Love from The Looney Bin

Something that Makes Sense

2012-12-27T22:15:00.000-07:00

Coming to the end of another year, and still I look for something that makes sense.

I made a decision to make every connection and every interaction meaningful. I put too much emotion and thought and energy into every connection to be able to have something that isn't meaningful very much longer. I am tired.

Since that time it has been oddly apparent to me that the rest of the world seems to be doing the opposite. Not the rest of the world as in everybody but society as a whole seems to be on the fast track to not feeling anything. Or trying not to anyways.

I see it in people who want to not be lonely, want to find love, yet have been hurt and use that as an excuse to keep people at arms length, not letting anyone give them what they truly want, and yes even need, because the number one thing that is ruling their actions and thoughts is fear. Fear of being hurt again.

I am more afraid of not ever being loved and loving someone. I will risk my heart a few more times because at the end of my time, I don't think it is any great accomplishment to say I was only hurt once.

Woohooo that is living. No it is hiding. We only get to do this once and playing it safe, while in theory sounds good, makes no sense.

I met someone who intrigues me. I like him and we hit it off pretty well. He understands me, not completely but better than most, or at the very least, he tolerates my quirks and it makes me feel ok, and a little braver. Or did.

From there to now, it is like we have gone backwards and I do not get it. I have done nothing wrong, I haven;t acted the crazy chick, I haven't pushed, even he said so, yet at junctures that should bring us closer ... I am being pushed away.

I don;t like the way it makes me feel. But I can not let it go. I write, I draw I try to express my emotions and need for understanding because at this point, I think that if I could understand, fit the puzzle pieces together, I would be happy to let him go and move on. Not because he is not worth it. Because he has built a wall and I am not in the business, nor have the energy to tear them down anymore.

I don't blame him, I have been hurt, badly too. And letting go of baggage is sometimes impossible, because sometimes the hurt and the effect is so deep and so reflexive that we aren;t even aware of what we are doing. It takes some real effort to be open and willing to let someone come into your world again after being hurt.

I drew him a picture for Christmas, I put thought and heart into it. I guess maybe somewhere in my mind I thought it would melt his heart a little. There is a longing I can not put a name to, a need to have him see me and what I have to offer.

Sometimes, I feel like blowing up his phone, I have once or twice on a mini blow up level. I have outright asked him if he wants to not be someone to me, I am afraid to ask if I am anything to him anymore. He said we are friends. No we could have been, we were well on the way to being more. I would have been happy, for awhile anyways, with having him as a friend.

Now I would be happy to have a reason that makes sense. Something that explains it - something other than the only thing I can come up with and that is my illness.

I would crumple, devastated if it is that. If it is that and he couldn't tell me.

He couldn't give me something that makes sense because I don't make sense.

How do you fix that? How do you get brave enough to try again after that?

What makes sense when you are rejected for something that you can;t help, you didn't ask for and don;t deserve anymore than anyone who has it?

I just want something that makes sense. And I am starting to think the only thing that makes any sense, is to be alone. Kind of ironic, someone with the capacity to love more fiercely because everything is bigger and more than usual, better off alone.

Left alone, I am more stable but aching all the time, looking for what is missing.

I don;t want to be alone, I want to be loved and love, I want to make sense to someone, I want to be held and touched and have everything click into place when I am, that moment when not just something but everything, makes sense.

from the Looney Bin.

Lizzie

Love and Hate, it is just a Fine Line

2012-02-17T16:59:00.000-07:00

Have you ever heard the term

There is a fine line between love and hate. ?

It gets tossed around quite a bit. And once you are familiar with it and ever in the position to understand why anyone would even say it - it makes sense.

To me it always made sense on a basic level even before I felt it. But I see the world in color and the color of love and the color of hate are only separated by a few shades of gray. Everything is to me. Between black and white is a whole spectrum of color and they are all varied by the amount of gray.

