Breakups -Tom

So as you now know, Cal just got through a break up. The poor kid has been having a hard time, because break ups suck. Like a whole lot.

Especially when you try to let 'em down easy. 

There is a whole lot of assuming what the other person is experiencing or thinking or feeling and trying to counter that reaction because you still care about them but at the same time you want to take care of yourself emotionally too. Honestly, there is no way to win. 

But eventually things get better. Maybe not between exes, but for each of them life goes on and better things come along. Don't let the terror of today cloud the adventure that tomorrow holds. More on this later.

-Tom

I'm frustrated. -Cal

I am writing this because I am frustrated. Partially because I should keep my goals up to date, but also because I am frustrated.

Terribly frustrated.

But first my goals. 

I have continued to work on my story and writing has been a really nice outlet for me as of late. If you want to read this ongoing story, you can find it here!

http://thejournalsofaarongriever.blogspot.com/

If you don't want to read it then don't. 

I've also decided learning Arabic would be fun. I am living with a young man from Saudi Arabia this semester so if YouTube isn't sufficient enough then I'll have Abdulmajeed to help me out. I've found videos that feature middle eastern people wearing middle eastern attire yet sounding completely American, and hopefully these videos will be of use to me.

I haven't started on learning piano yet. Oh well.

So here's why I'm frustrated- my currently ex-girlfriend is in my apartment. Hanging out with my roommates. And that's not okay. Why? Because it's not. Sure, they were her friends too but this isn't alright for her to be crying to my friends when she has so many of her own to talk to. In fact, she even went to Tom to talk about the break-up. Now maybe I wouldn't have so much of a problem with this if she was venting anywhere else, but she's in my apartment. Quite frankly, I don't want to see her right now. Not because I hate her and think she's a terrible person, but because it sucks for me too.

Our breakup wasn't necessarily a "I hate you let's break up" kind of deal. It was more of a "yeah it's probably better if we break up" thing. It had elements of "this isn't working", but it wasn't really something that has been easy for me to deal with. Unfortunately, lately all my emotions eventually mold into frustration. Anger, confuse, surprise, and sadness. Which makes me frustrated just about all the time. Especially lately. And with her in the apartment, sadness turns into frustration. Guilt turns into frustration. Awkwardness becomes frustration. Everything is frustration. 

It's frustrating.

I'm Tom. I'm a female, just by the way.

Well, here we are.

And by we I mean Cal and I furiously typing next to each other. I have no idea what he is typing just feet away from me. Because really this is an unorganized mess of a collaboration.

So as a little introduction, I'm Tom. As mentioned in the title of this post, I am indeed a girl. We figured that different names from our real ones could be fun, because creating an identity is wicked sweet. I thought abstracted names could be fun, but when someone (ahem... CAL) wants to go by MALICE, it doesn't exactly give the friendliest impression ever. So we settled for something a little more subtle. I am dating Cal's best friend and have been for a little over two years. I've known Cal the whole time, but he pretty never ever talked to me before this last year. I figured he just hated me and thought I was a complete psycho, or was terrified of social interaction altogether. But after working in a shave ice shack together where you have a lot of down time before the next wave of indecisive frozen treat consumers attacks, you get to know a person. It's unavoidable. He was deciding on whether or not to attend college and I was like "DUDE. COME TO COLLEGE WITH ME I HAVE NO FRIENDS BUT IT WILL BE SO FUN AND WE CAN BE FRIENDS BECAUSE WE BOTH HAVE NO FRIENDS." So we did. And we have friends, because we aren't completely socially awkward.

