HOW TO MOURN SOMEONE WHO'S STILL ALIVE

You know how they say breakups are like a death?
Well, it's damn true.

Here are the 5 stages of grief:

Denial:
Example - "I feel fine."; "This can't be happening, not to me!"

Anger:
Example - "Why me? It's not fair!" "NO! NO! How can this happen!"

Bargaining:
Example - "I'll do anything, can't you stretch it out? A few more years."

Depression:
Example - "I'm so sad, why bother with anything?"

Acceptance:
Example - "It's going to be OK. If I can't fight it, I may as well prepare for it."

At the moment, I'm feeling all these things at the same time. But although my brain is a very messy, very scary place right now... my apartment? Friggin' sparkling! I've been taking care of my rental like it's my kid. However, I do believe it's simply a temporary form of self-diagnosed OCD and will soon pass.

Some days I'm totally fine, and others... well... I'll be in Walgreens and some froofy Celine Dion song will come on through the loudspeakers which subsequently forces me to place my toilet paper back on the shelf and run out of there with my tail between my legs.

It sucks.

Most often though, I'm happy to report that I refuse to spend more than a few moments at a time on the whole "over-analyzing" part of this sad situation. I've kicked off a full blown baking crusade in which I bake various pastries (homemade cherry pies w/cherries pitted by hand, cookies, cupcakes, you name it) then bring them to work for everyone to enjoy in the office. It's a great stress reliever and I must admit, I do feel like quite the "Cucina Champion." (Ha Ha - I made that up).

I've also been whipping up an outline for the creative non-fiction novel I'm about to write. It's just a matter of perfecting that darn character arc. I have the plot pretty much together. It's not a serious, dramatic piece (although you'd assume it would be, all things considered) it's just something fun and humorous with a little romance thrown in for good measure. We'll see how that goes.

The other thing I've been doing? Intense, chick-flick-movie-watching. I am the biggest sucker for romantic comedies. I think I have every single one ever made. Does this make me trite and flighty? No. It's merely a form of escapism that just happens to be working for me! And fret not, movie buffs - these are not just movies from this decade or last... Woody Allen's Annie Hall is next up on the list.

I'm not out of the woods yet... but who knows what tomorrow brings?


Hey, that sounded a lot like grief's #5 step!

;-)


Stay tuned....