Some people....

Who asks a friend to borrow $17k to get out of a jam and then stops communicating with them?
I didn't think I had any friends left that would do that... guess I was wrong again.

That is a LOT of money to ask a friend and/or her family to come up with at the drop of a hat, ya know. I have spent the last several years trying to not ask for a thing from my parents, trying to figure it out on my own. I don't think I would ask them for that kind of money for myself, but I asked for him. The worst part is my parents thought about it, talked about it and said YES. I couldn't believe it. They trust him THAT much. I trusted him THAT much. After being burned by helping others out in the same way, WE trusted THAT MUCH. 

And then, unexplained, our help was no longer needed. Followed by dead air. No "Hey, thanks for trying." No "Tell your parents I appreciate what they were willing to do for me." Not a damn word.
What kind of person does that? How could I think they were my friend.... one of my BEST friends? 

What do I say now when my parents ask what happened or how he is doing or if things got sorted out? That was the last "Please can you help? " that I had available to me and it was wasted. Wasted on something I thought was important, on someone I thought was important.
This time there is no going back. Every ounce of credibility I have spent so long trying to build is gone. Crushed. Smashed. Wiped out. Never to be seen again. 

All that remains is the person that I thought I knew, that everyone warned me about, that I gave up so much for.... that I would have done anything for.... that person is now just someone I used to know.

Fuck Depression

This may come off as insensitive. I apologize now if it does.

I'd rather have Cancer than Depression. Here's why:

• Cancer has treatments that either kill it or kill you.
• You know where you stand with Cancer.
• People understand Cancer.

I never know what is going to send me into a tailspin. I never know if I am going to wake up able to leave my bed. I constantly want out. I constantly want to run away, like the depression won't follow me wherever I go. I feel bad for my children every day for having to grow up with me as their primary caregiver and I can't even handle my own feelings. How am I supposed to teach them to manage theirs? 

I drive to and from work in tears half the time. I try to put on my face when I get to my parents house so they don't worry. I hate feeling helpless to myself and looking stupid to the ones I reach out to for help. I reach out wrong. I reach out by attacking them for not being there. They don't know I need them. They have their own lives to live. I start fights with them so that I have a reason to feel angry and lost and alone. If they fight back, and they do, it only fuels whats going on inside me. Never do they reply with " I'm sorry you are having a bad day, is there anything I can do for you?" That just leads me to believe they don't know me. No one really knows me. No one knows my anger. No one knows how hard I battle against the vengeance that runs through me every day. No one knows that it takes every muscle I have to stop myself from smashing everything in my way sometimes. My fists are clenched. No one knows that I KNOW I will be alone forever. I know because you can't live with me, I can't live with me. How could anyone ever live with me, let alone really truly love me. I'm a mess and I have spent 30 something years trying to get a reign on myself with no luck. The minute I think I have it the demon rears its head again and I'm at the bottom of my hole and I don't want to dig myself out anymore.

I have had friends, boyfriends, lovers, even a husband who have dealt with depression. I was sympathetic to their feelings at every turn. I tried endlessly to be everything they needed to me to be. I tried to help in every way humanly possible. I tried patience, kindness, gifts, humor, drugs, silence... everything. Why did none of them ever try to do anything for me? 

My mom tries to buy my happiness. She doesn't understand depression. She doesn't have it, not like me or my dad. She has watched us both for years battle this and has no idea what it feels like to be in our shoes or what to do to help. My sister has always told me I was better than whatever seemed like the current problem. She has always told me how she envies how I just laugh and carry on through whatever I have been through. What are my choices? She was lucky enough to find an amazing man to love her and start a family with and I've always felt bad for her having to watch me ride this whirlwind. She doesn't need this in her life. My poor kids. They love me so much. I love them so much too. I worry everyday that my inability to keep up with their messes, which causes me to hide in my room so as to not deal with it at all, will have an effect on them. Will they grow up and say " I don't know, my mom spent most of her time hiding in her room or sleeping." Will they know that I wanted to try. I wanted to come home and do projects. I wanted to go on walks and adventures with them. I want to read to them and play games and laugh, but I can't.  I can't because inside I am crying and outside I am doing everything I can not to show them I am broken. I can't because when they argue over who sits where in the car or who touched who first or who is making what annoying noise I just want to scream and cry and quit. I don't want to anymore at that point. I just want to go back to my room and go back to sleep.

I wish I had Cancer instead of Depression. Then people would know I needed help. They would know how to help me. They would know what is wrong. I would have some idea of when it might end.

