Emotions Past

Im in the process of packing up to move house again. Given that this will be my fourth address in two years or my sixth in three, I'm a bit peeved by it all. I'm attempting to rationalize my belongings, to be ruthless in throwing things away. How successful I am depends on my mood and how much I look at things before I toss them. I was going through a box of things the other day and came across some of my old writings, things I did while I was still at school and for one reason or another was sentimental enough to keep. It was a mix of essays, stories, the occasional half hearted attempt at a novel, a diary and notes and letters to and from girl friends. It's funny, though, because although I recognize the handwriting - even though it has changed dramatically since then - I barely recognize the writer as me. I do not know this person from fifteen, twenty years ago. The certainty in her fiction, and mad raging anger of her notes, the snide snarky - well no, that part I do recognize. I can't imagine being so passionately angry about something that I would need to not only capitalise it when I wrote it, but I would underline the words so hard and so many times I would go throug the page. I do not remember being like that. I remember writing, constantly, always, with torch at night under the covers, in darkness when I had written so long that my batteries died. When I should have been doing homework. When I had finished an exam early but wasn't allowed to leave. I have vague recollects of writing myself out when I was feeling hard done by, but I can't imagine myself back to the person who could be so incandescent in her anger. These days I can muster a bit of a squiff, an occasional huff, perhaps a bit of a tantrum if you squat your eyes the wrong way. The only things that really get me up are my grandmother, work, and L. But the emotions I feel now don't generate nearly as much heat as that girl could. She fairly scorched the page. What happened to her? Where did that passion go? Where is the flame burning to write, to create worlds, to express fiery emotions that will not find any other outlet? How did that get replaced by quietly mocking, by sarcasm and by quips? Somewhere within, that other girl must still be there. I wonder if I can ever find her again, or if it's just my mood, a combination of nostalgia and perhaps a mild depression, bringing me to this point. Traditionally tortured artists are the ones who create the best works. Perhaps I should make use of this. If only I could over throw my apathy, I might. That's what I've grown into, though. The would-have, the should-have. That girl way back then, she was all about the could. A couple of little consonants, they change the shape of the world entirely.

Withholding

The person I've been closest to for the best part of my life happens to be my cousin. We've gone through varying degrees of closeness since we we up and right now we seem to be inching our way back towards something like it was when we were still at uni and in constant contact with each other. It's a funny relationship in many ways, though. The politics of the family mean that there are some things we just don't talk about. Largely our own fault, of course. The best way to deflect quests about your own life is to volunteer information about the life of someone else, and who else's life did we know so intimately growing up? The number of times the family grape vine worked against the pair of us and our tattling ways is beyond counting. The upshot is that while we are close and consider each other almost as sisters, there are enormous gaping holes in our knowledge of each other now. I've been trying to bridge this lately, feeling the need of a confidant who knows the whole back story, who I can use short hand to fill in. Someone that I know will be a sympathetic ear for all that we are hugely different people. But I'm stuck with the knowledge that there's a good chance anything I tell her will go to her mother, our grandmother, and then my mother, by which stage it will have been garbled and blown out of all proportn. But I need to talk to someone, some girl friend, and right now L is caught up in her own world of longing so she's off the list, and I don't have that many others who can offer the same support. The penalty for letting go of all of my university friends almost as soon as I left uni, I guess, having already jettisoned all bar one of my school friends. But I want to talk to someone about my life, and where it is headed. About hopes, dreams, longings, and unfulfilled planning. I want to vent the frustrations of being stubbornly single, to have a shoulder to lean on, someone who has seen me emotional, and someone who brings a different perspective to the table. As a married mother, Cuz certainly does that. We are very different, the pair of us, but there is a strong bond there all the same. We seem to have switched roles over the years. Where once I was the loud, confident one, she now plays that part while I'm the quieter of the two. We can stil make each other cry with laughter, though, can raise a giggle with just a look, and have a long list of short hand jokes, triggered by anything from a nod, to a phrase, to a raised eyebrow. I admit I let the friendship drift when she got married and had a baby. I was insanely jealous of her for having the things that I always wanted, always felt entitled to. Ad I want to talk to her now at I'm starting to consider the idea that I might have neither in my future. It's a selfish need, I know, but I also know that she needs adult company, stuck at home all day with a baby not yet one and a husband who works all hours and comes home exhausted. Right now, we need each other as much as ever. If only we knew that we could trust the silence of the other...

