Seasonal

Winter always seems more real to me than Summer. Summer is a time out from the work of living. You are encouraged to play, and life is more of a pass time than a job. I can hang on to winter, I can make more things happen here. Funny to think of time as a place but all times are associated with places so I suppose it's not unreasonable. And I talk as though winter is easier to hang on to than summer but here we are at the latter end of November with Christmas looming around the corner and I'm not sure when I realized summer was over for another year.
T is out in the NW right now so I've been staying with Jake most of the week. It's been pleasant as usual and it is increasingly obvious this has become a pattern for him. I remark only because he came home rather late on Monday from work, and Tuesday is a traditional happy hour day for him and that had him out until 10pm. From this it is apparent that he takes my presence in his life for granted. This doesn't bother me, and makes me smile a bit, but it also makes me think. Just how content is he with the status quo. Are we just going to meander along this way until he literally trips across something more interesting? We have built an existence in common and aren't likely to suddenly cease getting along. I don't know, but for the time being I am content. I suspect I agonize over it more than he does, but my end is a touch more complex anyway, and I am the girl in the relationship. It's funny to entertain the prospect of an affair that spans a decade.
I continue to be frustrated in my job hunt, but with unemployment at 10% I can't complain but just so much. I was off work for a couple of days last week due to the Nor'Easter we had. It was nearly the equivalent of some of the tropical storms we've had in the area, and our work parking lot was mostly underwater. As per usual the water blew sideways in through the ventilation in our home so I need to remember to call a contractor to appraise the damage. I feel like I need to step up and make these things happen as I am the one with the free time. Sometimes, because of that, I wish I could stop having all the free time. Other times I wish I just had permission to keep on as I am so I could adapt and plan accordingly. I want to go places and do things and I need to know what kind of platform I'm working with. Of course, if I would just get it together and make self employment work it would be far less of an issue. Dream dream dream dream.
Tonight I'm supposed to go running with Jake in the neighborhood, it will be good for me as we're planning another hearty and well balanced dinner, nothing gained, nothing lost. I do feel good about working out a little harder though. I'd like to work on my speed a little I just have such an aversion to the treadmill lately. I've also been contemplating ways to break myself of my nearly debillitating carbohydrate habit. I just can't eat that much spinach, and pasta is so damned tasty.
All the rest is trivial. Dad is being really annoying with his god stuff. I just did a bunch of farming and crafting in WoW to make some stuff for an in game friend who is new. I have a niece now and no idea what to get her for Christmas. T has given me no idea what to expect for the holidays. Yep, all standard stuff. Oh yeah, mom gave away her dog, we are both relieved, and the dog seems happy.

