bupp bop to hop

Published July 8th, 2006 in hearts | 6 Comments ยป

I haven’t been around lately…but I’ve been reading.

I didn’t write a few weeks back because S came to town and I sent her a link to my journal…something she doesn’t understand how to use. But referring to someone as OCD is probably insulting enough. She made me spend ridiculous amounts of time shopping…and I had been out of my open heart for like 6 weeks when she came. She’s the type of girl that has to look and touch every item in any store we walked into. I took her to Century 21, and the clothing section was a bit much for her (thank god), but she tore through the shoe department in search of the perfect pair, something that did not occur. And something that was painfully imbedded into my bones and muscles as well, the searching and constant sitting and throbbing of them all.

Then I went to go see my parents the weekend after. Father’s Day my mother’s birthday. Both of them geminis, something that is only frightening to people who know what that means. I saw my nieces, who I explained that I had no children or car, and explained trains running under the streets. They couldn’t conceive of how one would navigate an underground system where you couldn’t see the trees or traffic lights. Then they asked me if I still had blood in my body, if I still had a heart. I love children for that, their immediate curiosity, their questions not built of hate or suspicion. Regular people like to think I blew my heart apart doing cocaine, something I had never nor would ever touch.

This past week I spent in Colorado with E, visiting my birth mother and her family. How lovely and eye opening that experience was, being with people who acted like a family, being around people who wanted to include E and I immediately. Sunday the 2nd we got extremely drunk, on Jager bombs…the red bull is something I would normally avoid but the altitude and alcohol medicine combination worked to my benefit. Those B vitamins work wonders on people who are prone to the hangover. For me it was awesome, and touching, how gushy everyone was, heads bent and crying, telling me how important I was to them, my sister telling me I was the best thing that ever happened in her life, that she wanted me to be her maid of honor. I have never felt that loved and important to anyone. The piggy even cried a bit, they loved him immediately, everyone telling me separately how amazing it was I had someone who was so good to me, who treated me well and went through all of the drama with fewer complaints than a normal person might have. My brother and sister and I sitting on the bathroom floor, talking about our lives, how excited they were to have a big sister to ask questions to—sometimes I feel bad, realizing all that I have missed, not having a family so lovely. Then I realize I am where I am because that is where I am, where I ended up. Colorado surgeons aren’t as well equipped to deal with such degenerative tissue disorders. I might have died years ago if I hadn’t had such good access. My family is my family, my sister, my brother my mom and dad. I find it easier to refer to my birth mother as Barbara, and my other brother and sister are who they are…but it seems the titling is easier the other way around. I know they did their best, I know they tried, but their failure was in communicating and mine was in not understanding.

Today I had lunch with an old friend, me laying down the synopsis of the last year. He said to me, I can’t believe how much you are telling me. It was easy to do with someone I know…and he being a writer seemed to make it important, to share life experiences, to explain what made my body fail (or what I suspect might have). He shed some light on someone I thought I knew…though I am not one to make judgments, to feel badly about someone just because someone described something messed up about them. To be clear and concise about it, though, it was odd, making me realize how little I really knew someone I thought I knew. But this someone has also been pretty absent from my latest struggles, pretty non-existent as a helping hand..emotionally and generally vanished.

I have to do some things before the end of this year….go to Europe, have my art show. Get my vocal chords repaired. I might be taking a general intro to jewelry design to determine whether I should do the longer program. I was telling E that I wanted to make clothing, jewelry, do pottery, design my own furniture, write a book. I wish there existed a program masters or bachelors, called “Creation”. I would be most happy making everything.

I have to go get a present for my friend’s birthday…it will be super fancy.

All smiles to all!!!

Category: hearts

6 Responses to “bupp bop to hop”

  1. blippy_bean says:

    It rocks to hear of your recent travels, hon. I was hoping you’d make it out to Colo. soon. ๐Ÿ˜€

    • deanna says:

      beaners

      Thanks Bean, you rule.

      You helped me move and I will never forget that.

      My place is superfly fancy.

      ๐Ÿ˜‰

  2. ironchop says:

    WOW!

    I couldn`t BEGIN to imagine the flow of emotion occuring when you got to spend time with your birth family……for once, I wasn`t resentful to the person who got to experience that which I have long wanted for myself……good for you

    ya know……I am a great admirer of a now-deceased bike builder from out in your neck of the woods…….what I have considered an artist working what you might call a mechanical multi-dimensional canvas

    Indian Larry Desmedt

    my admiration is proudly displayed in a tattoo on my neck

    I missed getting to meet him once when I was working in Brooklyn

    he was also a well-regarded Soho regular……hung with folks like Warhol and the likes thereof

    while on the subject of Art, I would like to see the Journal grow into some sort of daily sharing of experiences not just medically but in other aspects of our lives as well…….we should proudly display our talents as much as we display our raw emotions,our pain, and our personal struggles with this illness…….it`s important to me for others to know that we are just as highly gifted and intelligent and creative as we are physically fucked up

    what do you think?

    • deanna says:

      indeed

      I think it might have been easier to be emotionally more available to my birth family if my actual family had been in any way emotionally available. I had a pretty standard experience of the rebel middle child–it just didn’t help that I was the only adopted one.

      Finding them was more about their kids more than it was about me. For some reason I had this vision of having been born from super white trash jerry springer roots because it was right in line with the luck that I thought I had been accustomed to my entire life. But when I met them this whole idea of nature versus nurture was confirmed more on the nature side..and it explains why I am so very different from my own family. I have very few aspects of either of my parents personalities except my father’s love of war movies and westerns. I did get along with him far better and it was much more comfortable for me to be in my father’s presence while my sister was coddled by my mother.

      It was much easier establishing the opening of the records because the disease was not indicated there at all. When I contacted the department of social services it was under the guise of medical emergency and they were much more helpful than I ever thought they would be. Trickily enough, the woman I spoke with sent me a photocopy of the original names and birth records, an actual copy which she had whited out..and I was able to scratch off the white out and know both names before I even spoke with them. It was nice to get that little wink from that woman…she seemed to understand how genuine I was in my concern and wasn’t so sure how either party would react.

      I definitely agree with you about the journal ideas…I tend not to always spew about my sickness but it is an everyday reality and espcially because of recent surgical events has become something unavoidable in recognizing.

      I do know what you mean. I was just thinking today that I would like to start another publication…something more targeted to this neighborhood. But maybe it would be good to have something that would be targeted and helpful to people who have this illness..and may even be cathartic for all of us to have this expression. And possibly not just marf people but hard of heart people all alike.

      What do you think about that?

  3. opheliaswake says:

    It’s awesome that you took that trip. Welcome home!

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