this recent tampering with my door is providing a lot of grief-- to the point it has inspired a profoundly fucked up situation.
since the new locks were installed over memorial day weekend, my inability to live is gone. aside from a period of time spanning less than 70 minutes, i have been unable to leave this suite. it is impossible to accurately articulate the fear. this problem is not really rooted in going outside, rather, this has been about controlling whether or not someone will have an opportunity to take notice.
as it stands, no stranger is allowed to know whether or not anyone is here. it needs to be questionable. when i am here alone, there is an unshakable need to maintain the dual state of confusion. perhaps someone is? perhaps not? i cannot know what people think, but want the routine of attendance to appear to have lost its ritualistic formula. also, and i am not clear on the reason, nobody should specifically hear or see
me. even when chuck is around, i have not been able to exit this room. i have been free enough to open the door twice, but not enough to step out into the hallway.
consider how obsessive and paranoid this problem of trying to live secretly can get-- how it can take up to 25 minutes of tentative slyness to simply slide open a window. this should not compute. whoever wanted inside only desired material goods or information. there was no intention of harming me-- yet my existence must be restrained right now.
about twelve years ago, these sentences would have made sense. in a housebound situation without responsibility, authority, or the possibility of intervention, increasing levels of bizarre behavior had been reinforced by default. the difference is that my vacation expires in nine days. AND i can't stand being like this. the intensity of anxiety is experienced now, and there are non-essential places i want to go.
AND i don't care if gas provides a $4.62/gallon excuse. i need to get out and go and drive somewhere-- anywhere. i need to board an airplane and fly to patagonia just to kiss winter. i need to go stand on the moeraki metaphor again. i can't be here, but can't leave. i think i can, but then the clock scrunches up and the time of day suggests "how it's best to just stay in." this is true how it is safe inside-- occasionally. after three years with
resident doctor #4, why bend to that? it is safer to be confident in the competence of handling the outside.
the new locks on this door are loud-- muffling the metallic confirmation of hard clunk with whatever is available here is going to take ingenuity. i keep thinking that if the process of coming and going were silent, i could leave. this isn't true, though. i haven't slept in three days, am constantly clear as to who (if anyone) is in this section of the building, and vacancy makes no difference.
panic has extended beyond ordinary distress. when trying to leave, the head rushes invalidate any concerns over arrhythmia. seriously, who cares about the perpetual heart attack when the stress is such i feel to pass out and fall down? consider the exercise. my weight has noticeably dropped again. AND what have i been doing other than silently standing by a door listening intently to nothing?
if there is little material value to protect here, why does this door suddenly appear to be a vault? is that perspective apparent to other people? perhaps this extra security is attractive? simply making a visual change in the locks reveals my awareness, and that i have undoubtedly made changes to contents and my lifestyle... but now the worry is that my door may look inviting to the thieves who have yet to walk by.