Sum up

I'd started jogging with Jake again but it didn't last long. It's just too dark this time of year to go trekking out to the park at night. The last time we planned to we got rained out. I told T I was going to meet up with Jake and try to talk him out of going, then T ran into Jake and I at the grocery store where we'd gone to pick up some stuff for brownies for his office. T was acting oddly for the next few days and when I would ask what was wrong, he'd claim it was nothing. You can only bother a person so much before you actually create a problem so I left it alone. About a week later he confessed that it bugged him to see me at the store with Jake and then he gave me twenty questions about whose car we had taken, why I hadn't just called him to cancel, etc. T knows that Jake and I are friends and I know that it bothers him so I don't rub his nose in it, but when he goes after me over trivial shit I find it irritating. It would be one thing if he were privvy to the true nature of the relationship, but as he is not I find his reactions excessively needy and paranoid. Yes, I know, no one would take my side on that one but that's only because you all know there is more going on and I can't ask an audience to ignore that information. Bleh, I shall take my lumps.
Anyway, T had made plans to go out of town for a few days last week, and then he cancelled the trip the day before he was supposed to leave. I was annoyed. My temperament still doesn't handle changes of plans very well. He at least did reschedule and he's supposed to leave again tomorrow for a couple of days. He may or may not travel next week, and he's supposed to 'definitely' be travelling for a full week the week after that. I'm looking forward to the break. I am perfectly content having him around and my life is downright cozy. We get along well and I enjoy our routine, but I like having the variety sometimes, living the stupid fantasy for a while, and getting the hell away from my World of Warcraft habit. I can maybe watch some new movies, get some more reading done, and track down other entertainments. Plus Jake and I have tentative plans to watch the upcoming meteor shower. That should be fun if I can drag my butt out of bed at the appropriate and ungodly hour.
Halloween was on a Saturday this year. I prepared accordingly, but my entire cul de sac banded together and inadvertently thwarted me. They had a group set up complete with brazier in the middle of the street, effectively siphoning off my constituency. I have a lot of left over candy. We went out and joined them for a bit after I browbeat T into it. He claims to want to socialize more, but getting him to actually do it can be like pulling teeth....impacted wisdom teeth....growing sideways. Still, I think we both had a nice time once we got out there. I've gotten to know the folks next door a bit better, and I borrowed Big Bang Theory from them. Their eldest son has Asperger's so they're fans of the show. Now I need to finish watching it.
Things seem to be going well with Jake. It's an absurdly comfortable relationship. It was odd though, the other weekend he was mysteriously unavailable on Saturday, said he was working. I wound up going out to lunch with T and I swung by Jake's place on the way back. I hadn't seen his car at the office and I was curious to see if he was home, plus I was going to pick up my copy of Firefly, at least ostensibly. But that plan was foiled as both his cars were there plus an extra in the driveway. The other car looked a lot like the one he describes as belonging to the office manager where he works. I texted him to let him know I'd driven by, and why I'd done so in the interest of transparency, I needed him to know that I knew for some reason and that I had no intention of pursuing it. He did not elaborate on the situation and other than making humorous leading remarks to see my reaction, he has left the entire subject alone. The funniest part of the entire situation for me was my reaction to seeing that car there. It was almost exactly like my response to finding out he had slept with J. But while my body went into overdrive, my brain didn't spiral into gibbering incoherence and as far as I can tell, I'm fine. I don't know how fine, but I seem to have managed to blow it off, whatever it was.....or is.
And while there is a lot more commentary I could throw in here, I think this is enough for now.

The Whole Thing

My horoscope today was amusingly appropriate "You've a tendency to agonize about the next step. If you get stuck, mention it to others. They'll give you ideas you won't agree with, and you'll realize the direction you want to go." That's me, I flip coins over decisions to give me a better idea of what I don't want to do. Not that I'm agonizing over anything just now. The only thing I'm working on is that damned short story that I've been ignoring all week long. I've been trying to treat it like a research paper with a due date, but my head is too smart for me.
It's been a mixed week. I made a list of things to do and I've been actually getting them done, an oddly organized thing for me to do, but I've slacked on my dietary restrictiveness and backslidden as a result. I have been continuing to work out but not with the level of regimentation I need to. I cannot let myself get accustomed to this and it needs to change sooner than later.
In other news, I miss Jake. I haven't seen him since Sunday and our schedules haven't matched up well. The one evening I could have gone jogging with him I was wiped out and had lawn mowing on my agenda so I decided to forgo. We had an odd conversation last night about other people's relationships. He has the usual collection of zany married friends who are varying stages of miserable a good deal of the time and we were speculating about why and what sorts of expectations go into maintaining a warped relationship. So it's easy enough to pick apart someone else if you know them well at all and see what sorts of underpinnings there might be to sponsor their behaviors, but it's harder to look at yourself. I asked him speculatively what he thought his quirks might be but either he doesn't see them, or is invested in not acknowledging them. Not a productive line of inquiry in any case. He's far too intelligent to be neurotic, but I do see him as excessively emotionally guarded, something I can't exactly call him out on as I could accuse myself of the same thing. I think I am bad for him, I love him, but I'm not healthy for him. He's not healthy for himself necessarily, he's just less likely to change if I'm helping to enable the status quo. Selfish of me, I want him but don't want to rely on him. He doesn't want to be relied on. Just more reminders of why he got along so well with J. Unbelievable that that still hurts like it does. It was my very closest and worst encounter with rejection. What a flimsy soul I am. Then, maybe not. I am not sure that more experience with rejection would have helped it feel any less awful.
T continues to be a bit stressed over work issues. He keeps taunting me with the prospect of travel plans which never materialize because he's so busy. This is my favorite time of year and I'd give a lot to be free to spend more of it with Jake, curled in his bed, around his incredibly warm body. It would make me happy to be free to pursue this with him openly but I would have had to have married another kind of man entirely in order to do so. No sense dreaming, or at least if I'm going to dream, I should do something productive with it.....like write!

