25

A realization hit me tonight – it has been more than 25 years since a man has found me attractive enough to ask out on a date.

I mean, I’ve been on a few dates a few years ago, but they were all a set up.  Only a couple of them where ok-looking, but hardly what I found sexually attractive.

I understand I am no great beauty.  I am just an average looking woman.  But, in more than 25 years I have never met another man – other than Michael who wanted me.

Michael was not a good man.  I didn’t understand completely until tonight that was the last man who is ever going to love me.

I just can’t live like this anymore.

I just can’t manage or deal with the stress and isolation of this life any longer.

Especially since I’ve come to understand Michael is the only man who has and will ever love me.

Laughter – Gone

The last time I remember really laughing was at Panera.

A man asked to meet me at Panera.  I was skeptical.  It felt like a set-up  – it was.

I walked into Panera with this man.  I showed up late, dirty hair in a ball cap because I intended to dye it later that evening.  I ate before because I didn’t want to share a meal with this man any longer because I cared nothing for this man.

At Panera, I saw him at a table with other men.  He had closed the door to him so severely, I didn’t go to his table to say, “hi.”  I walked outside without saying anything or even looking at him when I recognized him.

Yet, outside eating with this man I could feel him looking and watching me from the window.  As always when I was around him he turned something on that lit me from inside.

I was hilarious.  I was witty.  I was so funny.  I was improving and throwing out one-liners that would have entertained the entire world.

I knew I was funny.  Not because the man was laughing – I just knew I was funny on a professional level.

What I have learned.  What I understand – I will NEVER be that person again.

My proof is the last few times I’ve met him and been around him.

I’ve turned away.  I’ve not acknowledged him.

He walked by touching my knee at a bar a while ago.  I didn’t speak to him.  I touched his side as I left – that was all.

There was a time I thought I needed to speak to him one last time.  I guess that time is gone.

And with it, my laughter has gone.

 

 

Not Much Has Changed

I have said and shared more than once that Florida has great potential for the film and television industry.  There is no reason why there shouldn’t be more work shot in Florida.

However, from what I’ve experienced, as well as, from my understanding of the problems involved with productions – Florida has not grasped the possibilities for the future.  Florida makes decisions for the immediate need.  Florida as I have experienced it all these years is still a good o’l boy mentality with red neck mischief.

Florida should figure out making and creating decisions that could impact – for the better – the entire state what a difference it would make for every person for years, decades, and centuries to come.

There is no reason why Florida isn’t more accessible to Hollywood than California.  Except California has put money, planning, city engineering, planned communities, engineered roads, etc.  Florida takes the position of do it yourself.  There is no organization, no commitment to a future for every person for the years to come.

What I’ve experienced – Florida is slow.  It does not learn from the success of others and apply it with a purpose to the now.

I grew up in California, then my family moved to Oregon.  When I moved to Oregon (as a young child) I thought Oregon is years behind California.  The mentality of its people, fashion, politics, its view on the world, etc.

From Oregon my family moved to Florida when I was a teenager.  I was devastated by the move.  I was in culture shock for a very long time.  Florida was so far behind Oregon – it’s mentality, fashion, politics, it’s view on the world, etc. it was unbearable.

Shouldn’t come as a shock, I suppose, since Florida was the last state in the union to amend its state constitution giving women the right to vote – 1971, folks.  Can you believe that?  That is if my internet research can be believed.  Since my internet access has an undisclosed (unauthorised) governing upon it.

For me, it is quite literally painful to see possibility, potential, yet be stopped over and over and over again by stupidity, narrow-mindedness, and a failure to believe in the possibilities of human potential.

This writing for me is still an explanation, or reporting.  It is not the writing I started with, nor is it the writing that I have stored away in the recesses of my mind, but do to the confines of my current life I am unable to reach.

I am Florida.

I have great potential.  I have great possibility.  Yet, time and time and time again I have been stopped, blocked, locked in, physically hurt to stop me, and literally slammed into to keep me isolated, stuck, and a version of what someone else wants of me.  But, it is not me.

