thebitterlemon
Cookie Dough.
Eddie was ready to meet my parents. We’d been seeing each other for two months, but it felt like a year. Since we both had fall breaks coming up with school, Eddie suggested we drive back to the midwest and meet everyone. I was ecstatic! I called my family and told them Eddie and I […]
MoreCarving Pumpkins.
In September, I went to an LSU game with a few of my girlfriends. We thought it would be a great idea to wakeup early and throw back a few mimosas, since it was an afternoon game. But the alcohol and the heat made for a very unpleasant mix. So I went home early, and […]
MorePretty Sure.
I stayed at Eddie’s that night, and when I left in the morning, I was pretty sure he would never call me again. I didn’t know the status of his girlfriend, and it definitely didn’t help that he was my manager. So I tucked it away in my mind as a great night, and left […]
MoreBlack Box.
After work, we went to a restaurant just across the street from American Eagle. We ordered beers—I got mine on draft and he made a weird comment about how draft beer was cheaper and wondered if that’s why I got it. No. During our conversation, it came out that I had a male roommate. I […]
MoreCleaning House.
As part of my Lifelong Project, each week I am supposed to reflect on the work I’ve done and look at my assignments for the week ahead. Well, I’m way ahead of the plan I created, which is good, but I need to do some evaluating before I move along any further and become unorganized. […]
MoreThe Digits.
So, Eddie had a girlfriend. He never talked about her, but I had put the clues together at left it at that. One Sunday night, I joined a few of my sorority sisters and their boyfriends at this bar that overlooked a swamp. It was at the end of a short pier, and basically stood […]
MoreMake Me Invisible.
In August, A&F was cutting my hours, so I looked elsewhere for work. Naturally, I decided to go to the dark side and put in an application at American Eagle. When I went to drop off my completed application, there was a hot guy working the counter. His name was Eddie. I dropped off my […]
MoreJuly Journal.
July 24, 2006 {1:00 pm} Okay, so here I am again back in the journal writing about what I know best: how someone else has broken my heart. It’s been nearly 8 months since I was here writing about my issues with Adam. Today, it’s Austin. Yesterday, he told me he doesn’t have an emotional […]
MoreSurprise, No Party.
My 21st birthday was in July. Around work, I heard rumors that Austin was trying to set up a surprise party for me. So, when he invited me to dinner one night, I was fairly certain it was going to be a party. I got ready and drove to his place. Where there was no […]
MoreThat’s Team Work.
I managed to survive my time at work, even when Austin was around. He wasn’t dating anyone else, and neither was I. In June, he told me he wanted to take me to the Marc Broussard concert that I’d bought him tickets for when we were still together. I liked Marc Broussard, but I wasn’t […]
MoreAll Mixed Up.
Austin and I didn’t go on many dates before we decided to be exclusive. Our first two dates went very well, and I remember wondering if things were moving too fast. I didn’t know if I was really ready for another relationship—I was still feeling the baggage from Adam. But I felt like Austin and […]
MoreThe First Date.
I agreed to go to dinner, despite Austin’s very lame attempt at asking me. We were in the stockroom, trying to reorganize clothes, when Austin came in complaining about a recent date he went on. The girl he went with worked at A&F with us, just like all of the girls Austin took on dates. […]
MoreThe Connecting Flight.
Of course, after I got rid of my physical baggage from my relationship with Adam, it took months before he was out of my mind. At the time, sorting through my emotions was one of the most difficult things I had to go through. But looking back on it now, it was just one step […]
MoreWho’s the Turkey Now?
A few weeks later, I spent my first Thanksgiving away from home. It was such a hassle to travel back to the midwest for such a short trip, that I was happy when a sorority sister invited me to her family’s Thanksgiving dinner. However, I was worried that all of my high school friends would […]
MoreRage Sets in.
After the journal entries, and after Halloween, the anger portion of my grief set in. The lovely Facebook showed me pictures of Adam in a frat boy costume for Halloween. He was with a girl who was dressed as a pirate wench. She is now his wife. Although I had declared my single status on […]
MoreIt’s Baaaack.
Remember when my laptop had “an incident with gravity” more than a week ago, and it had to go for a stay at the Apple Genius Bar? Well it’s back, better than ever, and I’m so glad to have it. When I dropped it off at Apple two Sundays ago, I was certain they were […]
MoreThe Fall of it All.
As you can tell from a few of those previously posted columns, things were going pretty well with Adam and I, even though we were 15 hours away from each other. When I got back to school in August, for the fall semester, I booked a flight to visit Adam for my Fall Break—basically a […]
MoreSweet Summer of Love.
After the night in Adam’s dorm over winter break, and returning to LSU for the spring semester, I was ready to go home and see my friends for the summer. That was when Sheena and I nearly got arrested. No more than a few weeks after that, Adam invited me over for dinner at his […]
MoreHalf of My Heart.
