Thursday, February 27, 2014

Letters to Billy, number four

Dear Billy,

     I can't believe it has been seven months since I saw your smiling face, sitting here at the same table where I am now, typing this letter you'll never read. We were getting stoned, of course, and you were having another one of your soapbox moments. I took this picture of you with my phone:



Of course, this was unacceptable, and earned me this look:


     I saw these the other day,and have not been able to get you off my mind. You're still the first one I think of when I have some kind of important news, and I guess for certain things, you'll always be my first thought. I have so much to tell you. So much has happened since Christmas, I don't know where to start . I guess I will start with what I know about your family, which is basically good. Kim has gotten married again, and lies in a house you guys grew up in. She says it's ironic that you left us right after she moved back home. since you two were never in the same placed long. Your Mom is adjusting, but I won't say she's happy. Brad was pretty wiped out, and I haven't really seen him smile much, but I hear he is getting better. 

     Your Dad, well, your Dad is a mess, baby. I'm sorry,  but I don't think he's going to get past finding you. He doesn't talk much to anyone, and he's just not there anymore. I mean, he is physically there, of course, but Raymond, you know, HIM, that's gone. 

     My Mick hasn't been the same, of course, but since you saw him last the last time you were here, that shouldn't surprise you. You know how very much he loved you, and valued your presence and your little ways of keeping him tethered. He said you kept him attached to reality some days, and I know that was true for me as well. I know it's shitty of me to lay all this on you, like this, but quite frankly, a good deal of it is because of your actions. It seems to me that people are finding their way past or through their issues. 

     I have done better since the last time I wrote, but I'm still not there yet. I'm doing a lot better with the dope, though, so that's the one thing I have to be proud of lately. I'm still using though, even if it is only once a day or so. I've been looking for work again, although after two years off, I have pretty much lost hope of ever finding anything decent in my field that will pay me enough to live. Things are still looking pretty bleak for me and Mick, but we are trying. Sometimes I am not sure why we bother, but we are trying to get along, because we are basically all the other has, as sad as that statement makes us both seem. 

     Mick of the North, our intrepid friend of Wise county, still comes to see us now and then. He was here last weekend and got blotto with me. I haven't seen Heather since long before the funeral, so I haven't been able to ask about the kids or anything. I mean, I suppose I could ask Nanook, of course, since they are his kids to, but we don't talk about such things. He and I tend to talk about you, or about things we want to do, but probably will never be able to, like visiting all of the giant waterfalls in the world. or smoking a joint at Jim Morrisons grave, or at Stonhenge. 

     Well, kiddo, as much as I hate to cut this off, it has taken me two days to get this far, and I have to go. It has offically been seven months to the day since we buried you, and I am pretty sure at this point that I will miss you for the rest of my life. Not a day goes by that I don't think about you, and wonder what you would have thought of something, or how you would have reacted to someone or something I saw. I love ya, kid, now and forever. 

Love Always,

Jeremy

Friday, December 6, 2013

Letters to Billy, number 3

Billy,
   I am, once again sitting in my garage, thinking about you,  and all the times we sat here, on this very couch, talking about everything and nothing. I am still sometimes really mad at you for leaving us like you did, but today, I am just sad that it is almost Christmas and I won't get to see the silly pajamas that Kim would have bought you this year. Or see Brad and you and your Dad sitting on the porch, drinking coffee in the freezing cold.  But mostly, I am just sad that you are gone. I miss your smiling face, more than I can say, and I miss my  friend.

   There have been so many time these last five months that I have picked up my phone to call you. I've needed your sarcastic wit and no bullshit attitude to get my head right, and then I dial your number and remember. And fall apart a little bit,  all over again. For the most part, I am past being mad at you, but I don't think I will ever stop being sad when I think about you.  I have often wanted to call and talk to your Dad, but I am afraid that it would be painful for him to talk to me. After all, he and I got to know each other over Christmas at Kim's house in Lubbock,  and it was such  good week. I know this is depressing, and probably the iind of shit you would rag on me for, but I have to grt this out somewhere, and the universe picked you to listen, I guess because nobody else seems to wamt the job.