If I was able to live outside of this faked life – this unreal life I’ve been imprisoned in – if I was able to speak, to live with control over my body alone, without intruders in my body, in my place of residence, without games of control, without competition for my money and attention, where I could finally be free of 360, it would be the difference between California getting all the jobs and Florida finally being able to stand on its own legs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What I Booked, Not What I Got

I come here to write.  Because I want to write.  Because I need to write.

All I get to do anymore is explain and report – at least that is what it feels like to me.

I used to have it.  I used to be able to free associate without being pushed, motivated, or told.

I guess, that was back when I still had feeling in my hands, freedom and control over my brain space.

So, now ALL I am left with is telling.  Which is not the same as writing – not to me.

Oh, how I miss the writing path I was on with control over my head and body.  I was just getting to a point of being extraordinary when it was taken away from me – stolen from me.

I did some travelling last year as a way to escape the prison of this house – twice it was an enormous mistake.  Twice I had booked reservations for a carefully planned out trip, yet was forced and manipulated into a different experience.

So, I am naming names here for anyone who cares even if it only me.

I wanted to stay at the Best Western in New Orleans even if it was on Rampart street.  I understood it to be the best choice for me.

I wanted to stay at The Key Lime Inn at Key West.  I was going back a second time to Key West for inspiration because it has gone from me entirely with the loss of control.  I need the inspiration to write again, so I can live instead wishing to die everyday.

I wish I could explain the means that were used to convince me that the decisions I made were incorrect.  But, how can I?!  Honestly, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

I wanted to go back to Key West to visit Ernest Hemingway’s house hoping for inspiration to write again.  Visiting his house a second time was the same as the first – it did nothing for me.

However, when I saw that the hotel I wanted to stay at was across the street from his house I nearly cried.  It was so much closer.  It would have been so much less walking.

I can’t stand this experience of being taken advantage of ALL of my memories.  It is shamefully disgraceful.

I would have had a front porch if I had been able to stay at the Key West Inn – all to myself.  It was nicer accommodations and everything.

It is so painful.

I’ve stopped paying attention anymore.  This life has gone on for too long now.

 

 

 

The End Of My Ability

Can someone please explain to me why a single man does not ask me out, does not ask for my time, does not ask me anything?!

I am not unattractive, or undesirable, or ugly, yet I am left in a prison and unbearably alone.

Still not writing.

This house is a prison.

Can someone please explain to me why every man I might find sexually attractive is already involved with another woman?!

I feel the time is too late and my time has long since passed.

Why do I continue on when I so clearly should let go of this life that has nothing left for me.

Let go of this life – Yes!

Drugged

Did you know it was possible to manipulate bugs and insects through radio wave frequency.  We’ll it is.  You can get them to fly in different directions, and go from room to room.

I’ve discovered I have neighbors who will go to such lengths to torment and torture me.  Anywhere there is the slightest gap, front door, garage door, window, or balcony they are able to – best way to say this – inject bugs, gases, scents, etc.

I mentioned in the post previous that I believe my boss dated me in disguise several times.  I would never have dated him – as I knew him, otherwise.  Physically, he doesn’t do it for me.  Which is a very big deal if you don’t find a man physically/sexually attractive then what is the point of the relationship?!  In my opinion.  Why would I date a man I wasn’t sexually attracted to?!

One of the biggest problems while working at The Container Store, not a single available man I found sexually attractive could be found.  The only men willing to date me were men I was not sexually attracted to – so, unsatisfying.

Since moving here there have been several instances of being drugged.

At a party I had three beers, and then a friend gave me a shot.  I woke up with a man on top of me in his car.  I started freaking out.  I had never blacked-out before when drinking.  I know, I’ve written a lot about being home-bound (so to speak) while taking care of my mom.  Honestly, I am not much of a go-out and party all the time.  I am more of a home body.  However, with that being said, I certainly know how to have a good time when I am out.

I couldn’t believe it.  I was trying to put the pieces together while trying to come out of the fucking hang-over.  One of my first thoughts was after losing weight – this is the guy I get to sleep with?!  Oh my God, he was old, and just moderately attractive.  Worst of all, he just so happened to be the father of the man in a position above me at work whom I greatly admired, respected, and thought was just oh-so-handsome.