Story of my life

Somehow today I've come to be thinking about speeches at birthday parties and weddings. Perhaps because of the movie that was on when I got home from dinner out. At the end of The Wedding Date, Debra Messing gives a singularly uninspired speech. "There's nobody who knows how to love my baby sister like you do. Be good to each other." Or words to that effect, at any rate. It made me tank back to the last time there was any chance of someone making a speech about me. Someone who at least should have known me really well. It was probably my 21st. There have been occasional speechifying moments since then, but nothing nearly as major. I avoided the massive party that usually goes with that birthday. I was the last of my friends to reach the milestone and the thought of combining hard drinking friends with my teetotal family was something I was not prepared to confront. But I was also concerned about the speeches. I was secretly glad that there weren't too many stories to be told about me that could in any way embarrass me. I loved the idea that my life was so private it was known to only me. Of course, my ideas on this have changed now. I think of the lack of friends able to tell stories about me and wonder why I've spent a lifetime keeping people at bay, what I did with my friends that they would have no stories about me. One of my oldest friends was trying to come up with stories about me not that long ago, someone I've known for almost 20 years now, and she came up blank. Or she claimed to. And we've shared a lot in that time. I have countless stories about her. So is it that I haven't lived? That I've spent my entire life on the fringes? That I'm simply not memorable? To tell the truth, if any of these theories are true, I'm horrified. I know my life hasn't exactly been the stuff that dreams are made of. But I don't want it to be so unremarkable that even the people who have shared it with me don't remember my part in it. There is another theory for why people don't tell stories about me, though. And I think I'm going to stick with this one. As CC Bloom tells Hilary in Beaches, "My memory is long, very long." I remember all of their stories, even the ones they would rather I didn't share. And I have a better capacity for alcohol than most of them, which only helps the memories. I still hold out hope that my memory bank of retaliatory ammunition is all that keeps the stories back, not that there are none to tell. Dear god, let that be the reason...

The Unexplained

There are some mysteries in life that I will never understand. Why some women have perfect hair. Why Collingwood Football team is universally hated by all other clubs. Why exactly chocolate tastes so good - although that's one I'm happy to just accept at face value. My six months or so away from blogging has thrown up some of these questions, so I thought I'd explore them here as a way of getting back into the swing of things after so long away. So here it is. My top five things that I will never be able to adequately explain. 1. Why I attract fickle men. And then I don't. Sounds straight forward, yes? I'm quite capable of getting the attention of a certain type of man, it seems. And then I lose it. Abruptly. For instance, I've been messaging a seemingly nice guy for most of this month. He's a teacher, seems to have his head screwed on the right way and gave all the indications of being almost uncomfortably keen, given that we have never been on a date. We had things all locked in for last Saturday. Friday morning, afternoon and evening texts were being exchanged. He'd caught a cold and wasn't sure he was going to be able to make it for Saturday but said he'd let me know. And he did, Cancelling our date with a very cutesy text. And he hasn't been heard from since. So either it's a terrible case of man flu that he's suffering with - not impossible, I guess - or something else is going on. It's sounding eerily familiar. One of the first guys I dated, Army Boy, suggested that we organize a holiday, and hinted that he'd like it if I took the initiative a little more in our long distance relationship (we met in Melbourne when he was on leave, then he had to go back to Townesville) and call him myself more often. And then we never spoke again. In fact, even his mother and grand mother, who both knew my mother well, took a long time get back in touch. All ties severed, and I still have no idea why. Then in London there was the talker. All systems go, him very keen, then he went out for work drinks on a Friday night. It wasn't quite as abrupt here, because we spent a very awkward Saturday together, mostly with him either lugging my stuff - I was moving house - or sleeping off his hang over. The first warning was that he no longer wanted to hold hands. Then he changed the planned Thursday night dinner to drinks and dumped me. I have ideas about what went wrong there, a certain colleague of his perhaps being involved, but no confirmation. And all the warning I had was a reluctance to hold hands. What is about me that can inspire almost stalkerish attention one minute, then have men running away the next? Anyone with clues, please, feel free to enlighten me. 2. There is apparently something about writing a blog that is great for my mental health. I've noticed it myself, and there have been other comments from various people who don't know that I blog, that the past six months have seen a definite slide in my attitude to various things. I've noticed myself that my temper, always a doubtful property when I'm in the comfort of my own home, has been much more easily triggered. That's part of the motivation for getting back here. But it's a chicken or the egg scenario, as I'm not sure if the mood is caused by a lack of blogging, or if the lack of blogging causes the mood. I'm guessing this little experiment will test the theory. All I know for sure is that I've spent parts of the past six months in a fairly dark place. Here's hoping for a little more sunshine. 3. Why is the grass always greener? Of late I've been thinking back pretty fondly on my time in London. I know that the rose tinted glasses are firmly in place, but I'm missing mucky old England. Much the same way that I missed Oz when I was over in London. I seem to have created a conundrum for myself, where both are home, and at the same time neither one is. I don't think I could move away from my family again, but I miss the lifestyle over there. Even as I realize that it wouldn't be the same if I went back again. People have moved on, the mood has shifted, and things are not as they were. But then again, they're not ideal here either. And I can't work out if it's genuinely a yen for the Old Dart or if I'm just having an anywhere-but-here/now thing due to the dark place I mentioned in point 2. And it's not just locatnal. Whatever work I'm doing, I wish I was doing something else, as well. Right now, I'm daydreaming about heading over to the UK to study. Nothing that could be generally useful in life, but rather something that I think would fascinate me, at least on some levels. Something that I may actually be passionate about (yes, that reared its ugly head again today, when I was told in my performance review at work that I was lacking passion. Instant flashback to uni tutor telling me he'd never seen anyone less passionate than me...) sure, the literary thing fired the mental synapses. I still love it, but can't see myself in a career. Can't see myself in this other career either. But I still find the idea fascinating. I want to study the history of clothing, and perhaps even tie it in with museum and curatorial studies. I'm realist enough to know its not going to happen, but it's the daydream of choice at the moment. When I'm not figuring out how on earth to get my fledging company a little higher off the ground. 4. Nope, that's it. Why is it that as soon as you say you're going to be using a particular number of things, you fall short of the stated figure? I could always go back and adjust the original number, of cours...but no. Much more fun tis way!