Make Haste Slowly

Jake has decided to get back into running and I have been requisitioned for purposes of diversion while participating in onerous activity. I've finally worked myself back up to a steady 3 miles so extending to the 4 that he likes to run isn't outside my abilities. I need the extra calorie burn in either case. Even when eating moderately I can only manage to maintain my weight, losing extra pounds requires fun levels of extra effort, oh goody. At least it's a fantastic time of year to be outdoors working out. It's funny how nostalgic I get as this is the beginning of my third autumn hanging out with Jake. So far T isn't giving me much grief about running with him either, mostly due to the fact that he's absurdly busy I think.
Things aren't going well at the company and there is a very real chance it could be forced into bankruptcy. T's enthusiasm staves off most of the apprehension though. He has too many resources and too much motivation for something like that to cripple him. While circumstances may conspire against him I just don't have the energy to borrow trouble that doesn't seem indicated. I do hate waiting and only planning very short term. I dislike the uncertainty but knowing that my idea of discomfort is most people's experience of reality curtails my ability to dwell on it at length.
T went to the office early this morning and Jake had been hinting broadly that I ought to get away some morning and go over to his place, so I took the opportunity. It's something I fantasize about doing regularly, give the positive experiences I have of waking up next to him. He's ridiculously warm and pleasant smelling, and there are usually perks. So, I will smell like him all day today. It's distracting but in a nice way.

waning philosophical

I wonder sometimes if he likes me, or simply likes that I so obviously like him. I know it's not that simple, but I wonder how large a contributing factor it is. I think of myself as someone who has a fair measure of self confidence. I'm not especially insecure, I don't think I'm conceited either. I know that depending on my mood my self perception gets skewed in one direction or the other, but I think that my constant exposure to Jake has made me hyper-conscious of myself in regard to him. I am aware of my shortcomings and the ways in which I fail to divert or entertain those around me. I am able to be interesting if you are willing to be interested in me. I like science and science fiction. I like to think about the context the world provides and what the implications are even though philosophers have been wrestling with those concepts for literally thousands of years. I like to imagine things in a way more pleasing to me, and I like to make up stories. I can be clever sometimes if given a good forum, but I'm not really funny. I know how to be a good audience though. I'm not ugly, or fat, I am not skinny, and I am cute, or pretty. Is this enough? Why does this topic make me sad, I can feel the lump in my throat. I think I wish I had a better idea of how he felt about me. I don't know why. Or rather, I don't know what difference it would make or how exactly it's relevant. All the little things he does for me demonstrate that he's fond of me and cares about me but I will never know if he wants more or less of what we have and what that means. It has actually been two years now and this isn't ending or even really slowing down. It seems to be maintaining a constant pace with no sign of an end. How long can it be like this? T will probably have various business trips of varying length and frequency a few times a year that will give me little vacations, and the demands on my weekends will mostly continue to be light for the foreseeable future. It's odd to think of this as indefinitely sustainable. Why? I work under the assumption that Jake does want more and that eventually someone suitable will wander into his path, but his life is a fairly closed environment so it's anyone's guess how long it could take for that to happen. At the same time will it eventually wear on him that I can't go on vacation with him. We can't plan days at a time together. Not being inside his head, I just can't know. I think sometimes if our roles were reversed (which I doubt they ever would have been because he seems rather genuinely offended at the idea of straying himself) I would have wanted to go forward with the relationship or terminate it by now. Maybe I'm projecting and the fact that he hasn't expressed discontent makes me wonder if he wants me after all.
But I am safe where I am and I know that. It's just hard to remember because of how ridiculously happy I am with Jake. I spent all afternoon with him yesterday. I read a book while he played a game. We laid out in the backyard in his hammock for a while and dozed in and out. We went to the grocery store, forgot batteries, forgot to return a game, got food for lunch, went back to the store, forgot the game again, got food for dinner, I watched him drift off to sleep while watching Wrath of Kahn, and I loved it all because I enjoyed myself and am still besotted with the man. I slept well, woke up to more sex and will have a good and happy day knowing I get to see him again tonight. I will miss him when T gets home and resent being kept away from him. And yet....I stay where I am. Maybe someday I'll sort it all out.

