Thursday, May 7, 2009

the funk with tears

April 28th, 2009
He is breathing heavy. I asked “what are you doing??” He said he finished exercising. He did this for he needed clarity. Needs it because he is in a funk and exercise should help him.
He needs clarity, huh? Tell me more about this funk I say.
He says it began last night when I asked if he was excited to see me. He should be. He normally is jumping up and down with excitement to see me and while he is looking forward to it, he is not at that level of excitement.
Oh REALLLY?
He says it's in all aspects of his life. At work he is drowning. He can not keep up. There is just too much to do and nothing is getting done, more work keeps adding and nothing is getting cleared. This is what it feels like to him, not what is really happening.
This is the NFL draft time. Normally he is glued to the TV and he finds it fascinating and interesting. Not now. He has not paid any attention to it.
Normally he cleans his house but he has not done this. There is no energy to do it. Nothing is bringing him excitement. Nothing is funny, nothing is happy, he is in a funk. He needs clarity to figure out what he needs to do.
I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to react. He just admitted he is not excited to see me. Do I take it personally???
I ask if we can talk about heavy hitting topics or should I wait. I did not want to stress him out more.
He said to talk.
I start slow. Stuttering. I don’t want to stress him out … but things need to be talked about. I said I was going to bring this up on Thursday but might as well now. I told him I was not happy anymore. I felt there were stress cracks and we are drifting apart. We are not seeing each other, the phone calls we have are short and he is not interested. We are not laughing. I did not think I was needy but I feel neglected and I feel like I am walking on egg shells to not hurt him or upset him.
This conversation goes on a huge turn. He thinks the world of me. However he did not know if he wanted to be with me. He needed to figure out what to do.
I started crying. I did not expect to hear this! I told him “don’t you know you are NEVER to break up on the phone!!” Oh my GAWD, this is a Mr P phone call all over again!!!!
He said he was not doing that. He was being honest with what he felt and he was confused. He does not know if he wants to end it. He does not know what he wants. We could talk more about this Thursday.
I asked “how am I to react to this? Why would I see you on Thursday if we are ending things?” He just said he did not know if he wanted to be with me!
He went on to say it was everything. Again, he was not into anything. Not just me. He did want to see me Thursday. Hopefully I would not decide I did not want to see him. He was not breaking up with me.
I told him about Mr P’s break up. The whole “something is wrong with me” and “you deserve better” and how it was the nicest break up. This sounds like a repeat to me. I went on to tell him I have never been married because there is a thing I do. There is Mr Right and Mr Right Now. I have been proposed to several times. I always said no. I was selfish and stayed in the relationship because it was nice RIGHT NOW but I knew we were not long term. I knew we were not a match. I stayed because something was good and it was good for right then. With everything he has told me tonight, I think he thinks I am Miss Right Now and not Miss Right. There is nothing wrong with knowing someone is not the one. We just need to end the relationship and not keep it going. It is easier to end it now than later.
Silence.
I then said "I feel like I am trying to get you to break up with me."
He said "It sounds like you are."
Silence.
I start crying again. What I did not tell him is I finally thought I found Mr Right … he is not a Mr Right Now.
He still says nothing.
I then said “Well with everything said and done at least you learned I am emotional and I cry a lot.”
He starts laughing. It gets louder. It turns into a belly laugh. It was a pure laugh. It was contagious and I started laughing too. This was the first time we have laughed like this for awhile. It felt good. It felt right.
“Oh, Mr Big Man.” I said this and start thinking. I know he likes me. He actually said 'you know I think the world of you'. I think I know a way to figure out if he is over me or if this is stress.
“When you were in Nashville, did you think about me?”
“Yes.”
“What did you think about?”
“What you were doing. How work was. Were you having a good time?”
“Did you miss me?”
“Yes.”
“Really? You missed me?”
“Yes.”
“Mr Big Man … SNAP OUT OF THIS! Come back to me.” My voice breaks.
He whispers “I am trying.”
I start to cry again. He just broke my heart. He sounded so lost. Oh please, please make it back to me I think.
He begins “I don’t know if we are we dying a slow death in the relationship or is this all related to the funk I am in. I need to figure that out. Maybe I should not have brought this up until I figure everything out …it really bothered me when you said you were not happy. You should be happy. Also you got me thinking when you asked last night if I was excited to see you. It made me realize things are not how they should be. My parents see this, my co-workers are seeing this and YOU are seeing this. I don’t know what is going on. I need clarity. I need to figure all of this out. My parents said they were praying for me.”
“Where do we go from here? How am I to take all of this news?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to be with you. I don’t know - “
My Gawddamn cell phone battery dies! At that time!!!! I hurry to get the charger and plug it in. Damn thing never even beeped to tell me it was low! I hate this phone!! Hate it! And at that exact time!! Are you freaking kidding me!? Perfect! I hope he does not think I hung up on him on purpose. AND WHAT THE hell is he doing? That was such a bull shit answer. Power UP would you already! Damn phone! OK, wow, I have a voice mail. I do not check it I hit send twice and call him.
“Hi.”
“My battery died.”
“You are plugged in now?”
“Yes.”
“I was talking then you were gone. I called you back and it went straight to voice mail. I figured something was wrong with the phone.”
“Mr Big Man, while I was waiting for the phone to come back on I realized this is bull shit. How can you not know if you want to be with me? That is such bull shit. You either do or you don’t. Plus you said you do not laugh, you said you are in a funk. Well, in case you did not realize this we laughed tonight. We had a big laugh. Did we not?”
“Yes we did. We did.” I could hear a smile in his voice.
“Well there you go. And you know what else? I was going to bring this up on Thursday but now I think it is a bad idea. However I was going to see if we should introduce the kids to the other. I know I said 6 months and it has been 5. I thought it was a good idea for you are neglecting things and I am neglecting this. I also know it is scary. I would hate to introduce you to my daughter and then find out a week later you decided we ARE dying a slow death and you end it.”
“Yeah! Not a good thing. After we figure out what is going on we can go back to that topic.”
“Another thing, we do not have it easy. We really have to work hard to make this work. We both have kids, we have opposite custody schedules. With the 9:00 visits, it is draining. It is hard. But if it is what we want it will work. We both need to put in the effort. I am not asking you if you know if you want to marry me tomorrow, next month or next year. I am asking if you want to be with me. If you want to learn more about me. It should be a simple and easy answer. It should be.”
He draws in a deep breath and lets it out. He says nothing.
“If you decided to end this, how would you? Would you come right out and say it?”
“Yes. I would not drag you along. I would tell you it was over.”
“It is over?”
“Why don’t we reconvene on this tomorrow night? We both need our sleep. Hopefully I can snap out of this.”
I do not like that answer. “Well, OK. I guess I will keep you for one more night.”
“Yeah, you won’t give me a long time to figure this out.”
“Well I will give you days and maybe a week or so. A month? No. You should know if you want to be with me. You should know if you want to know more about me. Do you want me to text you tomorrow?” I usually send 2 texts a day. This has been our habit for months.
“Yeah … I … yeah, do that.”
We say out good nights.
I text Amy to call me. I text Sasha to call me. I text Melissa to call me. I need to talk to someone. I need to talk to someone. GAWD! This conversation had to end around mid-night. I check Gmail and see Melissa is online. I send an IM to see if she is really there. She is. I ask her to call me. She does. We talk. She makes me feel better.
I am afraid for tomorrow. I do not want this to end.
So much more was said than what I wrote. We did have more laughs. We had 3 good laughs. I cried more too. We talked about break ups more. I had to narrow it down otherwise you would be reading for an hour at work. I did not want to do that to you!
Some good news; he sounded tired but more upbeat by the end of the conversation.
I do not know how to act with him. He doesn’t know if he wants to be with me. Sounds like he is over to me, doesn’t it? I don’t even know what to say on the texts! They were funny and sexy and caring. If it is the work funk … we will be OK … but he has to know he wants to be with me.
What do you think??

