Today Is The Worst.

Today is the worst. I had made up my mind to adopt one of the puppies I was fostering. I became super attached to him, and he's so fluffy and sweet! He got along with my dog AND even my cat! They love to play together! And I love him so much! Today I had to take all the puppies back to the SPCA to be spayed and neutered, and then the plan was to pick up Draper (mine) and Joan (the one Carrie adopted) and bring them back home with me.
But Sophie totally tanked that plan by telling me AFTER I DROPPED THEM ALL OFF, that if I adopt Draper, she won't move in with me this September. We were in the car, and I was on my way to drop her off at Tulane for meetings and stuff. I already got him a collar made with his name on it, and bought him a bed, and a double leash for he and Jasper to use when I walked them together... And of course I took the tags off everything. So then I cried the whole way home because I hadn't even said goodbye to him! I did eventually get to see him when I went to pick up Joan, but he was really out of it from his surgery, poor baby. And then I cried some more, of course. And I've pretty much been crying off and on all day. I was supposed to go to this P.h.D. dinner thing with Sophie, but I told her I decided to stay home. Partly because I don't feel like going anywhere, and I'm sad and miserable, and partly because I'm mad at her, because the reason I feel like this is her fault! She says with her 2 cats, another dog would just be too many animals. ((sigh)) I just miss him so much already. I know he'll find a home quickly, and someone will love him to death, I just wish it could have been me.

The only good news is, I ended up hearing from Adam yesterday almost right after I made my last post. So my moment of panic was shortlived. I guess he is still interested, or he wouldn't still be texting me, right? He's not coming back till Tuesday morning though! So again, I dunno when I'm gonna ever see him! Unless he wants to go out Tuesday night. But I'm not gonna ask him, he has to ask me. So we'll see...
Well, my sushi just arrived, so I'm gonna wallow in food and cuddle Joanie while I watch TV.

March So Far

You're right, I was freaking out over nothing, but that's just what I do, initially. I just need a little time to reflect and talk myself down lol. Anyway, Adam has been working since last night; he works like 20 hour shifts basically. I mean he's not working the whole time, but because he works on ships, he has to take them far away, and then come back. So he has down time in between trips, but he's still away from home. So anyway, we've been texting for the past 2 days, and so far so good. This may sound crazy, but I feel really...secure about this. Like, I'm not worried that he's gonna play me, or turn into a douche and ghost me or anything. For the first time in a long time, I feel confident that this is really gonna go somewhere. Granted, I could be totally wrong, but...here's hoping! He's going out of town next weekend though, to L.A., of all cursed places. So I'm hoping we'll get to hang out sometime in the next week, before he leaves. I'm gonna be super busy next weekend anyway, with Sophie, Shane, and Grant all being here, so I won't have to time to miss him.
So I've been kind of freaking out over my job situation. Sucks, because I was just starting to get my anxiety under control, and now I have something new to stress out about. Every week on Monday and Tuesday, since I started this job, I had a gig that I did that paid basically a base salary. And that was recently taken away from me and given to some part-timer, who complained that he wasn't being given the amount of hours he was promised. I was assured that it had nothing to do with me, and that I've been doing a great job, but this particular guy isn't managed by my boss, so he couldn't do anything about it. So now I really need to find another job to supplement my income and just UGH... I don't want to!! I have to get out my resume and all that, and actually LOOK for a job, which is a job unto itself. ((Sigh)) I would like to be able to find another photography job, or else do something with animals. Maybe finally get some use out of my animal science degree. But I don't wanna have to go to school, or get any certifications or anything. So no dog grooming or vet tech positions. I wish I could get paid for fostering animals. I'd be making a fortune off these puppies, if that were the case! They wear me out! But I think I'm gonna end up keeping one of them... He reminds me so much of Jasper when he was a puppy! They're both half poodle though, but this particular puppy looks the most poodley out of the litter. And he's just SO SWEET. Ugh. I'm not gonna be able to bear parting with him. Another reason why I need to find a second job. In order to afford a second dog lol.
Lord help me, I'm turning into a crazy pet lady!