   Mick and I are about over with. We are just going through the motions these days, trying to hurt the other as much as possible before the end. At least,  it seems that way most days.  I am quitting the dope, hopefully for good this time, and he doesn't want to stop yet. Says he doesn't need to,  and that his continued use should not affect my quitting.  Of course, you know as well as I do that is a fantasy. In a lot of ways, I have known from the start rhat we would never make it,  he and I. We are both too strong willed and unyielding to ever really have a chance. When this is all said and done,  I dont think I want to be in a relationship again. I think I was meant to be alone.

   I seem to be attracted to men who either hurt me and say they love me or just tolerate me until someone better comes I along. Mick is no exception.  I thought he was,  but he has turned out to be one of the worst. He is physically violent and then denies that it ever happened. One day I fear he will really hurt me, or worse. But,  of course,  he makes it very difficult to leave. He controls the money, the car, and even took my key back. I've lived here nearly two years amd I do not have a house key.

   Sorry, I got off track there for a minute. I guess my point is, it has all fallen apart without you here. I miss you, and  I love you, amd  I guess I always will.

Love,
Jeremy

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Another Letter to Billy......

Billy,
Can I just say, without being a total asshole, that I'm still so pissed off at you that I wish I could punch you in  the face? And I find it terribly unfair that I can't.  But, slowly but surely I am learning to curb my anger,  at least where other people can see it, or can see my face.  Of course, that only works for people who know me, and can hear my bullshit, even on the phone. It has been two months since you killed yourself, ans I am still mad at you, but I never could stay mad at you for long, and my guilt and grief and just fucking blah to everything fucking depressed attitude won't let it go just yet......fuck, man, how could you do that to us? It still just strikes me as a little surreal that you aren't here. Although,  I suppose that feeling could be the massive amounts of narcotics I have consumed in the last sixty days, but one never knows about these things, does one? I don’t blame you for the drugs, I was already doing that, but I'll say I have done a steep increase in intake since then. Again, not your fault for being dead, but mine for being fucking stupid. So yeah, fuckhead, I forgive you. And I still love you. And I probably always will. And I haven't drank any of your scotch yet. I will, though, the first time I think about you and be happy. I don't think that should be an angry drunk - I kind of think of it as my goodbye to you, since I did not attend the services. Well, I could have, but I, well,  I just couldn't get in the car. I don't regret it, though. Mick told me it was very much NOT you, and you would have been pissed. I would hope you were too busy getting high with Jerry to attend your own funeral. I mean,  where are the perks, if you can't do an eightball with your idol,  right? Anyway, kid, it's five a.m., and I should get some sleep (ha!) since I have much to do on the morrow. I love ya, kiddo. Be well, wherever you are.

Love,
Jeremy

Friday, July 26, 2013

Bill Farrell, April 11, 1989 --- July 24, 2013

Billy,
I can't believe that you were sitting at my table Sunday morning, laughing at morons with me and Mick, and now, on Friday morning, you've been dead for almost 48 hours. I keep thinking that maybe I'll wake up, and the email I got yesterday afternoon, and the phone calls, texts and other messages will have all been a bad dream. I am so unbelievably angry with you, and at the same time, I am so incredibly sad that I won't get to see you again. You broke both of the Mick's hearts, just so you know. I had to tell them both, and it tore me apart to do so. My Mick just collapsed onto the sofa and wailed for you, about how he loved you, and you were his friend, and how there was now nobody to talk him down when he got all stressed and freaked out over anything or nothing. And about how smart, and funny, and kind you were, and how goddamned beautiful. And I fucking hate you for  doing that to him, my sweet, high strung, oh so breakable man. You fucking broke him, you selfish bastard, and I hate you for it.

I just dont understand what drives a healthy, mostly sober, mostly employed man with so much to live for, to pickup a fucking gun and put it to his head ad pull the trigger. I dont know now, and I probably never will, because rather than pick up the fucking phone, you pulled the trigger. I can't imagine what your dad is going through right now. He found you, you know. His oldest son, the one he favored most. That's what you gave him to remember. That and the guilt of owning the gun you used. He still hasn't spoken. Fuck you for that. He is a good man, and he didn't deserve that to be his last image of you.

