Tiana // equivocality

Catan Catan Strip-Catan

We’ve started making wagers in our multiplayer Magic games, small baubles or other people’s property or an half-hour of labour¹ to add another dimension to the gameplay. For a particular three-way match, I anted my attendance at Catan Catan Strip-Catan cause I couldn’t make up my mind on going. Another busy week meant I was tired of being social — with the possibility of being naked in such a situation, no less — but it still sounded like a night that shouldn’t be passed up.

Socks are usually the first to go, but the pair counts as one point. And Brandon isn’t playing, he’s just half-naked for reasons.

Tiana and Shawn teamed up on me, since they wanted me to go more than they wanted to win what I had offered. However, they’ve also been making me feel comfortable with myself lately (the cuddles always help), so I was okay with being tackle-out at some point during the party. I ended up winning all my Catan matches anyway, and never needed to take off more than an accoutrement.

Great when you need the dishes done after a party, but I’m more likely to take a massage. [↩]

tin cans and string for years

Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor.

—Alexis Carrel

I’ve been discovering that I don’t know how to take care of myself. Not in a practical, everyday sense, but a cognitive one. Consistent psychological abuse during my formative years meant I never had the chance to develop some important life skills, like how to nurture my emotional needs, how to make mistakes, and how to view myself without judgment. The poison was in the wound, you see, and the wound wouldn’t heal.

So far I’ve just started recognizing these issues in therapy, and it all makes me feel damaged and defective, likely why I’ve been hiding these parts of my life from others for so long. But I’ve been hiding them from myself most of all. It’s hard to go through the painful but necessary process of grieving when I’m alone; always easier to ignore things and keep going.

I asked Tiana to help me through this, cause now I know I can’t do it by myself. It wasn’t easy. Even the simple idea of asking for help makes me anxious. People who’ve had major roles in my life have hurt me or let me down in a very significant way, so trusting others has always been hard, and I’ve avoided being vulnerable for so long because of that.

Luckily, Tiana responded the way I needed her to, and it’s been a great comfort to give myself up to someone I can trust. To be able to cry in front of a person without feeling guilty about my emotions or how I’m making them feel. To be able to talk to someone who’s receptive and attentive and gentle and caring and appreciates my openness as well. To be the little spoon, cause everyone needs to be held sometimes. She lets me let go, and for the first time, I’ve been able to surrender myself fully and still believe that I’ll be okay. I can sigh with relief instead of sadness.

These are still baby steps though, and the whole process is terrifying. My sense of control is what makes me feel safe, even if it’s detrimental to my growth, and I’m still learning how to give that up. But I tell myself it’s progress nonetheless, which is what I need now.

thoughtful things

I’ve always believed the best gifts are things we would want but wouldn’t buy ourselves cause we couldn’t justify the purchase (regardless of how much it costs), or something handmade by the giver. Good gifts also happen just because, not necessarily due to a birthday or holiday. Lisa says this ideal makes me an intimidating gift-giver. John used to call me a professional consumer, cause I have a tendency to purchase what I want without hesitation, which I imagine makes me even harder to shop for.

Recently, people have been giving me awesome things for absolutely no reason at all, and each gift is thoughtful, practical, and just my taste. It must be really hard to find presents that will make me happy, but that just makes them all the more special when they do.

These were in my mailbox one night. The event was actually a strip-spelling competition, and Shawn won “best stripper”, the reward being the CD of cat purring. The other guy won the “best speller” award and got the book. They had to follow him out of the cafe and ask him for it, cause it was totally meant for me obviously. Shawn has said I’m a cat for as long as I’ve known him.

I had tea with Heather in a cafe last winter, and we had a conversation about design and how satisfying it felt to hold these mini teacups. Somehow, she remembered and found them and bought me a set. They’re mouth-blown so each one is unique, and insulated by double-wall borosilicate glass.

Lisa got me this book safe, made out of an edition of Ernest Hemingway’s Selected Letters, for secrets big and small. The choice of what book to use in making a book safe is very important, as it has to blend in with a library collection, but also not be so recent or interesting as to make someone picking it up.

It has little magnets embedded in the frame and cover to make sure it stays closed even when stored vertical. This little detail was what swayed her decision to go with this particular crafter, and something you learn is very important if you ever try to keep your stash hidden from…uhhh…cats.

reduction

Heather made reservations for us (and Sergey) at the Back Lane Café last week. We hadn’t seen each other since the summer, before they were homeless ¹ and I started recovering. Last time I saw her, she left me with a takeout Hintonburger and a meditation audiobook that she hoped would help me feel better. It was so sweet that she didn’t understand at all what I was going through, but tried so hard to help with very thoughtful gifts anyway.

