Tag Archives: blogging

Surprise

6 Mar

I’m pretty confident that nobody will read this post since I disappeared off the face of the earth for 18 months. I can’t just waltz in and out your blogging lives like this.

If anyone does read, I wanted to update you on life because this sad little blog has a happy, happy ending.

And I’m going to write more. I’m going to write my happily ever after. But today – for reasons I won’t go into – I read a few old posts. They broke my heart. For myself. For poor, agitated, heartbroken me just trying to get through the day and living the agony out here on WordPress. And for those who went through it with me, with their own scars to bare. And for anyone putting jaunty little terms such as “How can I get over a broken heart?” into the Google and landing here on Pizza of Doom.

I am struggling to even remember how to use WordPress. It’s been entirely too long.

But the short version of the past 18 months is this: I am living in Brooklyn and working in Manhattan. I don’t miss London, but I do miss my friends. Work is great. I’m traveling a ton. I’m getting pretty good at copywriting in American English complete with missing “u”s and “z”s over “s”s. I’ve made great new friends. I’ve put on a humiliating amount of weight, but – hey – the food in this country is too delicious and plentiful. I’ve also met a wonderful creature in the form of my boyfriend. The love of my life – my best friend and absolute soul mate. He was made for me. I truly believe he’s the reason I had to go through everything I went through. To get me to here. Both physically and emotionally. I can’t wait to spend the rest of my life with him.

My dear blogger cats, I hope you are all doing wonderfully. I wish happiness and love and amazing things for all of you.

And I promise to start a new blog. Maybe something a little lighter like being a Brit in NYC. I don’t think pain and sadness becomes me. Damn, maybe I’ll just blog about The Bachelor. What those girls could learn from me…

 

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Friday with Friends: Liz

5 Sep

tumblr_na07xn0fGK1tg0kfio1_500

Okaaaayyyy. So I’ve not been too fabby at writing this week. Life is still quite hectic and I’ve been on a bit of a downer. 

But I was not missing yet another Friday with Friends slot. So here goes my second day handing my blog over to a blogger buddy to do with it what they will. 

Today my blog belongs to Liz. Liz is 24. Man, I remember being 24. She just started her first proper teaching job (yay, Liz!). And, to cut a long story short, I think we are partly the same person. If she didn’t live so far away in Maine we would be hanging out regularly to drink iced coffees, buy scented candles, and talk about cats and boys. We bonded over our broken hearts back last year. But I don’t worry about this girl. Because I know she has oodles and oodles to show the world, and she’s going to make some dude very happy one day. She’ll probably be married way before I am. You mark my words. 

I found Liz’s post quite painful to read. Because I’m sad that she’s gone through this. And because when she describes the physical side of grieving her relationship, well, it’s identical to my experience. But – ever the maturest 24 year old I’ve come across – she knows how to learn from it all. And how to move on.

So, over to Liz:

Last September my five-year relationship with the guy I adored, the guy I pictured a family with and loved with all my heart, came to an end. We had been fighting a lot, more so than normal, and yet it still knocked the wind out of me when it happened. I remember sitting in the middle of the living room floor holding a pumpkin Frappuccino in my hand, and squeezing it so hard that it started overflowing all over the carpet. “It’s just not working anymore,” he said.

At the time, I remember not having any emotion. I didn’t cry, talk, or try and fight for our relationship. Instead I just let us go. “Why fight for a relationship that he had already thrown away?” I remember saying to people.

It wasn’t until about a month later, the beginning of October, that it hit me. Why wasn’t he coming over on Saturdays anymore? Why wasn’t he calling me to tell me goodnight? Why wasn’t he smiling at me from across the kitchen table, telling me how “Do You Realize” by the Flaming Lips reminds him of me, that after all these years I still give him butterflies? I felt empty, I was losing weight, my clothes didn’t fit me anymore, and I couldn’t eat. I cried for months, couldn’t sleep for months, and had nightmares every single night where I would re-live him leaving me, telling me that he had had enough.

