Short but Sweet Second Visit

Cookies and Coffee with my sweetie

After a very long month, Joshua and I were reunited…for two days, but that is better than nothing. This past Friday after work we met in the middle, checked into a hotel, ate Chinese food, and cuddle in our jammies while watching cheesy movies. This night was everything I could have possibly ever wanted it to be, it was a something out of a dream. Saturday was kind of busy, we checked out of the hotel and drove up to Gainesville since we were going to stay the night there with Joshua’s brother and we were all going to the Remembrance Ceremony for their cousin who died in a flying accident. The boys had never met him, but they wanted to go and support their other family members, and in turn the girlfriends to support them. This is where things get a little more interesting, especially since I’m competitive.

Sometimes I need to be reminded that I was very lucky to be raised by parents who loved each other and who loved my siblings and I the way they do. They motivated us to be active members of the community we live in, taught us the value of money and the time spent earning it, and they have always supported the goals we set for ourselves and respected the things we wanted to do with our lives. It’s unfortunate that not every child has parents that love their children this way. Zach’s girlfriend, Gen, she has parents that love her in a much different way than mine love me. They want to make the right decisions for her, and because of my upbringing that is very had for me to stomach, making it difficult for me to understand some of the decisions she makes for herself. Her way of asserting her independence is wearing caked on makeup, bleaching her hair blonde, wearing only the color turquoise, and partying with drugs and alcohol. Yeah, I get that she is young and this is a good time to make mistakes, but like I just said, sometimes I don’t understand the decisions she makes for herself, and in my dark twisted mind having a secret competition with her makes me feel better about my own faults. Which I can admit is a pretty bitchy move, especially since none of those things make her a bad person nor do I dislike her as a person.

To sweeten things up after my moment of ugliness, I had the best cookie of my life this weekend. A toffee caramel confection that no other cookie will ever be able to live up too. Back on topic, we ended Saturday night with Joshua  buying groceries for dinner and me cooking chicken and vegetable stir fry…yuummm! Afterwards we all planned to go see a movie, but Gen decided she wanted to go to a frat party instead, so with a kink in the plans, Joshua and I blew up the air mattress, tucked ourselves in, ate ice cream, and had another movie night, cuddled up together. Sunday morning we went to a really nice cafe, he drank espresso and I finally got the waffle I had been waiting for all weekend! This is where we said goodbye and headed to our respective houses with 7 hours in between us, as per usual I cried great big alligator tears half way home. Did I mention that Zach has a pet ferret? Smelly, conniving, theif!!! He stole my favorite pen! So it is safe to say that I don’t like ferrets and no matter how much Joshua begs for one in our ‘maybe’ future household, my answer will be no.

Our next visit will be next month for my birthday, we are going to spend the day at a water park (please Florida weather, let up on the rain!!!), have a nice dinner where I can order a nice filet of salmon and have dessert afterwards, and a couple surprises thanks to Joshua. I love surprises, I love being surprised, and I love figuring out surprises. Cue draw back of being in a long distance relationship, I can’t snoop and figure out what it is, sigghhh, but I can’t wait! From this point on, things should start happening pretty quickly though, my birthday, our one year anniversary, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and Hanukkah,  New Years, Valentines day, Spring Break, Joshua’s Birthday, Graduation and an end to all of this long distance stuff! Well hopefully graduation, I need to go talk to my adviser and make sure I’m still on track, being a transfer student really complicates things.

That is still a lot of time left in our long distance relationship, 9 months, and lot of things could happen between now and then, but for now the plan is for Joshua to beast his internship at The Breakers and start working there full time and for me to graduate. Once those two really big things have been accomplished we are going to take a really big step in our relationship that includes packing up my entire life here and moving in with him there, finding a job, paying off my loans, and both of us going back to school. Recently we have been playing with the idea of moving out of the country for a couple years, and really experience life. Don’t worry marriage and kids is in the plan, sometime around thirty. We have a lot of life to live and there is no telling what will actually happen, but for now it’s nice to dream about what could happen.

