I'm back

I don't really know where to start. But I leave town again on Saturday to go on vacation with my family, so I'm thinking I'd better try to get some kind of update written while I'm home for a couple of days. Plus, I'm inspired by Carole's post about not always waiting to start writing until you have it all figured out...

Needless to say, it was awesome to have all that time with my love. There was only one day we ended up not seeing each other (he got trapped at home when a huge thunderstorm made some roads completely impassable). There were 6 days when I got to spend very significant chunks of time with him, as in more than 8 hours. The remaining 4 days I had at least 3 hours with him. Pretty good, huh? Definitely more than I could have hoped for, considering that he continued to go to work and school while I was there. We were able to visit some of our special places together (like the place he proposed to me). And we had a good mix of alone time and time with others.

We had some really good and important conversations. Some were difficult, revolving around things like money and cultural differences. Others were less difficult but equally deep, such as beginning to look at The Five Love Languages and discussing what is important to each of us. (I had the book both in English and in Spanish.) All ended positively, with us knowing and understanding each other better and reinforcing the fact that it is safe and good to talk things through with each other.

Considering that this trip got us up to a grand total of 28 days spent together in real time (since starting our relationship), I continue to be amazed at how well he reads me and understands me. I know I am on the easy side of readability, but there are certainly plenty of times people miss what is going on inside of me, close friends and family included. But FB always correctly assesses my mood, usually attributing the correct source to it, and can tell when I have something on my mind I want to talk about. Some of you know how hard it can be for me to initiate a difficult conversation, and can appreciate how great this is. I've also decided that our language barriers increase our direct and honest communication - I don't have the linguistic ability to beat around the bush. Between those two facts, I am only improving in my comfort level with initiating all kinds of conversations as well as sharing exactly how I feel about something, at least with my man.

I can't decide what else to include in this summary without making it way too long. I do want to say that there were several things that were like extra-added bonuses: A small group day trip into the mountains that FB was able to join us on, eating at the homes of some of my closest friends, an afternoon of chatting with FB's family while he was at music practice, driving in Mexico for the first time (multiple times), being a part of choosing the reception hall and wedding cake, communicating with the Pastor's family (where I stayed) without ever needing my dictionary...I could go on, but I'll leave it at that.

It is, as I'm sure you can guess, very hard to be back and again so very many miles away from him, with very limited contact. I keep finding myself walking along somewhere and wishing we were holding hands or his arm was around me, or sitting down and feeling the empty space beside me. Or all the things I want to tell him, but won't have time to because it takes so much longer to say things when you are IM'ing than it does in real life. BUT - only 177 days until the wedding (yes, for those of you wondering, the wedding will be December 29th, 2007). And in a little over 3 months, he'll be here to meet everyone and then take me back with him so I can get settled in before the wedding. Considering that it has been almost a year already since we started planning this wedding, I can live with those kind of time lines.

Pictures to come - I can't load them from this computer...