I finally went out one night to go to a mutual friend’s birthday party a couple months after the breakup and that’s when I first saw him. I remember staring right at him, right through him. I remember his blue eyes, and I could see how much he hurt. I went through one, three, six Grateful Dead’s until I was slurring and couldn’t stand on my own. I needed to leave. I left the bar and started walking home, through the city and past my friends who were shouting, “Liz, do you need a ride?” I walked down the sidewalk, and then he was there. His passenger door open and a whispered, “Liz, just get in, I’ll drive you home” was heard.

I didn’t say anything in the car and neither did he, but all I wanted was for him to say that us not being together anymore was wrong, a mistake. He walked me upstairs to my sister, and when I stumbled in I shrunk to the floor and cried so hard my body shook. I knew he heard me, I could hear my sister outside the doorstep asking what he did. Why was I like this? He asked her if breaking up with me was the right decision; she said she didn’t know. I wish to this day that she had told him “no.” I laid on my bed in the fetal position, weekend after weekend while I sobbed and sobbed and sobbed, drunk and heartbroken while my sister rubbed my back, and whispered, “it’s okay, it’s okay, it’s okay.”

It’s taken until now, a full year later, to feel at least a little bit like myself again; to think of him without crying, to hear a song on the radio that he loved, or even go to a restaurant that we went to without being too miserable to continue. I remember going in to a grocery store and smelling cigarette smoke, and sprinting to the bathroom to throw up because it smelled like him, it smelled like our past. Sometimes I still feel like this.

I think maybe he thought he didn’t mean anything to me, that our relationship had somehow gone numb. Maybe he thought that my reaction a month later, after I had time to process everything, was just about the chase. It wasn’t. It was about me realizing what I had lost, realizing how much I messed up and not being able to take it back. If I could somehow reach back through the past I would tell him, I would tell him over and over again how much I love him, that he’s my favorite person, that I wish we could make this work. I would believe him this time when he tells me that he thinks I’m beautiful, I would tell him that he still takes my breath away, that he still haunts my dreams. That he means everything to me. But I don’t do that, I just move forward, but it never really goes away.

If there is anything that I have taken away from this, it’s that next time I’m in a relationship, with whoever it is, I need to be more honest. I need to say what I’m thinking, feeling, dreaming – because emotions are difficult for me and I know that, but it’s not an excuse to be ungrateful. It wasn’t an excuse for me to act like my love for him didn’t make me woozy. I need to try not to take any part of such a beautiful relationship for granted. I need to be thankful, because if there was just one thing I could go back and change it would have been to tell him every single day how lucky I felt to be with someone who loved and cared for me as much as he did.

I have a lot of people to thank for pulling me through a horrible time that I thought would never end, but continues to get better every day. My friends who have listened to me over and over when I’m sure I’m obnoxious, my family who have insisted that it will get better. More than anything I need to thank my blogger buddies who have related to me more than a lot of people ever have. April is one of those people.

So, thank you.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How do you measure a year?

21 Aug

ye4uAYR

I’m a sucker for a musical. Rent is a favourite. I always felt kind of special that there was someone in it called April (albeit the girlfriend who died of AIDS). Anyway, any fellow Rent fans will be only too familiar with the words of ‘Seasons of Love’.

So, how do you measure (pause for breath) measure a year?

It was one year ago today that I started Pizza of Doom.

Sitting in my old office, on a day that was far too hot for the air con to be broken, I started writing and writing and writing. Trying to get all the awful thoughts that had terrorised me for the previous two and a half weeks out of my head, package them up, and send them into cyberspace.

A year later, you know what, I’m getting there. I still feel heartbroken most days, but I know how to deal with it. I still cry every now and then, but I know it will pass. I’m proud of how far I’ve come. And I’m very proud of this blog. Not just because I can look back and actually read how much I’ve changed, but because I know I’ve been able to help other people too.

And other people have helped me.

I’ve made some great buddies through the world of WordPress. Many of whom I now consider friends in the real world. It’s funny that I can walk past a Starbucks sign that autumn coffees are on the way and think of a friend I’ve never met in Maine. It’s strange that I think about friends in Minnesota and North Carolina and wonder how you guys are doing. And I really miss the blog of a friend in Boston who’s turning her talents to other things now.

But isn’t that fabulous?

Although my real-world friends have been magnificent cats for the past year – and have put up with more than their fair share of miserable ramblings from me – my little online breakup community has been a real game changer.