On a side note, in light of all the stresses of working and going to school full time combined with the stresses of a long distance relationship and living on my own, I have turned to Dr. Pepper to keep me sane. For the first time in my life, I have a soda addiction. If that’s my biggest personal problem, then I guess I’m doing all right though!

LDR: One Week Check Up and a Little Venting

It has officially been one whole week since Joshua moved away to start establishing himself in Fort Lauderdale, settling in, getting organized, going to orientation, and starting his internship. Let’s be honest, he’s lazing about at his parents house and more than likely hasn’t unpacked anything. He’s a guy and they will always need a girl to do the house work for them, their brains simply cannot comprehend tidying up.

(Today’s song of the day is by The Cure, titled Love Song. If it weren’t for being at work I would make it easy on you and post a link, but alas!)

None of my friends are showing any support and it is very hurtful. They actually are not talking to me at all, if they do it is the type of conversation you expect to have with an acquaintance. How were your grades from last semester? Did you hear about Angelina Jolie? I have all of these things sitting on my chest, suffocating me, and no one to talk about them with. Of course I talk to Joshua, but I miss having girlfriends to talk too. If they would talk to me I would tell them about how hard missing Joshua is on me, about my little brother joining the marines, about my classes, and about how my Immune System kicked ass and destroyed those pesky abnormal cells (which is a story and vent session for another post). Deep breath, sorry for venting on you, it’s all bottled up and becoming dangerously explosive.

My summer class started today, a seminar on Modern European Photography, with a total of 8 people in the class. As always on the first day I’m in love with the class, but give it a couple weeks for the shine of newness to wear off and ask me then. It will be a lot of work, I will procrastinate, but it will be very rewarding. Oh and the teacher remembered me from a previous class I took with her, which automatically makes her awesome in my book! I’m already apart of Phi Theta Kappa but I was also invited to join the art history club in the fall, so maybe the void Joshua left behind, that my nonexistent friends are refusing to fill, will feel a little less soul sucking and little more bearable. One week after being separated from my love I find myself feeling excited for the future and optimistic, maybe this won’t be too bad?!

Work is beckoning me, so I regrettably must leave you, happy reads, good listenings, and even better day to all of you!

The Arrival of Dooms Day

Welcome back Long Distance Relationship, it’s nice seeing you again, please be nice to me. Doom’s Day has finally arrived, the mental count down in my head is sounding. Joshua is an official Fsu Business School graduate as of this past saturday and tomorrow he will be leaving for Fort Lauderdale. Making this my last full day with him and tonight the last time we will be sleeping in the same bed together. How am I holding up? Not well, there is alot of sneaking off to cry going on. I know it’s hard on him too so I’m trying to be a brave little toaster when we are together. Big Alligator tears are garunteed for tomorrow, packing his car up this final time will be brutal. On the brightside, not being able to afford my Bonnaroo trip has left me with five days of vacation that have already been approved, 35 days until I see my love again.

In the mean time, there are arts and crafts, books, and sewing projects to keep my lonely mind busy. Hopefully I’ll be able to post some really inspiring DIY Projects. I’ve had my eye on the trend of repurposing shirts, maybe I’ll use some of the the shirts I grabbed out of Joshua’s closet to make some new dresses or shirts of my own 🙂 Would anyone have some suggestions about books or projects? As a personal reminder; deep breath in, exhale, and keep going.

When Procrastination Strikes: The American Dream

Well it’s official Joshua has started calling my place “home”. Guess it is time to start dropping hints about which engagement ring I want (rose gold, round morganite, pave diamonds all the way around the band), planning our wedding (fall, vineyard, dip dyed dress, and sunflowers), designing our house (stained concert floors, a glass retractable wall, huge green backyard, and a walk in closet), and picking out baby names (Ezra Owen, Madeline Ryan, and Isadore Ansley). His family is genetically predisposed to have boy babies, just look at his family tree, it’s brimming over with them, and I got this information from a good source (his mom). Well damn it looks like I already have everything figured out, honestly, it’s the procrastination.

