Xmas Eve

Over the past few years xmas hasn't felt festive for me.

I find I am in the same situation every year. Nothing has changed as far as my marriage is concerned. As much as I should be happy with my job and my kids I am so unhappy in my marriage.

It's like the never ending ride that doesn't really change.

It's become who I am. Almost as if it defines me, but it's not me. It's not who I am in my soul.

even my home, it's not a sanctuary to me because it's not me. It's something I settled for to compromise what everyone else wanted. what Alex wanted.

It's my own fault. I have allowed this to happen and I am not doing anything to change it.

Depressing marriage

Yet another day goes by and there is no conversation about anything with Axel.
He says good morning or good night. Asked about dinner, lunch but nothing else. He doesn't try and connect or make conversation about anything at all. Yesterday I had to vent about work and he just nods his head and makes a couple of comments. He see's I am irritated and no follow up.

The other night I tried to initiate a conversation about what he talked about in his private session and just asked if any plan was made? He said well the plan to separate and go to Valentina's and I am like so you will live n the house with her? where will you sleep? If not Valentina's will you spend money on a hotel, rent an apt? Then he made the comment he would stay at the beach and I pointed out that he needs to be in NJ on Mondays so he will commute from LI to NJ??

He has put ZERO thought in any plan. Once again he's not dealing with anything. You don't need a month to think about the possible scenarios. In order to make a plan you need to think about that plan. You may not decide what the plan is but you will have thought about it.

I told him after that the separation isn't about wanting to be apart it was in hopes that he will appreciate me and miss me and I miss him.

After he said I really appreciate the words and it means a lot. Next morning he said it again and that was it. I give my heart on my sleeve and I get a crumb. for everytime I do that I get more dissapointed and hurt and it's just getting worse.

He's writing the blueprint to my not wanting to be with him.
My resentment is building up again not about the affair but about putting myself out there and just being given so little in return. It goes against who I want to be and it's affecting my own happiness and I just can't take it any more. I can not be part of his own weakness and discovery. I want him to figure it out but My love for him is dwindling and I don't know if I have it in me any more.

We are literally 2 people who just inhabit the house.
I don't want to even sleep with him anymore.

It's so depressing.

Days never change

It'll be a year in February since my husband and I have doe couples therapy. 2 weeks ago my husband finally came to the conclusion that nothing has really changed and he doesn't know why he can't do what I need him to do or follow thru on promises abou trying.

I have always said I deep down I don't think he wants to be with me. I think he loves me but not as a wife. Just as a friend and the mother o his child. But not like a woman and a wife. He's just afraid to face it. So fm that he's decided to see our therapist alone. I don't mind because I think or hope it will help.

Sadly nothing has changed once making that decision and even though he's had 1 appt. NOTHING is different at all.

Holidays, why they suck.

The holidays are always tough for me. It means I have to see my mother. It means I have to interact with her and now it means I have to see how old she is getting. Her mind is starting to go and all I see is the burden of what is to come.

I know it sounds horrible. She's my mother, how can you feel this way? It's almost mean how I feel so disconnected from her. I just feel afte everything I have been through I just don't know if I have it in myself to do the right thing.
I just don't want to. I feel like a little kid who has to go to a dr. appt or do something they don't want to do and exclaim they don't want to!!! I am being selfish and immature and maybe this is when I should not be but I an so angry I am in this situation.

My mother never gave me the love to me or my children that was needed. Everything was always about her and now I get stuck with taking care of her. She never took care of my dad. She had me.

She never saved a dime and expected others to help her with out guilt. She had no money because she spent it on strangers and fancy dinners and gifts because of how it made her look to others but to her family she only expected things and gave very little.

How selfish, take money and don't show your appreciate or be grateful. A simple tank you would do, but instead she wants and now NEEDS more from me.

What will I get out of it? Will there be an closer or satisfaction? I don't even feel love. I feel so much anger and hurt from what she did to me. She screwed me up and now I am in a fucked up relationship/marriage. Partially due to how screwed up I am about myself. I have such low self esteem that I  don't have the strength to walk away and I think my husband knows this.

WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME??  Can I change? Will I ever get the strength to take care of myself and do what makes ME happy?

I think i am depressed again. I am open about my depression only because I know I am not alone however I do think it's a sign of weakness in the publics eye. I look at my life and the only thing that make me proud and good is that I have amazing kids. I think they were born amazing. They have it in them and I take no credit. The only credit I would take is to be open with their feelings and be good people to others. Anything they are not good at I will take full responsibility for. I believe kids are born good and anything negative is learned. I have not been the best mother and I wish I could have been different but you can't turn back the clock, but you can be cognizant of it and hope to be better moving forward.
What makes me sad is that I don't have anything to look forward to. I know I am one of the lucky ones, but I can't help wanting to look forward to something.