I wrote this column for the LSU newspaper. It’s about my relationship with Adam. It was published about two weeks before he dumped me. Relationships with Holly A. Phillips {published Tuesday, September 27, 2005} I miss my single-self. My single-self is laid-back, strong and independent. But I lost her somewhere in the midst of my […]
MoreMy Subject.
During winter break of my sophomore year, I was making notes for a relationship column I was writing. I wanted to write about Adam. Here is the notebook page I kept: Holly A. Phillips 1.8.05 Column idea: Adam makes the move. One of my best friends, Adam is finally coming onto me. Several of my […]
MoreWhere It All Began.
Looking back, it’s difficult for me to say exactly when my friendship with Adam melted into a relationship, with full-blown feelings. But since it’s my responsibility to figure it out, I would say it all started in Adam’s dorm room. ‘Twas the night before winter break at Indiana University. I drove into town, heading home […]
MoreThe Love Train.
It’s difficult for me to pinpoint the first time I realized I wanted to write a book. And it’s a pretty weird thing to tell someone when they ask what I do in my spare time {what spare time?}: “I’m writing a book.” It’s a hefty project, but so far, I’m enjoying the journey. In […]
MoreMr. Officer.
The summer before my junior year in college, I was 20 years old. I was home in Indiana for a few months, and Sheena and I were headed out for a typical summer night—out to a lake house. This was Evan’s family lake house—a notorious hotspot for partying in high school. Once we arrived, it […]
MoreMeet (the) Adam’s Family.
I never saw much of Adam during school breaks. Over the summer, Adam and his family spent time at their lakeside cottage in Michigan. Over Christmas break, he was either closing the cottage or traveling to visit other family members. From the outside, his family looked perfect. Adam’s dad worked for one of the largest […]
MoreWinter Formal.
I keep a giant, expandable folder of notes, journal entries, cards, ticket stubs, and all things that might jog my memory as I attempt to write this book. Over the next few weeks, my assignment is to write and organize all of my “Adam” information—my first love. I can hear the singing from the angels […]
MoreBump in the Road.
When I started this blog a week ago, I was behind on my Lifelong Project schedule. However, since I have been writing more for the blog (which in turn means writing more for the memoir), I was actually ahead of schedule by a week. But then something horrible happened. My laptop fell off my bed, […]
MoreThe Lake Story.
The summer before my junior year I was hanging out with the usual group—Jon and Adam, when we went out to the Marina. We met up with Rachel and a few of her girlfriends. It was the last night of the summer and we were determined to do something memorable. Boys being boys, they wanted […]
MoreHow I Met Adam.
I was at my friend Michelle’s house after school. She called her friend Jon to see if he wanted to hang out and he said he’d be over to pick us up. He arrived in his black Sunfire—complete with sunroof. His friend Wil was in the passenger’s seat. We drove off, on our way to […]
MoreMemoir Outlook.
Main topics: Adam Austin Eddie 1. Adam 2. Austin 3. Eddie 4. Austin Things for later (book II): Hank Matt B. Matthew Matt C.
MoreIn Depth.
After looking at my timeline, and some notes I had from my relationship with Austin, I was able to go a little deeper with that first timeline I posted. Here goes: April 20, 2006: Austin sends me postcards from his class trip to the west coast. July 24, 2006: Austin regrets our physical relationship. March […]
MoreOff to College.
In mid-August, the summer after I graduated high school, I packed my little blue Daewoo to its gills and began the drive to my new home in Baton Rouge, La. While I had dreamed of this day for months, it was difficult to leave my hometown and all of my friends. However, 14 hours in […]
MoreBoys of Summer.
“Psst…hey,” I whispered. “So, do you think he had sex with his ex-girlfriend?” “Umm, maybe if they dated for a long time,” Sheena said. “You’re right, I will ask him later.” We were sitting in a glorified shed my boyfriend Zach called the Tiki Hut, due to its string of palm tree lights draped from […]
MoreModern Love.
Aside from writing a book, it has become a dream of mine to be published in The New York Times’ Modern Love column—I know, I really have some hefty dreams here. I’ve written and submitted two columns, both of which I am proud of, but I am still working toward my goal. I came across […]
MoreA Timeline.
It’s time to add a little juice to this machine! Over the year, one thing I HAVE been doing is creating a timeline of things that happened in my life—some of them pertain to “How to Make Lemonade,” others don’t. This is me accepting the fact that my memory sucks, so how am I supposed […]
MoreIntroducing The Lifelong Project.
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve had trouble all year kicking off this project with the proper momentum. I blame that only on myself—my overall laziness, my lack of motivation, and the amazing ability I have to let everything else in my life get in the way. Mainly, that includes handfuls of other writing gigs I […]
MoreHey girl, hey!
Hello my sweet friends! If you’re reading this, it’s probably because I told you to check out my brand-new project, The Bitter Lemon! As you can tell, I’m pretty excited about it. One of my goals for 2010 was to finally (FINALLY) do something I’ve wanted to do for more than three years now—write a […]
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