So let me go back to my original question, how do you measure a year?

I think if I could chart my recovery from heartbreak it would be a weird and wonderful graph. Occasional highs, longs periods of lows, unexpected twists and turns and – finally – a gradual uphill climb. I think if I could add to that graph some of the conversations and advice I’ve had from buddies here on WordPress, I would see a direct correlation between the highs and the support that I’ve had.

And so on Pizza of Doom’s first birthday, I want to extend a huge, massive, ginormous “Thank you” to every single person who has taken the time to read my story, to comment, to help, to make me smile when nothing else did, and to give me something to wake up to in the morning.

As a way of saying thank you and having a little bit of a party in honour of my blog’s first birthday and all my lovely blogger buddies, for the next four weeks I’m going to run a little something that I’m calling, “Friday with Friends”.

Every Friday I shall be giving over my blog to one of the people who has been the greatest help to me, and become a true friend through this crazy world of WordPress.

Tomorrow we’re kicking off with Crystal, who I can always rely on to call my ex an ass, and stick up for me from thousands of miles away.

Until then… well.. I have a couple of days off work so I’m drinking coffee and watching Teen Mom 2 before heading into town to do some shopping, meet friends for lunch, and finally go for a massage this afternoon.

Then I might buy myself a cake.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Once year since the break up (and happy birthday, Liz)

3 Aug

Today is the doomaversary. It was the night of the 3rd of August last year that everything fell apart.

I’ve been thinking long and hard about what to do to mark today. In truth, I know it’s just another day. It isn’t going to tangibly change things. But, for me, it’s very meaningful. It feels like crossing the finish line. I officially got through the worst year of my life. And I’m coming out smiling. Yay me.

I asked you all a few weeks ago what I should do to mark the occasion. Obviously pizza had to be involved, and tonight some friends are coming over to eat pizza with me. Homemade pizza, because it’s better than the takeaway stuff he was obsessed with anyway. But what else what else?

One of my dearest blogger buddies recommended that I think of today as her birthday rather than the doomaversary. So, happy birthday, Liz. I hope you enjoy the title of this post. You, my friend, are a perfect example of one of the loveliest things to have come out of this whole mess of a year: new friends.

Another terribly clever blogger buddy (who I can always rely on to call my ex the ass that he is), suggested that I write him a letter telling him how far I’ve come, and post it on here.

I straight up loved this idea. But when I sat down to write it, hmmmmm, I found I had nothing to say to him. Nothing at all.

And, you know what? I love that feeling.

So, let’s focus on something and someone more important: let’s focus on me.

I cried a little this morning. Not because I missed him, but because I remembered how horrifically sad I felt last year. I went over the evening of August 3rd 2013 in my head and it made me want to go back in time and give myself a big hug and lots of reassurance. So that’s what I’m going to do.

Instead of a letter to him, this is a letter to the April of August 3rd last year.

 

Dear April on the 3rd of August, 2013, just after 9.30pm

Sit on the floor. Put your head between your legs. Try to stop the room spinning. It will stop eventually, and you will get your breath back. I know it’s scary, but this is your body dealing with trauma in its own way. And you’re supposed to feel this way: the man you thought you were going to marry just broke your heart.

You’ve never felt like this before. You can’t make sense of it. And for the next two days you aren’t going to sleep at all as you go over and over and over and over what’s just happened. You’re going to tell yourself that it will never feel as bad as it does in this moment. Unfortunately, that’s not quite true. Right now you’re in shock. When that wears off, the confusion will kick in, then the sadness. I hate to tell you, but you’re going to feel sad for a very long time. You’re not going to sleep properly for a very long time. Go to the doctor. He can help.

At your worst, you’ll wish not to wake up in the morning. You’ll stand on train platforms wondering what would happen if you just stepped forward. Months from now you’ll come to a plateau where these thoughts stop, but you have no idea why you’re alive, or why you would want to be. Because life has no meaning when you’re alone. And if he didn’t want you, well, doesn’t that mean you’re worthless?

You’re not worthless. You help people. You care for people. You make people smile, and there are people who love you. He says that he never did. But your parents do. And your best friends do. And that doesn’t make you pathetic. Because the people who know you best see the good in you. He was blind. And a c***.