So on a visual level I understand the fine line, but on a emotional level it took a little longer to really get it.

Some might say the opposite of love is hate. The opposite of love is indifference. When you could care less and don't even think about the person that you loved for eternity just (insert time period here) ago, when you can honestly say that it makes no difference to what they do or how they do it or if they win the lottery or end up ....how they end up, that is when you say you no longer love.

The line that divides love and hate is what we think.

Both are emotions of extremes. Deep, passionate, consuming. The physical reaction is equally similar and what labels it as love, or hate, is what you think about whatever or whoever it is causing this reaction in you. Negative thoughts are hate, positive love .

How many of you have ever been in an argument with the person you consider the love of your life and were so mad at them and so frutrated or hurt that you blurted out I hate you ?

Never?

Its not becasue you aren't capable of hating that person, becasue if you can love them with all you heart and being, in the right, ok wrong circumstances, you can hate them too.

Think about all the characters in literature that started out antagonists. In reading or watching a play or a movie even , it is sometimes clear as day to the audience that these two people who quibble and harp and sometimes even hurt each other or go to great lengths to make each others lives difficult are really attracted to each other. And then of course there is the opposite where they are in unending love and end up hating - War of the Roses Comes to Mind.

You watch these two people and how they try to destroy each other and you just want to say but ...but ..... you love each other.

One common denominator is passion. Whatever it is you think about this person, it invokes strong emotion, and you throw your energy into them. One way or the other, passionately

So what does it mean if someone who loved you, and you loved tells you I hate you? Not just the passing hate you, or like the casual love you sometimes given on the phone or with people who know you love them but you just want to remind them - like your kids when they go to school. Bye love you...

I mean with feeling. Vehemently! With foot stamping, possible tears from the overwhelm of emotion going on I HATE YOU!

Well it means we are still passionate about each other. It means it still matters.

If it still matters is it worth trying to come to the middle?

I can fathom a love/hate relationship. Same side of the color spectum, a few shades of gray in between the passion, depth, limitlessness, expansiveness the feeling it - the commitment to it. The words are just to make it easy yet they make it hard.

A disorder of the emotions, being ruled but how you feel and having that change unexectedly at any moment, being on a roller coaster and the ups and downs of it, and loving someone who has their own issues that make love and hate normal, can really give you a new understanding of a love hate relationship. There is nothing weird about it. I try to not act on the bad feeling when I feel it, as in not blurt out the I hate you, because it will pass. I probably, becaue of that, don't say I love you enough.

It doesn't do the feeling justice.

Sometimes I love you just isn't enough. I feel you...would be weird but a more likely explanation.

My mom once told me when I was a little girl that it isn't love that determines the success of a marriage it is commitment. Commitment is what allows you to, when you wake up one morning and look at the person next to you and say "what the hell and I doing with the this person?" , not act on those bad feelings, the gray areas. Commitment is what keeps you there, and motivates you to find the middle.

How many people, acting on the gray area, the crossing of the fine line have tossed in the towell only to be devastated when it all comes full circle?

It's when the feeling stops that you know.

Love me or hate me, if it comes from feeling me, I am ok with it becasue it means I matter.

From the Looney Bin

Lizzie

Violated in so Many Ways

2011-12-18T23:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Lizzie,

I am at the end of my rope. I don't know if men can write you to but I figured my wife is acting all crazy so you might be able to help So what the hell. My wife can not stop looking through my phone my emails anything that she can snoop through. The other night it came to a head when I woke up and she was there with a flashlight with her head so far up my ass I had to get a crowbar to pry her out. I can't live like this anymore. It's a police state. I don't know what to do but I'm about to clock the bitch....Signed Violated

Dear Violated

The thing about snooping is that if you look you better be prepared for what you find. And while some may say well if you don't have anything to hide her snooping wouldn't bother you, the invasion of your privacy is still very real.