As for me, I have never craved a shot of heroin more in my life than I do right now, even when I was detoxing the last time. I just want the world to disappear for a little while. The problem there is that I have finally built a life for myself, after all  these years of struggling and fighting and fucking up and losing and failing. I finally have it together, and one of my best friends, then kindest, most gentle, generous soul I knew until I met Mick, fucking eats a bullet. I bought a bottle of scotch for you when I heard the news. I haven't had the balls to open it yet. I feel like, if I do, that will make it all real, and I don't fucking want this to be real. I just can take this. Anything else, but not this.

I know there wasn't anything we could have said, most likely, that would have changed your mind. I know that we did all we could to make sure you were happy, and safe. But it still feels like,e I failed the biggest test of my life, and other isnt anything I can do to make it better. Right now, I am sitting by myself, in my garage, writing a shitty letter to a dead man, and I feel like I'm drowning. My husband is in our room, laying in the dark, drowning in his own way, and I don't know if I can fix either of us. Just so you know the truth, kiddo, I'll tell you one more time. We love you. Both of us, all of us, almost every person you ever met, loved you. I know that you and I figured out years ago that we were better friends than lovers, but i  still had a special place for you in my heart, and now there is a giant hole there. I still love you, Billy, and I know Mick feels the same. I hope someday I can get past this huge knot of anger I have  in my gut right now, so I can forgive you for quite literally blowing a hole in all out lives, but right now, this moment, all I can say is that I miss you, you fucking coward, and I am sad that to can't call and tell you.

Love always,

Jeremy

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Yet another new day......

Well, friends and neighbors, it seems that I have survived yet another day of bullshit and self loathing. I found out the other day that my ex has moved on and has another partner now, and it just about killed me - why, after nearly three months, do I still give a fuck? Seriously, somebody tell me, because I can't figure it out. I still have had zero luck in the job hunting department, but I am definitely getting used t that by now - it has, after all, been four months since I worked. I definitely need to get out of this fucking house for a little bit and go do something besides hang out with my roommates. I have been making some new friends on Facebook, of all places, and I guess that is something positive - I haven't had much good to say lately. I'm still depressed all the fucking time over the lack of job and funding, and I'm still incredibly lonely out here, even though I am rarely physically alone. All in all, 2011 can pretty much just suck my dick. Apparently this post is gonna be super short, because I just can't think of anything else worth typing.

Peace out, homies,
Groverat

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

What to do with me.......