Five weeks from now you’re going to start your new job. Two days before, he’ll call you. Because it would be beyond him to realise what bad timing this is. It’s going to be tough. Prepare to hate this job for the first few months. Your confidence just hit rock bottom. How are you supposed to concentrate? But be kind to yourself. Because a year from now you’ll look back and feel proud of how you stuck this job out. In fact, it’s going to rank right up there with your greatest achievements, just the fact that you got out of bed every day and made it to the office. You’ll have been to Boston, New York and Paris with work. And you’ll be planning a trip to Belgium. You’ll have made new friends. It’s a challenge, but if anyone can deal with that, you can.

Christmas will suck. Just saying.

Do what you know how to do. Find your therapy in your writing. Start a blog. You’ll find friends in the strangest of places. You’ll build your support network. And when it comes to support, the bigger the better. You can try new things too. You don’t know it yet, but you really love yoga.

You’re not going to fall in love again in a hurry. For a long time the very thought of someone else is going to make you feel physically sick. But there will be other guys. To date. To kiss. Someone will come along and have the best sex of your life with you. He’s not boyfriend material, but he’s going to turn out to be a good friend. Trust him. He’s odd, but he means well.

If there’s one thing I want you to know right now, it’s that it will be OK. But not for a long time. So don’t panic if you’re still crying months for now. You were madly in love. Take comfort from the fact that your feelings were real. You know what love is. And you need to grieve to move on.

Next spring the darkness will lift. In the sun of next summer, you’ll plan a new future. You’ll get involved in new activities and realise all the new people who have come into your life.

I can’t tell you if this will ever stop hurting. I can’t tell you what’s going to happen to you. I can tell you that opportunities will come your way. And that maybe not knowing what the future holds is more exciting than a future with a man who never loved you, anyway. I can tell you that you’re too good for that.

And, I promise, you will eat pizza again.

Lots of love,

April on the 3rd of August 2014, just after 3.30pm

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Happy half-birthday to my little blog

21 Feb

It was six months ago today that I started my silly, little blog.

I remember the day well. I was sitting at my desk in my old office, crippled with anguish and mental exhaustion. Two and a bit weeks since the pizza of doom, I had hardly slept and was uncapable of doing, well, just about anything.

But I had been reading breakup blogs. In fact, I tended to get to work about 10.30, log on, look up some breakup blogs, and sit and read until 5.30, when I’d get on the bus and cry all the way home. Yup, August was a joy.

That day, on the 21st of August, I just started writing. And writing. And writing. And it started to feel better. Just a little. But better, nonetheless.

I didn’t expect to hear back from anyone. As far as I was concerned I was just packaging my misery up in words and sending it off into cyberspace where it could no longer hurt me. But hear back I did. From people all over the world going through similar things. people who had been through similar things. I got my very own little breakup community.

It still hurts. I think it always will. But my blog has proved such a great source of relief, therapy and camaraderie.

Happy half-birthday to you, Pizza of Doom.

I’m very, very proud of you.

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Confusion loves company

18 Feb

The best thing about writing a blog is that you get a whole bunch of new friends.

Especially when those friends are going through exactly the same things that you are.

While my real-world friends are getting married, having babies, and generally being blissfully happy, my dear blogger buddies are feeling the same things that I am. Misery. Pain. Shock. Little bursts of hyper happiness. And confusion. We’re a complex herd of cats right now.

Back in August when I started my blog, I was so deeply, deeply heartbroken. Nothing comforted me more than hearing the stories of others in the same situation. And getting to know others in the same situation.

You all know who you are.

In fact, we’ve often mused over how insane it seems that we experience the exact same feelings at the exact same time. Like were all living by some breakup calendar.

What surprises me now, six months on, is how our paths have continued to collide. Now, I find myself “seeing someone”, as many of you are. And I’m confused as f***. As many of you are.

A couple of days ago, luciddream85 asked, “What are we supposed to do?”

Though I know she was feeling and sharing despair at the time, I loved this comment. It hit a nerve. There’s such empathy in this question. Such a sense of community.

Because things do get easier, but it’s still one hell of a bumpy ride. Well, there aren’t any heartbroken cats I’d rather be on this rollercoaster with.