Usually for a perfectly level headed woman to lose it to the extent you describe, something has hurt her and caused her to react from a place of fear, like her husband cheated on her. Often the snooping is a desire to feel in control and to have back that security she felt before the truth hit her in the face. You don't mention any change in behavior or betrayal of her so I can on say if that is the case then you just need to ride it out. Do anything you can to let her know you love her - and clocking the bitch is not a way to show it. Just saying.

The second reason might come as a shock to you but the suspicious mind is usually guilty. She may be the one stepping out on you and realizing she is getting away with it, it dawned on her you might be doing the same. Yeah, that is kinda of a hard one to swallow I know but again clocking the bitch is not the answer. EVER

Barring either of these, then she is overcome with irrational jealousy. Irrational jealousy will tear a relationship apart faster than you can ask "Have you lost your mind?" It is insidious and passive aggressive and just plain aggravating. One way to fix her is to let her get an eye full of what she thinks she is looking for. Naked pictures of other women, or make a fake email and send yourself smutty messages with a fake woman's name.

Or if you really want to stop this all, use a man's name, make it naked men pictures. She won't know what to do BUT I bet she won't snoop anymore because she doesn't really want to admit anything like that about you. At this point you may be the one in danger of getting clocked (so NOT the answer) but I bet your problem is solved.

Finally, since I am not aware of the whole situation, please whatever you do make sure you do it responsibly. Perhaps some couple therapy to get to the bottom of this would be the best bet. Sounds like she already has been to the bottom.... but yeah, it needs to be consensual.

from the looney bin,
Lizzie

Sweating Him at the Gym

2011-12-16T00:18:00.000-07:00

Reader Mail:

Dear Lizzie,

Everyday I go to the gym to work out and there is this totally hot guy that is there at the same time as me. Every once in awhile I will catch his eye but he seems shy and I have tried everything from cute workout outfits to new perfume to get him to notice me more and talk to me. Got any ideas how to get his attention?

signed, Sweating Him

Dear Sweating Him,

Well it seems to me if you have tried everything you can think of to get his attention and it hasn't worked, maybe he just isn't interested. Maybe he has a girlfriend or he is not into girls. Clearly he isn't that into you. How far do you want to go with this? There comes a point when it isn't cute and you are just embarrassing yourself. If you are hell bent on getting his attention though I have a suggestion

Get on the treadmill and halfway through your run just stop and let the treadmill fling you back into the wall. A real blooper moment. If that doesn't get his attention then please please just move on.

If he does indeed come around and ask you out make sure you are ok going with a guy didn't notice you until you made a complete fool of yourself and be prepared to never live it down. I once dated a guy who noticed me after I ran into a wall, slightly inebriated. I had to listen to him tell the story to everyone he introduced me to. You got to wonder what makes a guy like that tick. And note that I said used to date.

from the looney bin,

Lizzie

How is your Love Life?

2011-12-13T13:50:00.000-07:00

Love is crazy. Tell me I am wrong. The problem people, is that we aren't looking at it from the right perspective - you need to see it through someone else's eyes.

Now I am not suggesting that my perspective is better than anyone else's. I'm cracked and my love life is as crazy as any one's. Well probably more so since it involves all sorts of dysfunction including ...well all sorts of weird things that would make most people run for the hills and think oh hell no!

Who better to make your life better than someone whose is a hot mess.
I may not be able to tell you how exactly to fix it - I am no expert BUT I can certainly tell you how not to ... and by default you get a new perspective and find a different way to approach a difficult situation and Voila!

It may be better.

So I'm just here to tell it like it is for me. And dole out free advice on how to not be where I am. Go ahead and ask questions - I will give you my honest thoughts on your dilemmas Make you laugh and think thank goodness I don't have to worry about that. No matter how bad it is - someone has it worse. I promise you.

I am taking a break from love. For like 5 minutes and then I will be back in it. I have a lot to say and a whole blog to do it in.

So how is your love life?

from the looney bin.
Lizzie