Lots O' Thoughts!

Ok, where do I start?
So, I got through the phone interview for the sex toy shop.  It was mostly about practical stuff (I don't live close to the store) although the person interviewing me did ask me if I was comfortable using slang.  I said, 'Sure, although I keep hearing new slang terms I don't know, haha.'   (Understatement.  I didn't know what jizz meant until very recently.)  She said, "Yeah, it's just that some people tend to prefer the medical terms but you also have to be able to say 'pussy'."   And because I've done so much teaching, she wondered if I could give sex toy demos at parties (like a Tupperware party).  I stayed cool on the phone but just felt like a total phony.
Saturday, she phoned back and asked if I could come in for an interview.  Even though I was free that day, I asked to come in Sunday, after I was done work teaching a kids' art class.  Saturday night, Nerdboy and I went through their website and I read the descriptions out loud, then we looked at some Oh Joy Sex Toy comics.  And then we had sex.

Sunday morning I was ready to cancel.  There was no way I could tell my mother that I worked there, and reading the sex toy descriptions out loud gave me a small panic attack... On top of that, I had slept at Nerdboy's house seven nights in a row and even though I'd run home now and then, I hadn't any decent clean clothes left and I was dressed for teaching art.  Nerdboy said, 'Don't do it if you don't want to do it.'
Part of me wanted to skip the whole thing, part of me wanted to not chicken out.
So on the way to teaching, I stopped at the mall and bought a nice blouse on sale.  And then I had to do the interview, because I don't have any money for random blouse purchases.

The interview went surprisingly well.  The woman was friendly and down to earth.  The shop was busy for a Sunday evening so the interview got interrupted a few times, but mostly she just asked about practical stuff again.  She asked the slang question again and I said I thought you had to read the customer and guess if they would prefer slang or formal language.  As we got more comfortable in the conversation she did ask what I thought my challenges would be and I said honestly that there was going to be things that make me blush and she told me her story.  She said the first time she came into the shop as a customer, she was so shy she didn't even want the saleswoman to talk to her.  And when she started working part-time there, she did blush a lot, but then a few years later she asked to work there full time and now she's been there seven years and teaches sex workshops.  She said everyone's on a curve, or a journey with their own sexuality and she likes to help the customers who remind her of herself starting out...."Sex should be fun, and funny, and the sex toy industry is unregulated so I feel good about teaching people how to look for safe quality products"  (abridged quote of some of the things she said.)

I felt so much better about the possibility of working there, and even about my own journey after that.  And when I left the store, Nerdboy's car was parked outside.  He wanted to take me to dinner to reward me for going through with it but I wanted to go home so he made me some really great soup.  He's alright, that boyfriend of mine.

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He's also difficult.  He told me something about his mental health and I just said 'oh' and we probably need to talk about that eventually but I don't know how to bring it up.  And sometimes he still gets snippy and I get very quiet and hurt and haven't said anything.  I've been snapped at for trying to talk to him when the faucet is running and he can't hear me.  For jokingly saying I took too many potato chips on my plate and he'd have to help me eat them.

When I applied for the sex store job he suggested me practicing saying dirty words and I said something like, 'only if we have sex after'.  Which I intended to be sexy, but came out wrong.  We were in his car, and he said something like, 'Telling me you expect sex tonight is a surefire way to make me anxious and ruin my performance.'

Because, he's been having some difficulty with his equipment, you see.  I don't know what to do when that happens.  He gets frustrated, we cuddle instead.  Sometimes he gets a second wind and it's all systems go again.

He sounded very annoyed when he said it, and even though I should have been sympathetic to his problem, I was taken by surprise and got confused and defensive.  I can't remember what all was said.  He's texted me some fairly blunt 'let's have sex tonight' stuff so I didn't think it was fair.  And I said, 'Am I supposed to passively wait for it?'  And he said something about him doing all the initiating, and I said, "I want to but I don't feel ready and you told me sometimes your drive disappears and I don't understand, so I'm scared to try"  He said angrily, 'Don't put it all on me.'

I was so frustrated and bewildered.  Aaaaagh!  I'm pretty interested in sex right now and I'm trying not to be a sex maniac, but I'm always kinda hoping tonight will be a sexy times night.  I don't want sex every day, but I like the possibility of it so I'm always watching him trying to read the signs of when to expect it and when to not.  I've told him that I'm pretty much up for it any time, which he thought was great, but I guess he's feeling some pressure to perform, or to take the lead, or to be always teaching me what to do....

 He tried to explain what was sexy and what wasn't.  It seemed like I was allowed to touch him in the moment, like if we were cuddling on the couch, which isn't exactly rocket science.  But there must be a way to suggest sex later in the day that doesn't make him anxious.  And he's done it to me, so he doesn't have to grump at me when I try to copy that.  I've only been doing the sex thing for 3 months, give me a break!

He doesn't understand how much of an identity crisis this is.  This is all new to me.

I think that was our first fight and it was about sex, which made me sad.  The conversation ended in a ridiculous exchange:

 'I don't understand the rules here.'

 "I don't understand what there is to not understand'

Muttered under my breath:  "But you're allowed to tell me you want sex tonight and I'm not."

A few days later I brought it up and he didn't remember the conversation.  Frustrating man!  Sometimes he comes up with rules when he's grumpy and then completely forgets about them later.  He ate my extra potato chips off my plate fifteen minutes after saying he wasn't my "food dumping ground" (the incident mentioned above.)

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On Halloween we wore our handmade costumes and they were amazing and we were completely anonymous so we walked around town and peeked into open doors and hammed it up in front of restaurant windows.  We were pretty pleased with ourselves and he said, "I think we should just get married now, before we lose the magic.  You make me happy and even though there are some things that are frustrating about you, I want you in my life."

What things are frustrating about me?  I keep thinking about the ways I piss him off. I'm probably better off not knowing.  He frustrates the heck out of me but I tend not to tell him.

I don't know what a relationship is supposed to be like.  I don't know if I have the skills for a long term relationship- aren't you supposed to learn about yourself from previous ones before you're ready?
It seems like this has gone incredibly serious incredibly fast.  Even he will sometimes say, 'This whole thing is crazy' even though he's the one who's upping the intensity.
We'll probably live together by the new year at this rate.

So so so much newness and upheaval.
And I still need a job, and beyond that, a career plan.