Hiya friends,
I know it's been a while, but I've been going through a pretty shitty patch of life, and didn't feel the need to drag you all down with me. For those of you who are not aware, I left Florida in December with my (ex)partner, Bill, and we came home to Texas. We spent an amazing and wonderful Christmas with his family in Lubbock, and then at the end of January, without warning or reason, he decided to end our relationship. I still don't know why, and probably never will, since we do not speak any more. I've been back here since December 17th, and have put out over 1000 resumes and applications, but still have not managed to find a job. Fortunately, I have been living with friends who are willing and able to help me out in this time of need, but I feel like I'm sinking deeper and deeper, and I don't know what to do. I'm incredibly lonely here, since we live in the middle of nowhere, and I don't have that many friends. I'm depressed all the god-damned time. All I do besides apply for jobs, it seems, is watch TV and eat. I've gained probably 35 pounds that I worked my ass off to lose, and it just seems to get worse every fucking day. This is probably the worst I've felt since the last time I detoxed, almost 2 years ago now. I'm starting to have cravings for dope again, and I don't know if it's jus because I'm so fucking bored, or because my life is just so much shit right now. Honestly, I don't care. My first instict when I wake up is to call the dude, get some dope and some points, and just fucking sail away on a cloud of smack. Who knows, maybe someday I'll grow the balls to do it, and just get it over with, instead of this long, slow decline into madness and self loathing that I seem to be at the beginning of. I've never been this fucking depressed in my life, and that includes the two years I spent on the streets when I was a kid. I can't talk to my family about these things, because they always say the same thing - just come to Mississippi and get out of there. What the fuck am I gonna do there, that I am not doing here? Of course, I suppose I could always just check out, but I've always thought that was pretty chickenshit, and I guess I'm strong enough to take this for now, but how much longer can I hold it together? I have no idea. I know that I can't take a whole lot more of this, and that my friends here will not be able to continue to pay my way forever, or even for very much longer. I have absolutely no idea what to do next. I don't know anything else I could be doing to find work. I don't know how to snap myself out of this fucking dark place I'm in in my head. I just feel completely lost right now, and I am utterly unsure how to get back to myself. I know that getting high is not the answer, but it is what I have done in the -past when I feel bad, and this is the worst I've felt. I'm not sure I can make it through all that again, and I don't want to try. Maybe that's the whole thing right there. I'm sick to death of trying so hard, and falling flat on my fucking face. It seems to me that I've failed at everything I have ever tried to do on my own. I've never been able to find anyone that can put up with all my bullshit for more than a few months, except for my first relationship, and drugs fucked that up after almost 9 years. I honestly feel like I'm fucking drowning. I can't afford to taolk to a professional about any of this, and if I could, I could not afford to pay for the mountain of anti this and thats they would put me on. I don't feel like I have the right to be this fucking down, either. At least I have a place to sleep, and food when I'm hungry, which is more than some can claim. I don't know much anymore, I suppose.....Anyway, now that I've ruined your day, I think I'll go try to sleep. Don't worry about me - I just needed to get some of this off my head......

Here's to better days,
Groverat

Sunday, November 28, 2010

17 Reasons Gay Marriage Will Destroy America........a blatant theft, from the groverat

17. Gay marriage will change the foundation of society; we could never adapt to new social norms. Just like we haven't adapted to cars, the service-sector economy, or longer life spans.

16. Gay culture is a new fad created by the liberal media to undermine long-standing traditions. We know this is true because gay sex did not exist in ancient Greece and Rome.

15. There are plenty of straight families looking to adopt, and every unwanted child already has a loving family. This is why foster care does not exist.

14. Conservatives know best how to create strong families. That is why it is not true that Texas and Mississippi have the highest teen birthrates, and Massachusetts, Vermont, and New Hampshire have the lowest. This is a myth spread by the liberal media.

13. Marriage is a religious institution, defined by churches. This is why atheists do not marry. Christians also never get a divorce.

12. Children can never succeed without a male and a female role model at home. That's why our society has no single parents.

11. Gay marriage is not supported by religion. In a theocracy like ours, the values of one religion are imposed on the entire country. That's why we have only one religion in America.

10. Obviously gay parents will raise gay children, since straight parents only raise straight children.

9. Straight marriages are valid because they produce children. Gay couples, infertile couples, and old people shouldn't be allowed to marry because our orphanages aren't full yet, and the world needs more children.

8. Gay marriage should be decided by the people and their elected representatives, not the courts. The framers checked the courts, which represent mainstream public opinion, with legislatures created to protect the rights of minorities from the tyranny of the majority. Interference by courts in this matter is inappropriate, just as it has been every time the courts have tried to hold back legislatures pushing for civil rights.

7. Straight marriage will be less meaningful if gay marriage were allowed; the sanctity of Britany Spears' 55-hour just-for-fun marriage would be destroyed.

6. Civil unions, providing most of the same benefits as marriage with a different name are better, because "separate but equal" institutions are a good way to satisfy the demands of uppity minority groups.

5. Straight marriage has been around a long time and hasn't changed at all; women are still property, blacks still can't marry whites, and divorce is still illegal.

4. Legalizing gay marriage will open the door to all kinds of crazy behavior. People may even wish to marry their pets because a dog has legal standing and can sign a marriage contract.

3. Gay marriage will encourage people to be gay, in the same way that hanging around tall people will make you tall.

2. Being gay is not natural. Real Americans always reject unnatural things like eyeglasses, polyester, and air conditioning.

1. METEORS and VOLCANOES.