Summer Vacation 2016 - Day 1

First day of summer vacation! Ahhhhh.... everyone should be up and smiling and ready to take on the summer.... everyone except my kids. My kids have decided they want to sleep in for the first time EVER! I have to go to work and typically they expect you to show up on time to those kind of places. I ended up arguing them out the door in the same clothes they had on the day before, no breakfast, hair a mess and me half ass ready for work. Looks like a good day is rolling in.

No. No good days allowed for me.

Work is work, nothing interesting going on there... except using every free second to try and come up with games and ideas for the Pokemon Pool Party Tyler is having in 2 weeks for his birthday. This is the first time he wanted a theme that wasn't motorcycles. First time for a few things at this party. This time I'm not inviting the usual suspects. This time, its just Tyler's' friends and my immediate family and friends at my parents house. He will be at his dads on his actual birthday so hopefully he is doing something with everyone else for that. Check back for a report.

...Back to summer and it being the first day and things are supposed to be shiny and fun and freedom should be running through my kids veins.... that's how I felt the first day of summer vacation when I was growing up. Times are a changin though.
When I arrived to pick up my kids from my parents house, already late from having to stop at 2 different stores on the way home, I was greeted by Joe, who was wearing a shirt that was completely torn down one side... all the way through... why even keep it on at that point? He says a girl did it. Perfect. You are 9 and a girl just ripped your shirt off. Excellent. It was then that I noticed the charred pieces of skateboard sitting on the dumpster... what the???? I'm told there is a troubled youth living in the area and he thought it would be a grand idea to steal my kids skateboard out of the front yard, take it to his home and set it on fire, and then bring the pieces back and drop them back in the yard. This child has obviously never met my dad. My dad has a VERY SCARY angry face. Seriously, you can feel the daggers shooting from his eyes and the tension in the air that makes you wonder if he is going to just stand there or rip your body limb from limb before you can yell for Help!
My dad, led by a gang of elementary school kids, went to this kids mothers house to speak to her. When they arrived the mom, dad and kid were all in the yard. From my dads story, he looked at that kid with Tyler's broken and burnt skateboard in his hands and said "Did you do this?" Nothing. "Did YOU do this to my grandsons skateboard?" The dad tried to step in. My dad looked him right in the eye, and I KNOW he did, and said "I'm not talking to you. I'm talking to him." Looked at the kid and said again "Did YOU do this to my grandsons skateboard?" The kid answered, "Yes".
The parents tried to offer a new one but my dad told them no thanks. He also told them that if he finds out this kids is setting other things in the neighborhood on fire or stealing or anything that it doesn't matter that this kid is in elementary school, he WILL call the police. Don't for 1 second think he won't. My dad spoke this way, with that look on his face, to some neighborhood trouble maker when I was about the same age as my kids are now. I will NEVER forget that moment. I bet that kid didn't either. Hopefully this kid doesn't either. Its a VERY SCARY scary face.

So after picking up my kids and their torn clothes and burnt belongings I headed home where we found a package I ordered sitting on the porch. I ordered more Styrofoam balls for Joe's chair. He had smooshed the thing completely flat somehow. I told Joe to not open them because it would make a mess and to wait until I was ready.
He tells me that it accidentally opened.....

 

That looks like an accident right????
My response, and I MAY have been yelling when I said it, was "THIS was NOT an accident. THIS was a CHOICE. Watch me right now while I make a CHOICE." As I unplugged the xbox and walked out of the room.

...That was it for me. Nothing got done that needed to get done. I went to bed with a MUCH bigger mess than I started the day with but I can tell you that not once did a kid come calling my name or ask me for ANYTHING for the rest of the night.

Let's hope day 2 goes a little bit smoother.

Ouch

It feels like someone dropped a brick on my heart.
Ya know how it seems like there is one person that can lift you up, that no matter how bad of a day or week you have had there is that one person who can always turn it around? You look forward to the possibility that you might get to see that person and the world will adjust itself back to a good place.
...and then the first thing that person says or does is out of the norm and effects you exactly the opposite of what you had hoped for. Their actions come out of left field and smack you across the face with a razor blade. Your heart instantly drops to the basement and then an elephant sits on it. Its heavy. So heavy.

I don't like this. What I don't like about it most is the power it has over me. The power to drag my brain down with it, down to sadness and pain. The power to cause me actual physical symptoms that leave me feeling hollow and heavy inside.

How does an emotional feeling cause physical pain?