these texts are an archive of my life in the San Francisco Bay Area from march 2007 - march 2015. it stands as a record of close to a decade of my life, charting the struggles i faced as an artist, daughter, and lover. messy and chaotic at times, eloquent and poetic at others, these texts are an index i am proud of. it was here in this electric box that i learned how to be honest about my experiences and the person i needed to become. it was here that i first learned the truism that words make the world and how to trust such a beautiful, rife, hard fact.

thank you for meeting me here in such tall grass.


my artist website is here.

Mar 15, 2011

i am something that i cannot describe. my heart is Chicken Little.

es regnet.

der himmel ist grau und ich bin sehr traurig.




my phone rang last night at 8:30 and the screen of my cell-phone had my step-father's name lit across it. i thought of the time difference between california and tennessee. i answered the call. my voice went small. i've recently stumbled in to a string of bad days. i hit the 2 month mark of life without my mother a few days ago. the 12th. and viewing shitty apartments drenched in cat piss has not been much of a help.

he asked how i was doing and i said "okay" just like a little kid. so small, voice quavering. "you don't sound like you're okay" he said and that's all it took to break my ridiculous dam. FLOOD WATERS OF BIBLICAL PROPORTIONS. i cried and yelled and hit the wall. these actions are completely out of character for me but having a dead mother is pretty out of character for me too so...

i cried hard and woke today with swollen eyes, feeling slightly embarrassed about having exposed the particulars, the details, the swing and shift of my life that boggles my mind sometimes... everything is so up in the air. i have no clue what to do. i have no idea what i'm doing. when i said "i just don't know what i'm doing anymore", he said "yes you do. yes you do." and when it comes to this, this pounding out of words, this creation of images, this land where i writhe in the grass, not roll - writhe! - yes, i know what i am doing... it is everything else that is such a huge and horrible question mark. such a looming fearful confusion. it's normal, the data says. the stages of grief and all that. but in a way, it is so much more. i am mourning so many things at once.

this morning, i ignored my alarm clock and finally woke up at 11am. as soon as i saw the time, i thought "yep... i'm depressed."

of course i am. i think that makes me absolutely normal.



kate zambreno let loose a small portion of her work book of mutter on her blog this morning. what a gift to receive after a night like last night. i needed to feel this kind of connection and the permission it extends.

i have spent the majority of my life feeling so alone but nothing like this. the depth of this aloneness is astounding. it shocks even me. i was once a baby. i was once inside her body, growing there, warm, safe, in the right place. that was a long time ago. it's been a very long time since i have felt those things and i feel so far from the possibility of feeling those things again. but i know they exist and that i must somehow manage to be tough, to be practical, to put one foot in front of the other and make the hard calls, the uncomfortable choices.

i've missed one day of school this semester. one day. not bad. and i haven't missed a day of work other than going to say good-bye and be present for the funeral. i have not called off. i have not spent an entire day in bed. i've stayed committed to exercise and am still a non-smoker. it's been 5 months now since i quit. i am not in a dangerous place, i'm just on the horrible roller coaster, i guess.

reading kate's excerpt lets me know that i am not as alone as i feel. not nearly. this strange club we find ourselves in... girls and women without mothers. writers and artists without mothers. children who lost their mother way too early. it is a strange club indeed but i'm glad it exists. this lineage we build, the lines we draw back and forth to one another, the words that make the bridge, the words that burn the bridge, the words that re-make (re-mark) the Self, the words that define a person and a family and a world... we make a new site for ourselves in text. we find each other there. here. in paragraphs and pages and diaries and novels and even computer screens.

i am absolutely grateful for this. i am so grateful to have a place to be. writing/art has saved my life so many times. so so so many times. it will not fail me this time either. it is my mode. it is how i live.

kate writes, "i cannot mute my violence." this is a pain beyond compare and the fuel that moves the pen.

i dream lately of becoming a creature akin to jean genet. i dream of getting rid of all my possessions save for books and notebooks and art. i dream of moving in to my car and being a haphazard vagabond. i go to class and i learn a new language and the rest of the hours of the day feel like half-truths. on campus and in my notebook are the only places i feel like i am being myself.

chicken little...

the sky is falling.

yes it did.

yes it is.

yes it is.

yes it is.

8 comments:

Elisabeth said...

Oh dear Angela, your distress is palpable. I would say without doubt you are grieving, in mourning, and it sounds to me a little as though you may not have factored it in enough.

It is not so long ago your mother died. As a rue of thumb I think you need to allow a lot longer to get over it, in a sense, many years and even then, it's not something anyone ever gets over, but at least you might come to feel less like the world is a barren place.

So go with your grief, own it honour it, cry as you will and need, and keep on writing. My thoughts are with you.

Jane Lancaster said...

Angela

just wanted to leave a comment to say hey... and to offer you an online hug ((())) Thanks for sharing...it helps me too..

Jane

angela simione said...

elisabeth, thank you so so so much. thank you one thousand times. a million times. all i can say is thank you. i needed to know that what i feel is okay.

angela simione said...

jane, thank you. (((BIG HUG))) right back. knowing that it helps you too gives me strength for the fight of this. thank you.

Unknown said...

Angela........Love ya ur uncle Mark

angela simione said...

uncle mark,

i forget that family memembers have access to this site too. :)thank you for keeping an eye out.

<3

i love you too.

angela

Jane Lancaster said...

thought this book might help just heard about it on another blog and ofcourse thought of you xx

http://www.amazon.com/Mercy-Papers-Memoir-Three-Weeks/dp/1416567925/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300289782&sr=8-1

angela simione said...

thanks jane! i'll go take a tour of it now. :)