I feel like I have so much to avoid.

Narcissism and infidelity what did I do to deserve this?

It's been quite a few years since I posted anything. I think my intentions were there but maybe it's my lack of know how or what I want to articulate on paper. I have so many thoughts and feelings and no way to organize them and put them to paper.

I write in my diary but often it's an impulsive thought or feeling and it may not be relavent to anyone but me. I feel like blogs are for the world to read, even though some one has to be able to find you. I live with the assumption that some one will and maybe share in my experience and not feel so alone. I live with the hope that some one has more wisdom and a solution.

In 2006 on the even of turning 40 I discovered my husband was having an affair. That was the beginning of my life spiraling out of control. Everything that I believe and counted on disappeared.

I didn't know where or who I was with or where I was anymore. It was so intense and almost as if I was going insane, however I was still in control. Or I thought I was. 

I have a bit of a controlling personality. Not in an obsessive way but more about having control of my life and the choices I make. I am knowingly not a perfect person and I have a lot of shortcomings, like anxiety and being incredibly insecure.

The anxiety probably comes from the fact that my father had a severe heart condition my entire childhood. Although I had a mother, she was incapable of taking care of him due to fear and it was left to me to be the one my father could rely on. I know it wasn't by any choice of his own, but rather I am nurturing by nature and I saw my father needed some one, and he saw I could handle it. I think if he knew the out come of how it would affect me as an adult he would have never relied on me as much as he did. The insecurity came from the fact that I have a narcissistic mother. I was not aware of who or what that was as a child, but now I know and understand. She was never proud of me unless it served her herself in some way. The love felt like it had conditions and I was aware of what they were. I think that is why I never felt beautiful. My father always made me feel like I was the most adored and loved person and he saw my beauty and my sadness and often apologized for my mothers behavior towards me. He used the fact that she was Japanese and it was a cultural thing and not to take it personally. I appreciate the fact the he acknowledge how wrong she made me feel but a child needs their mothers unconditional love. It's innate.  No matter how much you can intellectualize where the lack of it comes from, it doesn't change the feeling you have in your heart of not being good enough.

Then to later in life choose a spouse who hurts me in a way that triggers all those insecurities is so crushing.

In a couples therapy session most recently I described the feeling as being a a village in a Japan and being crushed by a tsunami. I was broken into a million pieces. Now I am like a china vase that someone has put together with scotch tape and at any minute I could break into those millions of pieces all over again.

I am such a strong person, I always have been and to feel so weak and vulnerable and not have anything to fall back on or to save me scares me daily. I have a concrete wall that I hide behind and it's all I have to protect me from the pain I feel every day.

So I have included a lot of information but left out some of the details. I started the post by saying my life changed in 2006. Well after he was caught Axel decides to live in his office loft that had 2 suites. They had build 2 bedrooms for company employee's who came from Germany to stay in while they were in NY. How convenient. This woman Phoebe was some one who worked for his company but who lived in LA. They were on a company sales trip they have every year and apparently Aexel had a near death scuba scare and when it happened he decided he no longer loved me. This decide that this new girl Phoebe was thi person he wanted to connect to. 

I didn't learn about the affair till a moth later when I caught him in a huge lie. The months before the scuba/sales trip things were not great however we were married already for 13 years and we had 2 boys who were in their 9 & 11 years old. I felt alone and cranky and maybe I wasn’t the best wife but I did try therapy and quite honestly Axel never called me on anything. If I was wrong he didn’t fight me. That was frustrating because he just kept drifting away and disconnecting which would bring up feeling I had with my mom.  Axel was also very good looking. I never had a traditionally good looking boyfriend, and when I met my husband he was dating a gorgeous girl who was HOT. I never could understand why he picked me. We did know each other from HS even though he was 2 years younger then me but he apparently knew of me all those years and said he was always attracted to me. I did date a good friend of his and there were times we double dated but quite honestly I never noticed him.

It wasn’t until we were out of college and I was having issues with my current boyfriend ( his friend ) and it came out that Axel liked me. Long story short I was always a sucker for a compliment and fell into it. We began dating but it was love right away. It was very intense and I just knew. I always questioned it and didn’t believe a guy like him who was so cool and handsome would want to be with me, but he made me feel so special and put me on a pedestal

, one that I was never on and I liked it. It made me feel good, he made me feel good for the first time in my life. He made me feel and loved me the way I felt my father did. He saw all the good that I could not see or believe was there.