This time, she wouldn’t let me pay, even though she treated me last time as well, and she said please with such heartfelt intent that I knew she’d be hurt if I didn’t give her the honour. We’d been playing phone tag for weeks up to that point, and between their careers and camping, they could only spare themselves for a meal sans tea or dessert. It made me realize how precious their time is nowadays, and the fact that they made the time to see me meant so much more than the two hours we spent catching up over a great food and conversation.

Poached shrimp salad, with Niagara nectarines, bibb lettuce (for it’s tender texture), endive, lime, and hazelnut dressing. An appetizer good enough for a main.

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They got evicted due to an unsympathetic landlord, couldn’t find a suitable place to stay, and ended up putting as many of their possessions as possible in storage and selling the rest. Luckily, one of their friends needed a house-sitter, and it gave them enough time to find a place. [↩]

a million distractions to keep me warm

Two hours later, I woke up without any sense of direction.

Now I’m trying to figure out how to stay awake so I can be tired enough to fall asleep again. The fatigue isn’t enough to keep me down. I had a big breakfast, something I haven’t done in as long as I can remember, owing to the fact that they used to be the ritual of a person with weekends and a need for rituals.

At some point along the way, I realized it’s easier to take care of my friends and help them fix their problems. I can’t figure out why I’ve avoided dealing with my own, but I decided that as long as my distractions are fulfilling and healthy in themselves, there’s nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, there’s nothing else one can do.

In turn, they’re helping me through this odd passage of time, where I find myself unsure of what to do or feel. I’ve had to open myself up to give them a chance to help me. It always leaves me vulnerable at first, but when they listen and understand and support me, all my insecurities go away. It’s a tangible love that goes far beyond words and intentions.

going out in style

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Cause I want to has been the reason for everything lately.

I started to understand how we’re all dying in the Silvia Plath sense of the word, so I decided I might as well go out in style. Vonnegut got it right with his Pall Malls, though I choose not to add tobacco to the mix.

Steve draws something really good or really bad.

I quite consistently get my ass kicked at the drafts that Seth hosts, his crew always being made up of veteran players. The advantage is that I always walk away having learned a thing or two, and getting enough new cards to build on a concept is a nice little bonus. If someone told me I’d be spending money on a collectable card game at this age, I never would have believed it.

Magic has been keeping me busy in a good way. It’s never just about playing, it’s also about being around friends, and the camaraderie, and getting fat on Steph’s amazing meals. Those are exactly the things I need in my life.

#1, beef rare, every time.

The red bean ice is a treat I don’t get often enough.

It was hard balancing my time around others and the time I needed alone. I have needs that require the company of certain people, and when I’m trying to meet those needs, that often leaves me feeling very overstimulated. The exhaustion had been giving me flare-ups, not to mention headaches that dulled the senses and eloquence.

Now I have some breathing room, and a chance to do all the little things I’d been too occupied to handle, like catching up with people I haven’t seen in a while, getting the car fixed (from $9k worth of hail damage), filing my taxes (from two years ago), changing the strings on my uke to high-G tuning, or just watching a movie. I’m still in night mode though, where I tend to get the most done after 10pm, and I find myself staving off sleep to do just one more thing.

Root beer floaaaaaaaaaaaaat.

I want to travel somewhere, cause it feels like it’s time to step out of my comfort zone again. I haven’t made enough of my own experiences and memories for too long. But I’m in too unstable a place right now, and I probably will be for at least another year or so. Ironic that it’s instability I crave. It’s left me wondering what I should be exploring here.

just another diamond day

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In the middle of this heat wave has come a hailstorm that’s dented the shit out of every panel of my car, followed by a series of uncharacteristically cool nights. I slept with the windows open, and the breeze kept me content to be wrapped in my duvet until waking.

It may as well be a lazy Sunday morning in Autumn as I write this, sitting by the warm light coming through the blinds, waxing nostalgic about more than I care to admit. I’ve been trying to write, but I don’t know what I’ve been feeling lately.

Maybe it’s cause I haven’t had time to think. And it’s only going to get busier in the foreseeable future. I’d like to spend more time alone, but that seems a luxury that’s quickly disappearing. When I’m trying to nurture the relationships that are important to me, it’s hard to refuse a hangout, and making regular plans quickly fills the week.

Tiana taps two swamps to add two black mana to her mana pool, and increase her sexiness to nerds everywhere by 500%.

Probably a good thing, cause I also feel like I’ve been spending too much time alone during my bouts of introversion.

It’s also been a while since I stepped out of my comfort zone. I guess I did enough traveling last year to know where my boundaries are. Since returning from my sojourn in the Old Dominion, I’ve been too comfortable, and slowly I’m being forced out of it as life catches up with me. But I know I can handle things, cause I’ve done it before.

So I’m trying to enjoy what I have now, caught somewhere between day and night, isolation and over-stimulation, work and play, summer and fall.