I want to learn to play the guitar so that I can sing her 90s country songs – how hard can that be?
I’m not really sure when it was but the last time time that this next song crossed my radio, I started to cry slightly and then I messed her about it.
The other day when I was driving in the car and flipping through radio stations, I came across “Don’t Blink” right when it started. I listed to the whole song and cried quietly the entire time. Having an 88 year old grandmother during a pandemic has caused me a great deal of fear and stress. I have only seen her once – and that was mainly because I was needed for her mental health reasons – it is really hard for her to stay alone.
I have been trying to concentrate on taking my medicine daily. Once I went to work from home in mid March, my entire routine was thrown off. I no longer got ready for work – I just rolled out of bed. When I started to panic about her working with him again and being quarantined with him and just everything with him and nothing with me – I started to get really worried, jealous – I don’t even know what but I seem to be back to my ‘loving – I don’t care about any of the details as long as she is living the life that she wants to’ self.
Basically, why I mentioned this song, “Don’t Blink” is because it made me cry when I was driving. I rarely listen to an entire new song – things really have to grow on me, but it was reminding me of what I already knew. We had already been discussing how my niece, who was 1 when we met, is a whole ass kid at this point with a 5 year old little brother. It only added to the perspective.
When I found out that there was a cave less than 100 miles away that people got married in, first I joked to the original poster that I was going to get married in her cave and then I ran off to my love to tell her all about it. She responded perfectly, and I like to think that she knows exactly what I am shyly hinting at. Next month will be 7 years since I met her and though I know that it is insane by today’s standards, I really do want to ask her to marry me. I don’t think that either of us really live by anyone’s standards and you can say that we dance to the beat of a different drum, but I sure wish that I could pull off meeting her in the exact spot that we met 7 years ago – I would walk there all dressed up – hopefully she would show up unsuspecting, but I am.. predictable to say the least. I have never even thought about proposing to anyone before. I grew up knowing that marriage was not for me and it would never happen so don’t glorify it.
My mom left when I was 2 – that is many years of watching my father struggle and hearing that you can’t depend on anyone but yourself. He was broken and couldn’t even consider dating or trying again. With that said, I grew up with a very young father that had little to no money. By at least 5 years old, I knew that no one had any extra money to give me for any reason – so don’t even think about asking.
In high school, my friends started fantasizing about their weddings, telling me all about where they were going to get married and what they were going to wear. These were all teenage girls that had no serious boyfriends but they knew that they were getting married one day and no better day than 14 years old to start planning it. At the time, I was realizing that not only was I poor but I was also gay – now I would never have money for a wedding nor was it even legal. I knew what a civil union was, this was the late 90s – but I also knew that I would never have any support from anyone.
So basically, I stopped thinking about it. I was actually already in love with this lady once it started becoming legal.
Well – there were a few states long ago. I remember hearing about Virginia on the radio when I was in the car as a kid, but that may have been the start of civil unions. When I saw that Colorado had legalized gay marriage, which it an awful phrase but it gets my point across – I texted her immediately. She told me something like ‘they know whats up in CO.’
At this point gay marriage and marijuana was legal in CO, I don’t think that many could disagree with whatever her statement was. Now it is still legal, even after Trump has ripped apart the nation, so I better jump on it. I can’t say that I don’t think of how I would ask her to marry me way more often that I would expect and it scares the shit out of me every time, but I think that is how it is supposed to go and we should probably go somewhere amazing to do it – not the side of the road but sometimes you have to work with what is possible. The dang Alanis Morisette concert was the day before that day so I thought it was guaranteed that I would spend it with her but those plans got jumbled to say the least.
Oh yes, and last night I had this dream that was replaying a moment from the past where I reached down to grab her hands and she interlaced her fingers in both my hands and – well – I must say, it’s what my dreams are made of.
Here are some sad country songs –
This morning started with the worst physical pain, but eventually I pulled myself out of bed with enough time to get ready, buy drinks for work from the gas station and log into my computer on time. My manager asked me how I was feeling, she seemed concerned and I felt like everyone was talking to me like I was a delicate egg about to crack. I wondered what people noticed when I ran out yesterday before lunch. It’s not like my manager doesn’t know that I am sensitive. She has called me that before.. I always took offense to the word until I heard her refer to her dad as being a sensitive artist, ever since then, I have worn the adjective with pride. Sensitive is not what you want to be when someone kindly explains to you that things just can’t be.
It’s not hard to see that she did it for me. What’s hard to grasp is why it has to be that way. I’ve always been great at living in an alternate universe, denying reality, and I was pretty good at it. In the 15 years that I have know wholeheartedly that I was a lesbian, not once did I ever consider dating a woman that had a boyfriend. When I thought I was being really “Progressive” I would act like I was going to mess around with a girl that had a boyfriend, just trying to act tough, but I never actually went through with it, until it was accidental.
She had all my respect from day one, before I even knew her story, before I ever felt her love. I never wanted to pry or to get into her business. There’s been insecurity and jealousy issues in my past. Since I didn’t even feel I needed to ask her age or sexual orientation, you can imagine, “Are you in a relationship?” never came up. Today in the car on the way back to work from my lunch break, a George Strait song, “She’ll Leave You With A Smile,” came on the radio, listening to it had never felt the way it did today. For lyrics and the song click the respective links. There was only that one line at the end that really hurt reminding me of the reality.. but it was completely accurate.. it was all worth it. It hurts like hell, but I know she’s trying to make it simpler on all of us, even though I would prefer the more difficult past. Not all people are as masochistic. I would face the pain of being away from here every day if she’d let me. The disappointment would fade eventually when she would tell me that she couldn’t stay or blow me off.
My friends seem to appreciate her decision to cut me off. Something I don’t agree with at all, but once again, who am I to judge. This is all too familiar. I have already felt like this before. With some help I was strong enough to let her walk away, because things just couldn’t happen that way. Last night was the first time I took my new medicine. I really hope that it doesn’t make me feel so sick again. She said that it would take three weeks. There’s a part of me that feels like I am giving in and taking medicine that I don’t want to be taking. It almost seems shameful, but then again, I just did a lot of things… that – I wouldn’t normally do. The doctor was very convincing, they always are. From what I remember about last time, it helped when I really needed it. There’s a generic now so it’s affordable so.. we shall see. Looks like I join corporate america more and more every day.
There’s something endearing to be able to look back at a total mess and know that the person you love had the best of intentions. I’m appreciative of all of the time that I got to spend with her and I can only have faith that I will see her again. It’s very rare that I find anyone that I feel like this about.. and every time, they seem to have a man that feels the same way about them. It doesn’t seem to ever turn out in my favor. Not that this kind of thing happens all of the time, but when I fell in love in 2006, by 2008 she had left me to date some guy that looked like her ex boyfriend. Amazingly enough she was engaged to said ex boyfriend before I ever knew that she wasn’t dating girlfriend steal-er anymore.
When it’s time to talk about more tragic lesbian stories, I will have to talk about how I got to find out about such said engagement. The feeling that I experience that day in front of her unknowing sister felt pretty similar to the day that I read my new love’s craigslist post 6 months after meeting her, in which it explained he was in a relationship with a man for over 5 years. It was unfortunate that I had dated her and fell so quickly for her just the 6 months prior.. It’s a sickening feeling for a dedicated lesbian that can hardly imagine straight sex.. honestly. But she meant to much to me, I tried to get over that, though it appears that I drove her off because I just don’t know how to be friends with benefits.. I am more of a lover with feelings kind of lady. Who knew it could make life so difficult at times.