or too scared to admit what I’m really feeling to all of you so I’ll just say I feel weak and ridiculous and girly. I feel like I don’t know where to go or what to do next. I feel like I can’t do one more favor for one more person because I’m just going to break at any moment and I need to save all my brain waves and all my energy for keeping myself together. I feel used and unappreciated and worn down.

I feel like karma is a lie or I would be happy by now.

And Monica wrote today about being happy vs. being content, something I’ve spoken with her about recently. And the truth is that I think being content is no more equivalent to being happy as it is equivalent to being unhappy. Content is middle ground. Content is existence. Content is, at best, survival. It’s not happiness. But does that elusive happiness even really exist? Or are we so conditioned by images in movies or books that we are hoping for a fantasy that is no more real than a porno flick?

I don’t have the answer. But I need it. If this is all there is, then I need to have that knowledge so that I can accept and move ahead. I need to be empowered to stop holding out hope for something that is never going to happen.

And if it’s not, well… I’ve paid my dues and I need to know that too.

Only after disaster can we be resurrected…

“Only after disaster can we be resurrected.”

That’s a great quote from a fabulous book/movie. It’s my sig on a couple of forums and I feel like I should be wearing a tee-shirt with it printed on the front lately. I feel I’m at the proverbial rock-bottom of life. I’m struggling to sleep and to wake, to work and to play, to laugh and to cry… Nothing feels good or right and I need someone to pick me up and hold me.

I just prayed for the first time in a long time. My hands are trembling and I finally cried.

It has to be uphill from here right?

Ready for turkey

Thanksgiving is just around the corner and much to my joy, my parents have decided we’ll be having Thanksgiving dinner at their place rather than all of us running around to all the obligatory family dinners. It sounds evil, I know, to say that I don’t want to go see these people on the holiday… but it’s just so exhausting trying to make all the stops and being obligated to eat everywhere we go. And to top it off, it prevents me from getting to spend quality time with my parents and my brother, which is what I really want to do.

So this year, Mom and I will are going to cook. I can’t wait! I love to cook but it’s not something I do very often now that I’m single. For one thing, cooking for one is just difficult. Most recipes serve four at minimum which leaves me either eating the same thing for practically a week or throwing food out. Second, my “kitchen” is small. And when I say small I mean ridiculously small… it beats not having a kitchen, but to prepare a meal there would be almost impossible.

We’re going to start early on Thanksgiving morning in my parents kitchen and we’ve already started on the menu. We’ll have all the traditional Turkey-day goodies from turkey and dressing to cranberry sauce to macaroni and cheese. Okay, I have to stop now. This is making me hungry.