i feel so busy yet not busy at all. i spend days writing (short stories; proposals; applications; a delayed dissertation in the library); spend three days a week at work; spend evenings out and yet - i rarely feel i have anything to show from it…
i spent last weekend at sundance london, i watched five films, including kinds of kindness, kneecap, etc. i saw the tv glow was the standout but for very personal reasons, and i’m not sure how it translates to people without an experience of dysphoria. i have thought about the film every day since i first watched it (six days ago); i think because i hadn’t seen thoughts, feelings, private fears i’ve had illuminated on a screen like that before; it felt exposing, and claustrophobic, but also reassuring, but also i feel unsure how to move forward in light of it all. i feel like i need my friends to watch the film (though it is not out on UK release until mid-July, I think) so i can have an almost therapeutic conversation… i told H that i want my body to not be this body, that if i could - i would - but that i think it’s too late for me to make any real changes (hence my subtle non-binary hrt micro-dosages that may or may not have an effect beyond the psychological) (though H swears i look different since). the idea of it being too late is the entire third act of the film so hence, the feeling of being seen, and the devastation / beauty of that.
my birthday is in two weeks exactly. and for the first time since high school i will be in the place i live for it (i have always managed to be outside of london even if just for a day trip somewhere) and H is planning a birthday picnic / get-together for me, which is one of the most loving gestures i’ve received but also i feel vulnerable, because i have so few friends? or at least i have so few close friends. so many just… people i know? i used to blame this on not having a home town / moving around countries growing up. but i’ve been in london for almost… 14 years now (fuck) and there may only be like 3 other friends besides us at the picnic (vs one of these 3 friends who is having a birthday the week before and has 60 guests?!). i feel embarrassed and i know i lost years as an unpaid carer and my world got smaller and i’ve only been rebuilding it in the last 18 months but still. in mexico, i found it so easy to make friends, to make such intimate, instant connections, it felt so validating, but it feels so hard to translate that here. and it’s not like i don’t go out. yesterday, i played football with the queer team i’m part of, the day before i went to a pub quiz with a friend, i go to the community garden once a week, and tonight i have a poetry workshop, and in the near future a dance class, and on and on and on. busy yet not busy. social yet not social, and on and on and on.
all of this ^ reminds me of an exposing realisation i had in my therapy last year, which is that my past two relationships (H and J) have been with people i knew initially from tumblr. and that these relationships have been the strongest of my life. that dating apps never worked. nor did meeting people in real life ever offer anything besides brief romances or mild friendships. and that i thought perhaps it was because tumblr afforded me a space to be anonymous and so, for better or worse, i was my most genuine and authentic self on tumblr, that i could share my interests, my hopes, my innermost innermost, without shame / fearing judgment, that it didn’t matter because i knew no-one on here (without my brain cutting me off like it would in real life, or without the voice in my head telling me to stay quiet, or shape myself to suit the person i was hanging out with), it was in effect a darkened confession booth, and when people saw that, saw me, and liked me still, it felt okay to be myself, to be vulnerable [as embarrassing as tumblr being my most effective yet accidental dating pool is] [i am still working on being that ‘shameless’ about my self with others and it is so much better than it was, even a year ago, but still, something sooner or later always gets caught when i try to speak] [a w-i-p]
other things in my life
- i performed poetry at the barbican centre a couple weeks back (and performed for the first time in front of my parents - after first performing maybe seven years ago?) (and my dad, stereotypically repressed, kept saying how proud he was of me, and i can’t remember if he has ever said that before]
- my police station bail date was moved a month back, and my bail conditions might even be dropped ! [blocking your nearest immigration van soon]
- the day after my birthday, H and I go away for almost three weeks and i can’t wait. but at the same time, i am conscious of wanting to be as present as possible this summer.