best day ever

 Yesterday I did something I had not done properly since 2018.

I went running. Well, first I went to the gym, and then I went running outside with S, 4 miles (6km) at a pleasant pace (36 minutes overall).

It was amazing. I had not felt that good in so long. Fort those who were not reading, I used to run a lot, doing longer distances on weekends (12 miles usually), and then I screwed my left knee in 2018 and had a less than perfect surgery at the end of 2019. There have been previous attempts at running again, but none has gone well.

Yesterday I felt like flying. I stopped because I was afraid of overdoing it and of waking up today with a smarting knee, but I could have continued for further 6km without problems. I did not know I was this well trained honestly.

And today my knee does not hurt.

I do not think I can convey how I am beyond myself with joy.

Song for this post: "Runnin' (Lose it all)" by Naughty Boy and Beyoncé

A sunny breakfast can fix a lot of things

 Not much is happening or at least this is what is seems like to me.

A couple days after my last post, Mischief sent me a long text that I'll partly copy here (I cancelled some things that include details on our clients):

Just wanted to say hi and hope all is well there. I am coincidentally in Seattle and had dinner with [our firm] Telco leader who is from Rome which was fun. I liked him. Didn't know things were crazy there like in Paris or so he said. Nothing new here. Been doing a lot of longevity stuff. I also heard your client [my main client for whom I do a lot of work with -us West Coast] on Bloomberg the other morning and was surprised. Oh you'll be surprised to hear I pinged [long piece about an investment he wanted to make a few months ago on which I gave him a bit of help in my professional capacity]. They said everyone we met is asking all about me and what happened 😬! Felt bad but the data center stuff was the right call. Anyway, I hope you're well. ♥️

To add some context, this was after the weekend where protests spiked to a riot downtown here, but I think media put more hype on the story than it deserved. I consciously let the text simmer for 12h before giving a short reply ("hey! so did you meet [name of Telco guy]?"). he went on with long texts and I gave in and resumed the conversation. We discussed how I am currently not very happy with the firm and that I should explore other opportunities, among other things. I am probably reading too much into the fact that he resumed the conversation.

Meanwhile, I just spent two days in Taormina for my firm annual partners meeting, which is in my humble opinion the most beautiful place in the world (although I would not want to live there). Taormina is in Sicily and a number of movies were filmed there, like Aquaman 2):

The volcano was calmly erupting (it's almost always the case), it felt like summer with 24 Celsius, weather was amazing. We had dinner in the hotel of the White Lotus Season 2, everything was good. A colleague that was with me in Mountain View spent a good 30 minutes obliviously talking to me about Mischief and how the guy was interesting and how he spent all his time with me and am I still in touch with him, he's such a handsome guy - at this point I smiled and politely said I'm certainly better looking and I think he got the hint to stop buggering me.

I spent the night working after receiving a call at 1h30 in the morning (hello West Coast), had a bit of a stressful situation and at 7h30 when I was done I called my friend Cinzia, who was staying in the bedroom next to mine, and we went to breakfast. Breakfast was here:

Needless to say, this took away my stress.

I'm afraid my decisions about avoiding contact with Mischief were also taken away but hey, a girl can dream.

Song for this post: "Angel of the morning" by Juice Newton

October gloom

 After a long day, largely spent helping out California-based partners of my firm that I'm helping in winning projects with my main client, I texted Mischief

"How come I spend half of my days in calls with LA and SF partners and it is never you?"

I didn't have to wait long for a reply "Hey how are you? Who are you working with?"

And off we went chatting and gossiping a little.

 

At least this is how it played in my mind. In the real world, I did not text him in first place. I am thinking that he will slowly fade away from my thoughts, but after a vivid dream last night I am not so sure this is happening (in case you are wondering, in the dream we were walking and he was talking about his dog). In any case, I am still avoiding to reach out to him and I still feel it would hurt my dignity doing so at this point.