The last week of April is finals week, but in the mean time I have an impossibly long list of things to accomplish before starting on that monster. Let me enlighten you! In Spanish I have plenty of homework left to do, an oral exam, a composition, and the final. All that is left for Maya Art and Culture is a research project and the final. Post Impressionism and Surrealist art is a similar story with a paper assignment and the final being the last little bit I have left to do. It doesn’t seem to bad, but I also work 40 hours a week because not everyone can live off of their parents dime. Anyway, less about the procrastination and more about our future plans.

So our most immediate goal is for me to finish my bachlors degree, graduate, and more to where he is in Fort Lauderdale. My personal goal after moving is to pay off all of my student loans so that I can go back to school for Interior Design and consequently build up some more student loans. The joys of being a perpetual student. In the long term I do not want to bring debt into the next phase of our relationship, but marriage would become a viable option after 25 and kids after 30. This is starting to sound a little like the American dream. Time to spice it up…ehh maybe next time, I have a lot of studying to do!

 

Music on my mind

I just learned something new, I have to upgrade to upload music, so please forgive the very ugly links*sigh*

Anyway, I’m going to keep this post short! I was feeling sentimental earlier today and asked Joshua to come up with a song that reminded him of us; he picked Eyes, the other two are my choices (it is my blog after all), and in turn I wanted to share them with you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhPH1QJGHwQ (Kaskade: Eyes)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ewg393qymRo (Miranda Lambert: Makin plans)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHEOF_rcND8 ( Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros: Home)

Hopefully I’ll upgrade before I feel like sharing some music again and enjoy the tunes!

Being Spoiled

This past weekend Tallahassee celebrated the arrival of spring and in honor of all the roads in downtown being closed, Joshua and I took Milo to his very first restaurant! Milo is my baby, so I just can’t help myself,  he was really well behaved! He didn’t bark at anyone or go beg for food at other tables, he just sat between Joshua and me, munching on chips.

  

After dropping Milo off at my apartment, we went to the mall to get a couple of his watches fixed. Since we had a little less than an hour till his watches were ready to be picked up, he decided to walk right into Forever 21 and start picking out dresses for me to try on for his graduation (less than a month away) and he even stood outside the dressing room to give his two cents. We ended up with a flowy, studded, starfish dress with matching anchor earrings.

Him spending money on me isn’t what makes him so sweet, it’s him knowing that I’m struggling with him leaving in less than a month, knowing that I “need” retail therapy to make myself feel better, and him wanting to take care of me as much as he can before he’s to far away to comfort me. I am a very lucky girl.  

Birthday Presents and Remembrance Presents

Joshua’s birthday is coming up a lot sooner than I would like for it to, cause then graduation and his internship are just around the corner. I like to consider myself an expert gift giver, as long as I have at least a month to prepare. I spend hours looking at different items, researching them, and comparing prices, trying to find the perfect gift that they will love and be able to use. Maybe I am in a secret competition with their other friends to give the gift they never knew they wanted but now can’t live without…yes I definitely am! After a couple days of intense deliberation, I picked this invicta watch:

I want him to be taken seriously as he embarks on this new phase of his life. He is going to be dressing well, standing up straight, shining his shoes, combing his hair, giving firm handshakes, and he will have the perfect finishing touch, a watch. It is this final detail that shows his personality in an otherwise generic buisness uniform of suit and tie, and as he networks and shakes hundreds of hands it will be a subtle message that he should be taken seriously.

Another thing I have been thinking about recently is slightly cheesy, but still a very serious thought. I want to get something small for both of us with the other persons initials on it that we could wear at all times without it being flashy and cumbersome.

                                                                                                  

Obviously, the rectangle would be for him and the heart for me, both are less than half an inch big, which I think is perfect. He already wears a necklace with a star of David charm on it, so it wouldn’t be a completely foreign idea to him. I tend to be a little paranoid about things, would this be jinxing my relationship, or would it be a cute reminder of the other person?