He took me to his hotel.  I spent the rest of the night in the bed opposite him, fully clothed.  As he walked his wrinkly, naked body to and from the bathroom.  I can somewhat laugh at it now.

You look at a man naked, his body should be desirable.  Looking back at it now, it belongs in some sort of comedy.

The girl who gave me the shot of vodka at the party was someone I worked with.  I’m telling you now, I know there is no way I could have blacked-out after 3 beers and a shot over the course of about 3 hours.  I believe I was set-up and drugged.

A birthday party.  I went to a friend’s house for her birthday.  I know exactly how many beers I had when another friend from work showed up.  She made a shot – I woke up the next morning.  With another friend telling me a story about how I hooked-up with the tallest guy at the party.  Great, a step-up, I get the taller man, but these guys were none of my type.  Simple, not smart guys.  I was outraged!

I don’t do one-night stands.  I mean I’ve had them, but so very few.  I may have been drinking when they happened, but I remember everything.

Then, another instance of being out with friends, and I woke up the next morning.  Having had my clothes taken off and wearing pajamas.  Who does that?!  Who takes your clothes off if you’ve had too many?!

I believe I was set up on all accounts.  I believe something was placed in my drinks to either accelerate the alcohol or to make me pass out entirely.  When my clothes were taken off of me, I found an unusual mark on my body the next day.

For me there is no reason or explanation for any of this.

I don’t see any reason why anyone would want to drug me.  But, it happened.  I don’t have a way to prove it, but I know each of the instances I’ve written about did not happen on their own.  They were planned and purposeful.

I tried speaking to other’s about the occurrences before.  I was shut-up.  Basically, told not to speak about it.  Because it was more important for someone else’s project to not be discredited.  I was not allowed to tell my story, or share my feelings.

It was like being repeatedly raped, and told it didn’t happen.  Told to pretend.

Someone told me once that taking care of my mother, I had placed my life on hold.  I’d heard many versions of that while being her care-giver.  I didn’t absorb it because I didn’t believe it.  For me, I had always known it was only going to be for a time.  Then, another chapter of my life would start.

For me, this having to pretend all the time is worse than having my life on hold.  Because at least I had a purpose while taking care of my mother.

Everywhere I go, people look at me as if they already know me.  Everywhere I go.  It is like being in a virtual movie set, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.  It is absolutely stress-full, and stress-filled.

I cannot pretend any longer.

I cannot pretend that the job I go to is real.

I just can’t…anymore.

 

 

Problem Thinking

One of the problems I saw when I first started working for a living was the way greedy mismanagement of products.

I worked for a retail clothing store, it was a brand new store in a brand new mall.  The first inventory the store had the numbers were not tallying correctly, so merchandise was sent to the trash.

We’re talking, you could almost buy a single family home for the amount of merchandise that was thrown in the trash.

Why not donate it?  Take the tags out and donate it?

Because that would take too long?!

I’m not entirely sure.  However, it is a recurring theme I’ve seen in the workplace.

There is a great lack for thinking beyond the present, planning for the future, for future generations, for thinking of the what if’s as actual possibilities.

Just because something has worked in the past doesn’t mean it can or will continue to work the same in the future.

And, what about other alternative or possible solutions to a problem.

In conjunction, very few companies or jobs I’ve work for have dealt well or even had a system in place for internal marketing as a way of retaining their current employees.

The cost of having to train and hire more employees has to be more expensive than keeping an employee.

Sorry, I feel my vocabulary has gotten weak and sloppy.  I’ve spent too long away from the person I wish and want to be rather than simply doing what I’m told.  Believing that if I just do what is being asked of me, then all of this will go away and I can go back to being me.

I think back to just a couple of years ago, I am no longer that person anymore who used to be able to be fun and have fun, etc.  Who used to have lightness in her heart.

I wear this yoke of burden.  It weighs on me until I can’t breathe anymore.  This 360 degree burden, but it’s also more than 360 degrees.  It is a burden of not being free to my life, of not being free to live.