So you can imagine how devastated I was to learn he did this to me and with some one who was 24 while I was about to turn 40.

But I stuck it out and let him go through what I believe was his own mid life crisis. That year he had bought himself a motorcycle, he hated his job, he was not feeling good about himself. He gained weight ect.. Not an excuse but I could see where or why it happened. Once I figured out everything and what I felt was the truth then I was able to be strong and try and take control back.

He eventually came home and things seemed ok and better.

Till it happened again. That time was 3 ½  years ago and he was fired from his job of 16years. That day was a very bad day. He was so upset and I comforted him and told him this is all good. He needed to get out of there. Later I looked at his phone not to snoop but he got a text and I happen to just see it. It was from a woman who he clearly was having a relationship with and said how sorry she was but she loved him and missed him.

Once again I was in this place of being there for him and trusting him and then to learn nothing has changed. He was a basket case and  I confronted him and became physically ill when he realized I couldn’t stay any more. But because I am sadistic and think so badly of myself worth I let him stay.

Those few months were the best. We had sex all the time and it was amazing. We were so together and intense. It was like rediscovering our relationship.

Well that all changed once he got a new job. About a year later when I myself got  new full time job I received a call from a man saying that his wife was having affair with my husband. I was in utter shock. #1 the fact that this guys found me at work, but then what he was telling me I could not believe this was happening to me ALL OVER AGAIN. I told him I need proof which he had and sent me. I left work right away. The blessing at the time was that Axel was in HKat the time and I texted him that I knew everything and I didn’t answer any calls till I was able to look through his stuff and that is when I found pandoras box and BOY did it have a lot of secrets.

Some how I was able to hack into all of his emails and found not only was he having an affair with this woman ( again 24) but with many other women.

Strangers, HS ex’s the list goes on. From what I could see most were emotional online affairs but there was at least one where I know he fucked. It was years before but the idiot didn’t delete the emails.

WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME? I kept asking myself. What did I do in my life to deserve so much pain. I was a good daughter, I cared for my father, I endured my mother and her lack of acceptance. I lost my father the only person who loved me unconditionally when I was 22.  My adult life was supposed to be better and happier. I had amazing boys, but even with my kids, my youngest had so many health issues when he was a baby. He had RSV @ 10 days then later he had Epilepsy and then in school a learning disability, and I was always the one to stay over night in the hospital, to figure out what Kenzo needed and still take care of everyone else. I would not have it any other way, but it was a burden and I had no one who took care of me. I was scared, but I could not show my fear. I just needed a time a place to be vulnerable and safe.

After all that now my mother is getting older and suffering signs of age. She is 90 years old and in good health more or less, but she isn’t caring for herself well, here clothes are dirty and she a bit out of it.

When will life get easier? Will life get better?

Better Days

Today is a much better day. i have decided to let my mother go. It's clear she doesn't want me to help her and I am not important enough to keep communication going. I was the last one to extend myself to her and in the end she hung up on me because I couldn't understand her point . So instead she hangs up. Very typical. It's so clear I am just an accessory. i look good on paper but she has not vested interest in me. i am torn between writing her a note or just leaving it alone. I would be the only one to benefit by the letter. She will just feel bad. I think I will leave it alone for now.

Life as a grown up is hard. Being a apparent is even harder. My younger son has mild learning issues but It worries me so much. it affects his self esteem and his over all growth. the frustrating this is he is quite brilliant. He is so creative and his mind is constantly thinking and creating. i often wondered if he had better parents would be flourish more? i think I am holding him back. i am not as smart of a parent as he needs. But I love him w/ all my heart and I just want him to be Happy. i just don't always know how to do that. i worry that he will not succeed in school,but what does it really matter? There are many successful happy people who did just OK in school. Why does he have to be an A student? i certainly wasn't. Why do I care so much. i just need to embrace who is is the way he is. i guess I am afraid he won't have as many choices in life if he isn't an A student.

My mother the selfish bitch

These past few weeks I discovered a very troubling yet awareness about my mother. She is more selfish than I could ever dream possible. She is a healthy 83 year old, and told my husband and myself that she has enough money to last her for the next 3.5 years. Now part of me thought, is she telling us this because she is coming to us for money and to give us a heads up that in about 3.5 years we will need to start taking care of her or, was she coming for help to manage her money and help her make that money last longer? I was confused and sickened by the thought.

Now here is the background so if anyone does read this they understand I am not a bad person or a selfish person.



I am an only child of a Japanese mother and German Jewish father. They had me very late in life back in the mid 60's. My father was 51 and my mother 41. Now my mother has always made it clear I was an accident, that she thought it was her "change of life" time and was surprise to find out she was pregnant. My father on the other hand always told me about how he was so happy to get the news and how much he loved me and wanted me.