Keeping Busy

Not a whole lot has been going on recently. Well, actually, I've been quite busy. Carrie was here the weekend before last, and she and Lauren and I went out like every night, then Taylor (Sophie's ex-husband, Brent's brother) and his newish girlfriend Cassie came into town this past weekend, so I hung out with them on Friday. Saturday, Lauren and I went to a fancy society party that I scored an invite to through work. We were like the youngest people there and didn't know anyone, but we got to dress up, eat free food and drink free booze though, so that was cool. And afterwards, we changed clothes in her truck like college kids and hit a couple bars. Lol. It was a good time.
Next month I have 3 people I wanna see all coming in town at the same time. So that's gonna be pretty crazy... Sophie is coming for a PhD interview, a friend I met in Chicago, who now lives in NYC, named Grant, who I don't think I've ever mentioned, but he's super cool, and my old friend Shane, who I met through Izzie that lives in Austin. I haven't seen her in forever. Both Grant and Shane are gonna be here for work though, so I'm sure I'll get to see everybody. I'm really excited abou Sophie coming. It seems like I've been seeing so much of her recently! And before I know it, she'll be living back in the states. She applies for programs at Michigan University, NYU and Tulane. NYU is her first choice, but obviously I want her to go to Tulane. It would work out perfectly, because my current roommates lease is up at the end of August, and then she's moving in with her boyfriend, so Sophie can move in with me! Living with Jenn has been great, but what's better than living with your sister?? So I am keeping my fingers crossed.
Did I mention I am fostering a miniature poodle and her six puppies? Jesus, they keep me busy. They're super cute though. Carrie adopted one of them when she was here the other week, but they won't be ready to take home for a couple more weeks.
So Lane and I are talking again. I finally texted him, and things are back to...well not normal, because what even is that with us? But things are on a purely platonic level now. We don't FaceTime anymore of course, and we only text like one or 2 messages at a time, no more conversations that last for days. Just if something comes up that makes me think of him, and vice versa. But I'm ok with that. I'm pretty much over it. It's still a little bit disappointing how everything turned out but you know what they say, out of sight out of mind.
In other news, since I moved here I've had a weekly assignment where I drive all over the city taking photos of houses for the real estate section of the paper. It's really tedious and takes forever and I have to drive really far, but it basically served as like a base pay that I could count on since, being a freelancer, sometimes pay periods can get thin.
Well that was taken away from me and given to some part time guy, who was apparently promised a certain number of hours and wasn't getting them. My boss fought hard for me about it, but apparently there was nothing he could do, because that person isn't someone he manages. ((Sigh)) He was really upset about it when he called to tell me, and he said it's nothing I did wrong, and that in fact, I've done the best job of anyone on them, and that I've been improving the last year in all my work, and he feels shitty about it because instead of being rewarded for my hard work, they're taking money away from me. Ugh. At first, I wasn't really that upset. I mean yea it sucks that I won't be getting that money anymore, but I hate doing the houses. It was boring and I was putting tons of miles on my car doing it. But now I basically have to get a second job to make up that income, and I don't really know what I'm gonna do. I love the flexibility of my job! I love that I can have like an entire day to lay around and then go to work from 7-10 pm and be done for the day sometimes! And I definitely do not want to work somewhere 9-5 or anything like that, because it would limit the number of photo assignments I could take. I spent a good hour last night trolling Craigslist, but mostly it's all restaurant type jobs and I just CANNOT go back to bartending. The week of Mardi Gras, as a favor to one of Bethany's friends, I bartended a private party. It was 2 hours of set up/clean up and like 4 hours of party, and I was EXHAUSTED by the end. My feet and back were killing me. I have no idea how I used to work 10 hour bar shifts when I was living in Chicago. I just can't do that anymore. Plus, I was easily irritated by people the whole time, and I just...can't do it anymore. Sure a private party now and then, fine. But every week? NO WAY.
I did book a wedding for this June, and mermaid season is coming up, so hopefully that will be a nice supplemental income, but it's not dependable enough. What to do, what to do...
Maybe that guy will hate doing the house pictures and not want them anymore.
On a lighter note, I lost 12 pounds, and I'm feeling sexier than ever!
G's this post has been all over the place. Well I'm gonna go get caught up on House of Cards before the new season in a couple weeks. There's a really bad storm coming in and most of the schools and govt buildings here are closed, so I doubt I'll be going anywhere. TaTa!

PUPPIES!!

So even though I haven't been texting Lane, he's still been texting me, I just haven't been responding. So finally, the other night, just as I was getting into bed after a really long, stressful day, he sent me this message...

Then of course, I couldn't sleep cuz I was just laying there, thinking about him. I sort of ruminated on it for a couple days, and then finally I had so many thoughts, I decided I'd just send him an email and get it all out. So I jotted down a buncha stuff late one night and then went to sleep. Another day or so later, I took all those thoughts I had jotted down and structured them so they made sense, and I sent Lane the email. Here it is...

Ok, so DISCLAIMER!!! I’m gonna be really, really blunt and honest. Probably too much so, but at this point, I feel like it can’t get any worse, so I might as well for ONCE IN MY LIFE say exactly what I’m actually thinking to a guy. 