Secret Agent Lover Man

 I got the term secret agent lover man from a book I read when I was younger and have always wanted to call someone that, Josh kinda looks at me sideways when I do it but then flashes me that crooked smile, and my heart jumps a little bit. He lets me call him the most ridiculous things and I love him for it.

We ran into each other numerous times before we knew each other. Two or three years ago my best friends (at the time) and I were out at the club dancing up a storm for girl’s night. Was I dressed appropriately for the club? NO, I was working 12 hour shifts as a receptionist at a nursing home back then. We were talking about leaving when a guy with a Pauly D hair style walks up backed by his buddies and starts dancing with one of my girls and at the end of the song they exchanged numbers. For whatever reason they never dated but stayed in touch for about year, up until she met her current boyfriend. This guy was Joshua.

As girls do we get lost in a new relationship and put everything else on the back burner, but when her birthday rolled around in February of 2012, she didn’t want me third wheeling because I was still happily single and all her other friends were smitten in their relationships. So she calls Joshua and he can’t go, but we drove over to his place anyway, hoping to convince him to change his mind, is homework really that important? He doesn’t cave, but the Pauly D hairdo is gone and there is this smart, intelligent, handsome boy standing in front of me turning me down. I was angry, how dare he turn me down! So I proudly third wheeled that night and in true angry single style, made out with a random.

A couple more months pass us by and I miss my best friend. We made plans to go out on April 20th and once again I end up third wheeling even though I had invited her. She promised to invite a couple more people to go so she wouldn’t feel like she was rubbing her relationship in my face, and what walks through the door? A boy sporting a Pauly D hairdo, the same one who had dissed me a couple months ago (yeah I’m being petty, homework is more important than going out). She saw the look on my face and pulled me into her room before I could open my big mouth and say anything I would regret. He had been asking about me since February, he found my feistiness charming and he thought I was beautiful. That night was chaotic and was one of the best nights of my life.

I only knew him for a week before he had to leave for Switzerland on three month trip, but I already knew I loved him. We emailed each other numerous times every day while he was gone, but it was too soon to be exclusive especially since he was in a foreign country exploring and adventuring. I waited patiently for him to come back, my heart already knew what it wanted, and only he would do. Then finally he came home and I was the first person he wanted to see, my heart melted.

Since the night he came home, we have been inseparable. We spent the next 4 months getting to know each other before we officially started dating on September 29, 2012. When thanksgiving came around we were both at our respective parents houses, even though we weren’t together we still wanted to share what we were most thankful for with each other, I had come up with this sweet paragraph and he replied with “I am thankful for being able to love you”. That was the first time he had ever said he loved me. I had loved him from the very beginning and now he knew that he loved me too. It didnt even matter to me that he had needed more time than me, my patience had paid off.

Now we are nearing this impending dooms day, the day he moves away and I can’t go with him. We have created this story with so many details and adventures, it can’t possibly end here. So we are going to jump this hurdle, 461 miles, and keep adding to our story.

My Introductory

Joshua (my boyfriend) and I are preparing to jump the biggest hurdle of our relationship to date, Tallahassee to Fort Lauderdale, if your a numbers person that is 461 miles or 7 hours. In May he will be graduating as a Hospitality major and starting an amazing internship while I stay here and finish my undergraduate in Art History. He says we’ll be like Isadore and Max Sharp, who built the first Four Seasons hotel in 1961. Which to a heart overloaded with romance novels, sounds incrediably romantic! He’s aware that I have been planning out how we are going to get through this, but he doesn’t know just how in depth I am. The mission: Cheesy, Corny, Silly, Thoughtful, Loving, and Endearing. Lots of DIY projects, snail mail letters, love notes, care packages, text messages, phone calls, skype calls, emails, multiplayer games, and lots of little things. I’m bracing myself for the bad and embracing the idea of “absence makes the heart grow fonder”.