.: Entry One-Hundred and Ten :.

My name is Elliot Parker and I know I am the luckiest girl on the planet, even if I am the most heartbroken right now. Even if I am the most messed up I can be right now. Even if I am the coldest inside I have ever been, the most in pain I have been in years. It took a lot to get to get to this point again. But there is one difference, the one thing that is warming me up, the one thing that is right now, the brightest light, the brightest star in the galaxy. Dyl.

Some days, some nights, some stolen fractions of a morning, I just stop and have to thank my lucky stars. I feel safe with him, really safe, the kind of safe that won’t let me second guess a single thing. The kind of safe that I never imagined. From what started out as something so casual, something where I felt so afraid to fall to where I am now. It’s been the most amazing transformation. No matter how hard I had been fighting it, falling in love with Dyl now feels inevitable.

There’s that thing they say, you have three loves in your life. The first, the second and the third. The first taught me what I did and didn’t want and what I could withstand as a human, it made me grow in ways that I couldn’t have predicted, it made me change and loose the innocence of not knowing any better. The second was pretty much definitely Adrian, some kind of toxic mess. And the third (Dyl) they say lasts forever. I hope with no uncertainty that Dyl is that forever for me.

There’s that thing, he is lacking any real way to describe it as my soul mate. I love all the little nuances. Like the way his lips do this little curly smirky thing when he’s drinking. Or when is really, really happy, like crazy ecstatically happy and excited he smiles a certain way, his cheeks go all bright and he get those funny little dimply things and his eyes crinkle and twinkle. Now that, that is my favourite smile, my favourite face that he pulls. It could light the whole world; it really is the best smile ever. Even writing about it now, it makes me smile just thinking about it. I love seeing him happy it is like the world just seems to filter away a little. Seeing him excited, it really is like a child at Christmas, wide eyed and beautiful. The absolute best place in the world to me, is in his arms. The world just dissolves and falls away and becomes that blurry haze where it can’t harm me. Being in Dyl’s arms? It is like the safest, happiest place I can think of. I couldn’t compare it to anything in the world, I just can’t get enough of spending time with him.

I love baking with him every week, just a little something to do together. It’s fun and silly. He is the chief whisker and I do the measuring and do a little mixing when I get the chance. We have very different styles. He’s more make a mess on the baking tin when trying to put the cake mix in. I am more of a try to keep it neat kind of person, he says that’s where all the fun is. I say all the fun comes from baking with him and rolling my eyes at him when he says that. We are slowly getting more baking adventurous. To a degree. But it is fun to just spend that time working together. It’s the best fun and best thing to do on our day off together. That and watching lots of TV.

We watch all the shows we like to watch together, all kinds of silly things and some cooking shows, a couple of comedies. At the end of a day of doing not much and making lots of cakes, we lay in bed and we watch Cake Boss and chit chat before I inevitably fall asleep first. That is our usual pattern and it is perfect. Plus, it’s kind of cool I can burp like a bloke and be congratulated on it. Even though I can burp like a trouper, his farts could literally melt plastic and he is bizarrely proud of every single one no matter how much it makes the paint peel.

I guess I didn’t realise just how much I needed a relationship like this. A centre stone, a rock in all the chaos, especially at the moment. Dyl, has been so incredibly patient and I guess this is my way of saying my own kind of thank you, from the inside out. I am so grateful to have such a wonderful man in my life. I can’t wait to see what the future holds, there is so many wonderful things that I could say, that I could suggest. I just want this happiness to continue, our fun to continue.

I found my third love, the forever kind.

I don’t know how or why, but we just work, we are alike and polar opposites all at once sometimes. It is one of those things where I can reign my childish tendencies in a bit and do the responsible thing and then there goes Dyl flying by me reminding me its ok to cut loose once in a while. I don’t have to be responsible or switched on all the time. Sure enough I don’t doubt, he is the one. He loves me for who I am the good and the bad and I love him all the same, I love him from the bottom of my heart, even when he does a fart that could melt plastic and peel the wallpaper off the walls. It doesn’t feel like trying, it just feels so natural and so right, I have never been so certain of someone and something before. It feels incredible.