During my child hood my mother decided to make a career designing high end couture clothes and my father agreed to give up his very successful graphic design business and help her start her company. He took every penny he had and invested in that business. Now, he was close to 60 years of age when he did this. Long story short, the business hit a peak and had big fashion shows and were in all the better department stores. Then the peak hit rock bottom right when I was in my senior year at my private NYC high school. At that point we had no money and luckily I started working at 16 so during my expensive teen years I was able to pay for a lot of stuff myself. Luckily I was able to get financila age when i was in college and continued to work part time.



During all those years my father suffered many heart related problems and I spent many weeks off and on over the years visiting him in the VA hospital on my way home from school.

My mother didn't like hospitals much because they freaked her out and made her uncomfortable. Never mind that her husband was in there. She didn't like it. It was always about her.

My father was a wonderful and a patient man and I think he felt very sad that my mother was not more loving to both of us. I believe he came to terms with the lack of love or affection he didn't get but he tried his best to make me feel loved and would tell me all the time that my mother had her own strange way of showing love and it was a cultural thing. I was fooled into believing this.



In short my mother was/is a narcissist. I learned this as an adult. This helped me not take it so personally and that this is her own big short coming. A lesson to be learned by all. Narcissists end their lives alone. As she will.



When I had my first child I had an epiphany, and that was what a true mother is suppose to be and feel for their child. My life was no longer my own it belonged to my child. My purpose in life was to now teach and love my child to the best of my ability. For right now I came second and they come first. I realized that my mother never felt or acted that way with me and that I was not a priority in her life unless I served her a purpose that showed a reflection of herself. For example as an accessories piece at parties that were filled w/ people who liked me. If the party had people who didn't like kids i didn't exist. One of my biggest memories was when my mother told me that she used to hang out w/ this group all the time and they didn't even know she had a child. Could you imagine????? The second I found out I was pregnant I couldn't stop talking about it, I was so happy and proud to be a mother.



During the first year with my first child I had so much anger and numerous revelations about my child hood it made it very difficult to be around my mother. I became very nasty and resentful. By the time I had my second child I realized it was unfair to my kids not to be around their grandmother. I never had a relationship with my own grandparents and my kids had both or at least a grandmother from my side. My father passed away before I married my husband.



That was the other thing. My father and I were very close and he was my confidant and my go to person about anything of real importance. when I lost him I lost a huge crutch for dealing with so much about life and my mother. He was the middle person for us. He would always calm things down. Since my mother was so self absorbed after my father died it all fell onto me to be the one to be the better person, to be the adult.



When my dad died my mother called me crying to say he was dead and died in his sleep. This was at 12;30am. I had to call the police to go to my mothers home while I had my boyfriend drive me to her house. Once I got there my aunt was with her and then I had to deal w/ the police and then call the funeral home to take the body. From that point on I was the one to deal with everything, the funeral home, the planning of the service, picking up the ashes. I remember carrying the urn w/ my arms wrapped around it like I was holding a body. The urn was made out of granite so it was very heavy and solid. It was a strange sensation to be holding something with such weight and it be your father, yet as ashes, somthing that should have very little weight. I did that alone w/ my boyfriend at the time by my side.

I lived with my mother for a week sleeping on the side of the bed where my father died. The only way I finally was able to leave was because my job needed me to return and I had to move on and get on with my life and take care of myself.
Now somewomen when they loose a spouse their lives end. But the reality this was not the case for my mom. My dad was a huige emotianl burden. His illness made her very worried and uncomfortbale all the time. When she did get over his death she shed 10 years off her life and she was reborn. She had a very active life and had a good ol' time entertaining, buying whatever she wated etc.. She did not come into any fortune by my fathers death. He had no life insurance policy and no assests so this life she was having was all on her own fruition. he was able to work and found ways to make money. Now the true story is she didn't excatly save too much or plan very well.



I never got to morn the loss with my mother. She never gave me any comfort during that time. Everyone asked and wanted to make sure she was OK and if I was taking care of her...who was taking care of me???? Only now do I realize what a scar it has left inside me.



And now we are here and my mother makes me feel like I am the bad guy because I want to help her on my terms. This means taking things away from her breaking her bad habit in order to survive. I refuse to bear the burden any longer. When I try and speak to her it's like talking to a child who did something wrong and they are making up excuses to justify why they did what they did, instead of taking ownership and becoming humble and accepting the lesson learned and getting help. Instead she hangs up on me because I speak the truth to her.

She is a true self absorbed BITCH! And poor me to have to be given this kind of mother and poor me to have to bear this burden.