Healing
Avah | October 4, 2008
It’s been 3 months now. And only 3 months. It feels like an eternity longer. I spent the month of July not thinking much about it, which was good. August I spent being angry. Not so good. And September I’ve been sad.
It’s not that I want Jefferson back in my life (at least the rational part doesn’t). Believe you me, I don’t. It’s just that I’m adjusting to something that was basically a constant in my life for 2 years being gone now. For good, once and for all. This isn’t like the other times. We can’t talk and work things through. We’re no longer a rock. (Jefferson once described us as solid as a rock when we were going through a rough patch and I was thinking of leaving.) We lost our strength a long, long time ago.
Not everything about being with Jefferson sucked. Obviously, or I wouldn’t have stayed for so long. I have plenty of blog entries here documenting the good times we shared. And I think it’s perfectly logical and reasonable that I would miss those times. Except for at the very end, I would still be excited to see him and spend time with him (and I was still shaving and wearing nice underwear too!). That same giddy excitement I felt from day 1 lasted 2 years. I loved how he used to touch me (though I’ve been missing that for longer than 3 months now) and I could never get enough of him. I felt something for Jefferson that I really never experienced with anyone else. And I can’t explain the hows or whys. If I knew, I’d be torn between wanting to protect myself from ever letting it happen again, or searching for that kind of connection with another person.
It wasn’t supposed to end up like this. This isn’t what I had planned.
If anything, I should have stayed broken up with him the 1st time and then we wouldn’t be where we are now. Not friends. Not speaking. Not in each other’s life.
The break-up was…awful. But I was at my wit’s end. Everything I was doing wasn’t helping to save our relationship (probably because I was the only one doing something). The lies continued. The distance between us grew further.
You know I never saw his new place? He never makes dates, so of course I was never invited to see it. And then since I was trying to be helpful, I was trying to give him space so he had time to move, unpack, write his book, etc. But I was so hurt and infuriated when I started reading all these accounts of all these other people spending time with him. Including new people. This was days before our trip to Chicago.
It was that moment that I decided I couldn’t be with him anymore.
I think I did a pretty good job of hiding that while in Chicago, if I do say so myself.
I guess I ended it like I did because I didn’t want a repeat of last summer’s break-up to happen (me going back to him). I didn’t want to be manipulated back into the relationship. I didn’t want to keep being hurt by his indifference to my feelings and his not taking any responsibility for his actions.
I don’t know what made this year different than last, but whatever I did successfully severed all ties. Now we’re not even able to be friends.
Part of me wishes we could be. I do miss just having him be in my life. For even just the smallest reasons.
Thursday night I used a 4×5 view camera for the 1st time and really, really loved it. It was so cool and so unlike any other photographic process I’ve done before. It’s amazing how different cameras can be and how that can alter the photo taking a process. My fully manual camera is so different from my auto-focus digital. Using a TLR is different from an SLR. And now I finally know the charms of a view camera.
I developed the film last night (tray development in complete darkness) and was so pleased with my images!! I only took 4. The 1st one was messed up because the camera moved on a shaky tripod, but other than that it was good exposure. The 2nd one I didn’t like because some things were out of focus and I think I may have had a bellow off center. But the last 2 were really nice. Great exposure, even density. And nice pictures too!
Plus I was also shooting at night so I had to use my reciprocity failure chart and make sure I was metering correctly. I think I might go out again tonight to shoot another building that I liked. (I’m very into architecture, not sure why I haven’t pursued that more…) And then Sunday night my classmate and I are going to go set up by the river to get the skyline (I’ll let her discover the hard way it’s cliche and not all that interesting, instead of bursting her excitement prematurely).
And I write all of this because this is what I’d want to be sharing with Jefferson (and I guess I am sharing it with him since I know he’s reading). He got my excitement (or was really good at patronizing me about all my art geekiness). I miss having him there to run to excited and wanting to share what cool new thing I learned.
I remember the hurt and frustration, but I also remember the love and happiness. And the fun, playful times (like the time I got him hogtied at Shibaricon and then tickled him and tortured his nipples, hehe). And the tender times (like when he’d just hold me and lay with me when I was having a bad week and just needed his warmth to feel better).
Maybe we could be friends. Maybe we couldn’t. I don’t know. It’s probably not all that important. I don’t even know if being friends is even a good idea. I just wish I knew what it took to be less sad about everything. And if all it takes is time, well then hurry the fuck up.
Tags: 4x5 camera, Art, break-up, feelings, friendship, Jefferson, photography, Random musings, retrospect, sex blog, Shibaricon, view camera