To further explain why I sorta ghosted you over the last couple weeks…

I’m disappointed about the last conversation we had, for a few reasons. The obvious being that I didn’t get what I wanted out of it, another reason being I don’t think I was SURE exactly what I wanted at the time, so I probably wasn’t very clear, and finally, because all those things I was trying not to think about, and yet still daring to hope for, like the long distance thing, you basically told me that you’d be willing to do those things, just not with me. Ouch. At that point in the conversation, I was basically like “well fuck it, I’ll just tank this right now”, which led to me getting drunk and saying all that shit I said. I did it subconsciously on purpose, because I figured…I dunno. If I never speak to you again, it might as well be my fucking fault.

The thing is, I didn’t plan for any of this to happen. I didn’t WANT this happen. The feelings. I’ve had weekend flings with out of towners before and it was fun and light. And then they left and we both got on with our lives. No big deal.  And it’s obvious to me now, that that is all you wanted, and that’s fine. I wasn’t expecting it to go beyond that myself. I just wasn’t prepared for what DID happen. 

So last time we talked, when I told you how I felt, you said you like me too, BUT… Everything always has a “but” attached to it. I expected you to say that, pretty much. The distance is too far for a relationship, it’s unrealistic, yada yada… What I didn’t expect was for you to say that yea, you’d do a long distance thing if it was worth it, but you just don’t have the time/inclination/desire to try that with me. As much as that stung, I can’t blame you, because I’ve been where you are now. 

It’s just that all that stuff about me wanting you to ask me to move to LA so I could say no…? I still don’t understand that. Is that some sort of game people play? Because if I thought someone was gonna ask me to do something for them that I had no desire or intention of doing, I would NOT want them to ask me. I would either make it known to that person in some way that I wasn't into it so that they wouldn't ask, or I would avoid the topic all together. I wouldn’t WANT them to ask. That makes no fucking sense to me. But the craziest part is, if you really WERE to ask me to move to LA, I don’t think I WOULD say no. I mean I wouldn’t say OMG YES! and just hop on the next plane, but I would consider it. So, there it is. I’m just a pathetic dummy for thinking or considering ANY of these things because it’s obviously so completely fantastical. 

You are clearly in a different place than I am right now. Your priorities are all about you. And the more time I spent thinking about that, the more I realized how foolish I was being, and the more I realized that our relationship is a bit one-sided. We talk about you, your career, your dreams, etc, most of the time. And when we talk about me, it’s always in relation to you or your situation. I am a very supportive loyal person by nature (if I’m friends with you) so it’s my inclination to want to help and encourage people. But what I DON’T want to be is used or taken for granted. I don’t want to just be that person you call when you’re feeling lost or shitty about your life, or need advice, like some sort of emotional cheerleader, or when you're drunk or just horny, while I’m having all these feelings that I keep to myself because I’m worried that A) you don’t reciprocate them and B) if I talk about them, it’ll scare you off or whatever. 

I basically just decided that right now, I need to not talk to you, because I need to not think about you. Because thinking about you makes me frustrated and sad. Even though our time together when you were here was very brief, it still felt like a loss when you left, because going back to my life the way it was before, suddenly felt like this giant gaping suckfest. I just need some time to get over it. And I will. And then we can go back to being friends.

I hope you enjoyed this short story. Feel free to respond. Or not.

That was last night. And he responded within the hour with this...

This is great! I'm really glad you wrote this out. I hear you, sincerely, and I get it.

My intention wasn't to imply I would do it for anyone else. I did it once, back in the day. It was a surprising amount of drama that I don't want to revisit. I failed to communicate to you what I want and don't think I really understood what you want. I don't think I realized the gravity of the conversation we were having.

So I wholeheartedly respect your desire not to talk for a while. I liked what we had, though it sounds like it may have been selfish and toxic to continue, so should you want to revisit bantering and whatnot, I'll be here. And if not, it was a really fun weekend and I'll remember it fondly.

Before I make this worse, as is my tendency, I just want you to know that if you ever want to call me (not text) about this or anything else personal or vulnerable, don't be afraid to do so.

You're great. As cynical as I can be, I really do believe that everything works out.

Lane

Soooo that's that! It's done. Izzie says she hates him for breaking my heart, and Sophie says he seems very detached. Either way, it's not happening. And I feel less...just less. I feel less about it. 

Now for the GOOD NEWS!! I am fostering a litter of puppies and their mama for a few weeks until the puppies are old enough to leave their mama and they can all be adopted! There are 6 puppies, and mama is a mini poodle. The puppies are obviously mixed with a larger breed though. They all look so different! They're 5 weeks right now, and can't be adopted till they're 8 weeks. I've been so blissed out with them, despite how much work it is. I've got one in my lap right now. He just woke up from napping on my chest. :) Sooo, in short, puppies make everything better! :)