2 comments:

  1. Speaking as someone who battles with depression on a regular basis, it sounds like he's hit a depressive patch. The way he described feeling is exactly they way I feel when I'm on one of the slow descents, the ones where you don't really realize what's going on until you're at the bottom of the well with the rope dangling ten feet over your head. Sometimes it's a fight, tooth and nail, to get back to some semblance of yourself, and sometimes you just wake up and everything snaps back into place in your head.

    There is one thing I can tell you for certain though, based on my experience at least. While depression can make you doubt every single aspect of your life, deep, deep down your feelings don't really change. The depression just numbs you to it all, makes you question everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. This doesn't mean you're incapable of laughter, or smiling, or any type of positive emotion or reaction. Everything's muted like looking at a painting through black gauze. Once the depression lifts, those feelings reemerge as strong as ever, and you tend to feel like an idiot for questioning things you knew to be true.

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  2. It couldn't be more obvious if he were wearing a neon sign that said "HI I'M DEPRESSED!" He's overwhelmed with everything and so can not do anything. He doesn't know if he wants to see you because he's having a hard time feeling...feeling anything at all. It's not you it's him.

    I would bet my next month's paycheck that his melatonin is low and that what he needs is a boost in the level of melatonin in his blood. There is a very simple urine test that can be done for low melatonin levels to know for sure. How do I know this? I've dealt with this for the past year with my husband.
    He needs to see a doctor - preferably an MD with a holistic bent - and I'm betting that once his melatonin level is brought up to a normal level, he will be the man you love and fell in love with and he won't have to wonder if he wants to see you because he'll be dying to see you again!
    He's depressed, yes. Every single sign is there. (I've been medicated for about 12 years - I know the signs!) Please have him see a doctor. The urine test is SO important, especially for a guy, because it gives them something to prove that it's not a weakness within them...it's really a chemical imbalance to be dealt with.
    He just does not have to continue to feel this way. Good luck to you both.

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