The idea of "eclecticollegiate" is supposed to be our little clever word mash-up of eclectic and collegiate, in case you have yet to put that together. Because this is going to be a mess of all of the different things we are going to try to do with our -as I like to call it "frantically static"- college life. Sounds like an oxymoron, and it is. We live like an hour away from any major city. We literally see hundreds of sheep cross in front of our dorms on occasion, so there isn't a whole lot to do in our little town. But as honors students taking a fair share of credits, we still have a work load. But what about our free time? How are we going to spend that? We are going to try things from leaf pressing and photography to fixing up an old bike or making a blog (Ha! Already started. Check that one off the list) rather than just getting by doing mundane useless activities. Maybe you could even give some input to the strange activities we should try to engage in. We need adventure. And maybe it can inspire you to be adventurous too. Don't be that kid on the computer all day, that's what we are trying to avoid here (or do be that kid. As long as you dedicate a portion of your internet exploration to us every once in a while to live vicariously through our adventure. Or just to make me feel a little better. That's fine too).

And I just became aware that Cal is going to post some goals, so maybe I should too.

• Try to create and upload web comics to accompany these posts.
• Learn at least 2 songs on the guitar. Not just the intros like I usually do.
• Make metal stamped necklace pendants. Sounds cool enough.

Our posts will be a combination of our lives, what things we try, our experiences, and hopefully we can offer a little guidance if you want to try some of the things we do for yourself. Honestly, this is a wild experiment and we haven't got the slightest clue of how it will end up. But we want to keep you posted and have a little fun with it. Be entertained. It's okay to laugh. It's good for you.

-Tom

Hi. I'm Cal.

Hi. So I'm doing this blog thing, it's kind of cool. At least it might be. So long as Tom (ha ha, that's a chick) and I can keep it going. If not, I have another blog about zombies (#nerdathon).

Anyway....    I'm Cal. That's not my real name, but Tom thinks we need "code names". At least I prevented her from calling herself "Night Thunder" (I know she was thinking it). So I guess I ought to say something about myself. Well, I'm a guy with a lot of time on his hands. I'm attending a two-year school right now, I'm an honors student and I desperately need to find something to do instead of cleaning my apartment and rearranging my room.

So Tom is going to explain what we do on this blog... Which will be a surprise to the both of us.... And I get to explain how Eclecticollegiate life became. And I'll do it so I answer all the questions you have in your head. If you have any other questions... don't.

So Tom's dating my best friend. But he lives far away.

Where is he?

Somewhere else.

Oh.

But we worked at a snow shack together and became friends, which was good because I decided to go to college at the last minute.

Last minute?

I literally enrolled a week before classes started.

That's stupid.

You're stupid.

Oh.

And now Tom and I spend a lot of time thinking of fun stuff we could do instead of being on the internet.

Like what?

Stuff. Anyway, one dreary week (this very week!) I broke up with my girlfriend.

Aww, sad.

Yes. So one evening I was talking to Tom about why life is rough and what kind of stuff we could do to cope with life being rough.

This sounds like a cry for help.

Your mom is a cry for help. Shut up.

Okay.

So Tom mentioned us creating a blog for our thoughts, activities and really just random stuff we do... Then Tom said one thing that I will later suggest becoming the theme of the blog.

What's that?

We have been looking for entertainment rather than fulfillment.

Is that bad?

Yes.

Why?

Because. And so now, here we are making a blog.

That was a fantastic story.

Yes it was.

Now I have a few goals and Tom has a few goals. Basically these are just to make sure we're doing something with ourselves. I think the main part of this blog will be us explaining how our goals are going, but I imagine there will something about our lives every now and then (maybe I'll meet a girl! Probably not from what Tom tells us. Shut up. You shut up. Hey!).

My Goals:

• Practice the piano for 30 mins, at least thrice a week (my piano teacher fired me when I was 14)
• Attempt to learn a language through YouTube (just... yeah.)
• Work on that other blog I mentioned earlier

So that's not much, but we'll see how it goes. Tom and I are both gonna work on individual goals but we'll do some fun stuff together. I hope you enjoy reading this stuff, and maybe you can start seeking fulfillment rather than entertainment as well. Unless that entertainment is from us. Then tell your friends. All of them. Even the weird ones.