.: Entry One-Hundred and Nine :.

My name is Elliot Parker.

Last night was the first night in two weeks where there hasn’t been the unavoidable, unstoppable onslaught of tears before I sleep. Whether it was because I was willing it or because I felt a little better for having begun to tackle how I have been feeling.  There is some kind of inexplicable therapy in the form of getting a new tattoo. It can transform how you are feeling about something or somewhere. It makes sense I suppose; you are undergoing a transformation. It is a choice every time. I suppose that is the beauty of it, when you sign the consent form it is like signing to say, yes I am ready to transform and grow and turn whatever brought me through those doors emotionally into something beautiful. Getting a tattoo for me, it makes me feel better, stronger, transformative, different, brighter, newer… it just feels like some kind of preparation. Some kind of allowing on a different scale. Sure it hurts, a lot. This one hurt a tonne, I was glad I chose something smaller. But it was perfect. I let go of the executive decisions on colourings and let the artist take over, I trusted him to choose what would look best, as long as the pattern followed what I had in mind, and it did.

After the tattoo, it just felt easier, walking with the pain, like there was some connection forged where I didn’t feel so alone, as crazy as that sounds.

That’s when some of that caring a little more about myself kicked in, making some of those moving forward steps began to happen. I got home and ate dinner with nana, having a nice chitter chat about nothing in particular. I went and cleaned my tattoo off and put that first wonderful soothing layer of cream on to make it feel better. I loved it. I didn’t really think it through too much before getting the tattoo, I didn’t have major expectations for it, in fact I just had some vague idea and I couldn’t picture it on my skin until it was done and it was right, it was just exactly what it needed to be. It was me, I even found the colour pleasantly surprising, most of my other tattoos are black work with a little colour pop here and there, this was full colour and it was perfect. I couldn’t help but love what it was, it was the perfect symbol.

So yes anyway. I cleaned off my tattoo, came sat back down, put a base coat on my toes and watched whatever was on the TV, I can’t say I was paying much attention. Then I put on a nice shade of lilac I must have had for a few years that I have very rarely used. I treated myself to just feeling a little pampered. I painted my big toes in a different lilac, a similar shade but this one was super iridescent. It just felt nice, to have that little pampering. The lilac isn’t too far off the lilac that’s been used in my tattoo. I don’t have a blue nail varnish that would match my new tattoo, yet but I have seen one that would look like a gorgeous complementing colour.

It was a nice way to start putting some real self-care into action. I prepared my vitamins for a week while I was at it. I tidied up a tiny bit of my bedside table. I wrote in my book of positive aspects. My three good things that happened that day. I do it every day, it has become a bit of a comfort thing, I like it. It sounds like something small and insignificant, but it has helped me in so many ways. I relaxed and watched TV last night with my nana and spent the time chatting about anything and everything.

Going to bed was easy enough, sleeping is where it got harder. It was hard, falling asleep in the darkness, but it was the first time I didn’t fall apart at the seams. I can’t promise the same tonight but it doesn’t mean I won’t be trying to not try but to just be.

I just know that today I want to keep looking after myself a bit. While this computer took forever to sort itself out I trimmed, filed and painted my nails in some sparkly stuff that is called fairy spell unicorn addiction. I just liked the twinkle and sparkle and fun. It’s basically unicorn jizz- sparkly white stuff that has no real colour it’s sort of transparent but has a lot of sparkles and shimmers in it. Such a wonderful description right?

I guess I could say I had a good day at work, excruciatingly tired but it was essentially a good day.

Right now I am listening to Bring Him Home, a song that would usually make me cry but right now I feel strong enough to listen, strong enough to let it just be with me. To let it be my prayer for JJ, even though I don’t know where he is or what happened to him, it just feels like the kind of song I would be hugging him while listening to right now, because that is what I want to be doing right now. Hugging my big lump of a crazy dog. I don’t think there is any shred of doubt in me when I say I will never, ever, ever, ever forgive my mother for rehoming him without even letting me know, for hiding it for months, for not letting me find another, for not letting me have a choice, for not letting me even say goodbye. On what planet did she ever think that it was going to be a good idea, a forgivable action? How could she think there would be no consequence, not when there wasn’t a good enough reason to do that in the first place.