 

In other news, it's the time of the year where I feel frustrated and depressed. We close the fiscal year at the end of June and as partners we are notified our annual compensation at the very end of October/beginning of November, but at this point of the year everyone is anxious to hear the results. I've had (as always I would add) a great year and I'm consistently in the top revenue-making partners of my Group. Unfortunately, two factors play against me:

i) my boss does not believe in the industry I advice (tech & media, while he's a real estate person) and does not understand how I manage to deliver these results (he's very formal, I always show up in jeans and sneakers, and I've come to the conclusion that every year he thinks something very lucky happened and that the results I brought must be a one-off thing)

ii) while I lead the tech & media thing also at Europe West level, most of the work I bring in to the firm is in the US these days (unsurprisingly, given most deals I work on are companies selling apps), and I'm not rated based on this but only in relation to Europe West work.

Finally, the Indian summer we enjoyed is over, and the weather is gloomy. The streets downtown were burning over the weekend, with violent protests boiling (as all around Europe these days). Depressing.

 

Weight wise and goal wise, there is nothing to report.

I've had a chat with chatGPT explaining my goals and it bluntly told me that I'm eating roughly half of the protein I would need and thus thinking I can really improve my pull-ups or my 6pack is unrealistic. I always struggle with proteins indeed. And I am also not losing (nor gaining) weight, but TBH this is not a main concern right now.

I can do 3 unassisted chin-ups when rested (probably 2 pull-ups), while with an elastic band I usually do 3 sets of 8 during my training, and I would want to reach at least 5 unsupported ones. We'll see.

 

Song for this post: Someday (I'm coming back) by Lisa Stansfield

post scriptum

 and as silly and childish as this is: he shouldn't have kissed me. I was used to men not being attracted by me, it was okay. He did wake up the monster that had been sleeping for so long.

So I do blame him for this

Taking over me (voices in my head)

 Mischief has disappeared again, which is completely expected because he's at home and not travelling.

The whatsapp chat lays empty (because he's a psychopath obsessed by confidentiality and has set the option that deleted messages older than 7 days). I am trying (and succeeding so far you may say) not to reach out. But what do I get from my succeeding in not reaching out?

Not much honestly

Do I think less about him? I probably do, like 5% less. Not materially lee I would say. Meaning I still think about him a lot.

I am not proud of this and I do not think this is smart. To quote Evanescence, "but who can decide what they dream, and dream I do".

 

I think part of the problem is I now feel again I have "a right to win". Again, I'm not proud of myself, but let me explain.

Over the past few years I never felt beautiful or sexy or anything and would never have imagined a man to be interested in me. Men simply did not see me, and it's funny how sometimes the bigger you become, the more invisible you get.

 

However, I should probably mention that at some point in my late teenage years, I realized I could (at the time) step in any room and if I decided I wanted a specific man, there was a 95% probability I could have him. (Not something I am proud of, unsurprisingly, but this is the honest truth, based on statistical evidence). Unsurprisingly that revelation changed my life because I previously had been invisible (ugly duckling anyone?).

 

Now let's not dwell on my young years, but the reality is that now men see me again. I'm not claiming I could have anyone I wanted (I also do not want anyone really!) but now men SEE me again. I get a lot of compliments both from people I see daily and from people who do not know me, and I have found again self confidence, which in turns generates attention. Which is funny really because hey, I'm still the same person, I still dress every day in jeans, a button down shirt (and a leather jacket now the Indian summer we've had is over) and sneakers. Every single day.

 

And the part of myself I despise most keeps telling me that things would be different if I had had the current looks back in Mountain View and in San Francisco.

 

Which is probably not true because in the (according to the rationale part of me) the reason Mischief does not want to meet me is he is a good man who has a family and does not want to cheat on his wife. But the voices in my head say that no, I was ugly and fat, I'm still ugly and fat, and they would only be sedated by him drooling on me I guess. At least they would be sedated for five minutes.

 

The worst thing in this messy thoughts is that on a lot of awkward situations I am able to understand if my neurodivergence is spiking or if I'm reacting like a "normal" person, but when it comes to anything that is sexual or romantic I really don't know.

 

I just know I should stop obsessing but I cannot seem to move forward. If I let the communications die, I may just start idolizing him into someone that doesn't even exist. Chasing a man is somewhat below my dignity.

 

Song for this post: "Taking over me", Evanescence