Here’s to the next six months, buddies.

Love you lots.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Three reasons to smile

6 Nov

Is it good things or bad things that happen in threes?

I have a feeling it’s actually bad things. But – fear not  – this is a happy post. Three good things happened today.

  1. My presentation went great. In fact, it was two hours long and for about an hour and a half of that I didn’t even think about my ex. Phew. This is perhaps the longest that I haven’t thought about him since the pizza of doom. Yay me.
  2. Sour Apple Chewits were 4/£1 in Tesco. I don’t need to explain why this pleased me.
  3. One of my favourite blogger buddies IntoTheBeauty nominated me for The Versatile Blogger Award.

IntoTheBeauty has taste in writing, men and whiskey – and has been an incredible support to me for the past couple of months. So I value her nomination very much indeed. Thank you, buddy.

photo2-e1381543082962

Apparently I now have to share seven things about myself that you might not otherwise know. And then nominate fifteen other blogs. Gosh, I’m all about the numbers and lists this evening.

Here we go. You might not know:

  1. My favourite thing is black coffee.
  2. My other favourite thing is olives.
  3. I’m convinced that I once got bitten by a ghost (in a graveyard in Key West).
  4. I can name the 50 states of America in alphabetical order and at an alarming pace.
  5. I wish I was Japanese.
  6. I tried to do a week-long juice detox once. I bought all the fruit and veg – 76 apples no less – and got to work with the juicing. Four hours into the detox I started throwing up uncontrollably at work and had to go home sick. I aborted the detox and spent the afternoon eating biscuits.
  7. I wear an animal every day. Not an actual animal or fur, but a squirrel-themed piece of jewelry or unicorn socks, penguin dress, panda T-shirt. You get the idea.

And my fifteen blogs. Great reading for anyone (especially poor, broken hearted cats like myself).

  1. Time is of the Essence
  2. Online dating – Why I’ll soon be a crazy cat lady
  3. Absence of Malice
  4. The Wholehearted Blog
  5. princessdeficit
  6. thingsmyexsaid
  7. needtoletgo
  8. You’re Just A Dumbass
  9. Dealbreakrs
  10. That Time In My Twenties
  11. Peace, Love & Diet Coke
  12. Lessons from the end of a marriage
  13. So We Broke-Up
  14. TheReporterandTheGirlMINUSTheSuperman
  15. lovetheatrics

That’s me, all listed out for the evening, buddies. Last night I literally cried myself to sleep. I didn’t even know that was actually possible. I guess crying is pretty tiring. Tonight I’m going to feel good and try to focus on lovely things like blog buddies, coffee, upcoming holidays, and unicorns.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Thank you 101 times over

28 Oct

Dear blogger buddies

This morning I woke up to find my silly blog has 101 followers. Not even just 100, but 101.

My little broken heart felt all warm and fuzzy inside.

The past twelve weeks have genuinely been the worst experience of my life. I know that probably makes me sound like a spoilt brat who hasn’t had anything bad happen in life. And, you know what? That might be true. But it doesn’t change the fact: this is the worst thing that has ever happened to me.

Eleven weeks ago, I turned to Google and stumbled upon some breakup blogs. Thank goodness I did. After reading as much as I could take in, I created Pizza of Doom so that I could get the awful things in my head out of my head.

What I did not expect was to ‘meet’ all of you lovely, lovely people. From my little bubble in London I’ve been able to share in your stories and share mine with you, whether you’re in Iowa, Boston, Maine, Toronto, India, Panama, New Zealand, well, wherever you are.

Rewind eleven weeks and I didn’t think I could get through August. Well, low and behold, it’s nearly Halloween. Honestly, there are days I couldn’t have got out of bed without your words of wisdom and support. Sometimes the only thing of any comfort has been knowing that you understand.

To know I have 101 followers (three of whom are friends in the real world – thank you, Jennie, Kate and Rosie). Well, it makes me feel connected. It makes me feel good.

I’m still sad every day, and I’m afraid I’m going to keep writing and moaning about this for a very long time.

But one day I hope to tell you that I feel amazing.

One day I hope to tell you I’m over him.

One day I hope to tell you I’ve eaten pizza again.

Lots of love, buddies. You keep me sane.

April x

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,