.: Entry One-Hundred and Eight :.

My name is Elliot Parker.

So what are those wonderful things I am looking forward to? How can I rebuild myself?

Because that is what I have to do, I suppose it is the only choice I have.

So what do you do when you finally get your freedom after being trapped in some kind of bizarre horror show of an existence?

First, I get to stop beating myself up. It is ok to not be ok. It is fine to let yourself feel hurt and grieve as long as I can stop letting it consume me.

So I started by dying my hair. Not some crazy colour, not some false version of me I can project on the world and pretend that I am ok with like wearing a mask. No, I am stopping doing that. I am stopping this stupid need to hide how I feel. So I dyed my hair sort of close to my natural colour-ish, again, only this is the closest match I managed to find. So there it is, the first layer of my mask is gone.

I won’t be beating myself up or getting mad at myself for crying anymore. I am releasing resistance when I do, I am finding some semblance of healing when I free myself from pretending to have things together.

So what else?

I am going to paint my toes. It sounds small, but it is a little bit of pampering, it is a little self-care and self-love beyond doing the bare minimum to pretend to be ok. Painting my toes is for me, people at work don’t see my toes, I don’t wear peep-toe shoes, I don’t wear flip flops really, my toes are my private little pampering and sparkle that get to be my little nod to say it is ok.

What next?

I am going to listen to some music that feels more like summer, feels brighter and more fun and more sassy. I haven’t listened to music in a while so this will be a nice change.

I am going to be proud and draw a little bit. A little doodle once in a while.

I am going to check in more on here, write more on here, not keep bottling things up.

This can be my safe space for a while too.

I am going to meet up with Hal and spend some time with my brother from another mother. A good quality hang out just the two of us and catch up on everything. I am going to have fun and eat junk with him and talk about everything. I’m going to open up to him.

I am going to honour JJ in some way, however that is I will find a way that feels right. The best dog ever that would be the clown to make me laugh when I was broken hearted, my best friend and baby boy.

What else?

I am going to shave my legs and wear a pretty dress and go out with Dyl for dinner and have a lovely date and spend some time together. I want to make sure he knows just how much I appreciate him. And yes I know I started that sentence with I am going to shave my legs, it’s a special occasion so I won’t be doing the rushed ones I have done the last two weeks, I am going to take my time because I can’t keep scratching skin off with the razor when I rush. The razor is meant to cut my hair not my damn legs into ribbons.

…

This post was interrupted. I received a message from a friend. You see not long after thinking about trying to find some way to honour JJ, trying to think of a way that I could have some consistent reminder of him with me always an event fell into perfect place. The message said that my tattoo artist had had a cancellation, on a day that would have been impossible to get time on and my friend thought of me. I had asked about getting a time slot either yesterday or today but my artist was fully booked. So when the message came through I thought this is brilliant. So within twenty minutes I had gotten dressed and left to go to the studio.

So I got a tattoo on my right leg, the side that JJ had been trained to walk to. I got something that both JJ and I loved playing together, bubbles. It seemed like the most perfect way to honour him. I needed to do something, to give myself some way, some place to grieve.

Last night was the first night I wasn’t bursting in tears before I dozed off. That’s not to say I slept well, not at all, I woke up regularly. It drives me a little crazy that I haven’t slept through the night yet. But this was the step in the right direction. It didn’t even hurt that much today, it was fine at work and now here I am. Finally, with some way to feel like JJ is with me still, in some kind of way. I don’t feel so alone, JJ was wonderful like that, he was always there always excited to just be with me and spend time doing whatever. Being separated was always something very hard on the both of us, we were so in sync together. He was as much a part of me as I might have been to him. That’s the most precious thing about having a dog. They become part of you, they are impossible to forget but the most horrendous pain in their absence. He is so irreplaceable and he will always be a part of me, in my heart and now on my skin. It is the perfect way to have him with me always. Now hopefully as the ink heals I will heal at least a little with it.