yesterday

Yesterday I was supposed to give Jake a ride to work so he could collect his borrowed truck from a coworker who'd fixed it for him when it died. I got a text message saying that plan had been scrapped because the guy hadn't had a chance to work on it in the evening like he'd planned due to a fight with his wife, but then later in the morning I got another message last minute saying the truck was fixed after all and oh crap. Me not being one to pass up an opportunity to see Jake told him that I'd go ahead and drop him off and just be late to work. No big deal. I've been at this place for few years and while I do have my issues, reliability isn't one of them. I tried calling in to tell them but our archaic voicemail system was down. I was only about 20 minutes late in either case. It was funny though because when I went out to my car to leave I realized I'd left my garage door open all night and a hawk had flown in there and gotten trapped. It couldn't just be a normal neighborhood bird like a finch or a sparrow, no, it had to be a hawk with his shiny predatorial beak and daunting wing span. He was a stupid hawk too. Somehow the large 10x12 opening to my garage didn't register with him as a point of exit. So I locked the door to the house and left the garage open all day in hopes he'd leave on his own, which he did.
I managed to put off going jogging in favor of levelling my paladin and just generally playing around. I felt badly about that but managed to get a hold of T just because I was about to pry myself out the door and he opted to go jog with me. Made it a little more distracting but damn it was hot out. I need to go again today, absolutely need to, but it's like an oven out there and I will not want to.
Anyway, today has been far more ordinary than yesterday but something is afoot here at the office and no one will say what. Mostly they seem not to know, but the ones who obviously do know are playing it close to the vest. One worries about being shut down. In this economy it could happen to our backwater little station. I realize this is less of a problem for me than for most of the folks working here but it still makes me apprehensive. I shall keep my ear to the ground.

Hampster Wheel

The man is out of town again on a business trip. He left on a Sunday which means I had a partially indulgent weekend. The boy toy and I went out to see a movie, Dist. 9, which I though was fantastic. It was one of the more original films I've watched lately. We had a good time, which almost carried us through the lawn mower debacle that followed. He'd ordered a mower online through a local store, but when we went to pick it up it wasn't actually in stock. There followed a series of strings, hoops, and entertaining set backs. He was finally reduced to ordering one that wouldn't be in for several more days. Yay, return trip. But it was fun being the girlfriend. Associating myself with him gives me warm fuzzies. He's attractive, intelligent, and funny. So yeah, then we went back to his place, drank a little, watched Harold and Kumar, and made some bean dip, yum. I forgot my pillow so I didn't sleep all that well, but being awake there is nicer than being awake other places.
Yesterday was his birthday and he took part of a day off. I ran some errands to pick up a few things for him like cake and a type of liquor he likes, before going over there. Also got my paladin to level 60. Now to decide if I should do the mount quest or just buy the riding skill. I'm leaning toward the latter. Anyway, I went over to his place again and spent the afternoon there. We went to catch Harry Potter in the evening and he took me to one of his favorite restaurants afterward. On the whole I would have to say it was an entirely pleasant birthday celebration. Also the morning sex has been nice. Birthday sex should be a right.
Now of course I've put on a couple pounds from all the eating and procrastinating on exercise so today has been set aside for yardwork and jogging as well as potential spinach salads. The man is coming home tomorrow so this will be my last evening with boy toy. He has dinner with a family member this evening and I don't know how long that will keep him. I'm thinking of renting a movie for when he gets back, but it doesn't matter particularly. Entertainment continues to be very easy with him. I still very much enjoy his company.
I still don't quite know what he thinks of us, or if he thinks about it. Sometimes he starts to say things and doesn't finish, but I can't make myself pursue it much. I don't really need to know things people don't really want to share and I"m content to leave be as a rule. I hope he doesn't think I dont notice though. I hope he's not unhappy. I just don't know where he will wind up and I wonder if I am a legitimate problem and what sort of ramifications my continued participation in his life will have. Yeah, time will tell.