Our Dating Life

blog-pic
Words you used to described our first dates together….

It’s been 2 years since we’ve had our first date (actually it’s tomorrow but I wanted you to share this with you today).  What I remember about that date is meeting up this cute Asian girl that was full of energy and interesting with mostly BS sounding entertaining stories (you haven’t change).  The more dates we went on, the more I realized that I have never met anyone like you and that you were special (beautiful, stylish, articulate, emotionally intelligent, fun to be around, and one of a kind).

Every weekend since then has been full of activities, thoughtful conversations, laughs, theatre of the absurd, and a coziness and comfort that feels natural.  We are dating the complementary versions of ourselves.   Our time together has it’s own feel/vibe (like going to new city) except our place appears whenever we are together and follows us wherever we go.

We have also had some trying times in the last 2 years too (the dog bite, sick family, and vaccine phobia) but it has always brought out the best in our relationship and demonstrated how strong our relationship is and what kind of bond and love we have for each other.

I’m excited for the future and I enjoy reminiscing about the past with you.  We have so many memories and so many more to make.

… ..  = I love you so much

 

Happy Valentine’s Day

I’m usually not too concerned about Valentine’s Day. I think it’s a little cheesy and kind of unnecessary. This morning you were looking at your phone and said today is supposed to be a national holiday. It had completely slipped my mind at that moment too and I said it’s probably something lame like Groundhog’s Day or National Donut Day. LOL, today is Valentine’s day.

We both had a blonde moment together. We had just told each other “Happy Valentine’s Day” earlier in the morning and had been gifting each other. You had even apologized for the long-stemmed strawberries that you were too cheap to get from Target even though you aren’t cheap at all. It was cute.

While this is not my favorite holiday, I do have so much love for you and that’s the only reason I felt inclined to celebrate it more this year. We had our first Valentine’s Day together last year, but our relationship is much different and stronger this time. It’s special because it’s our first one while being in love.

I knew that I wanted to do the couple’s massage with you for Valentine’s Day for some time already and had gotten clues of massage places you liked. When you said your favorite was Sound Stone Massage, I made a mental note of it. I was excited to do the couple’s massage with you and I liked the fact that you had never done this before. I made an appointment for Sunday, a week before Valentine’s Day.

You told me about the tour of France meals that Vin de Set was doing a couple weeks ago. We there for dinner on the night they were doing foods from the Champagne region on Thursday (February 4th). I really enjoyed everything about the meal and loved the atmosphere. I liked that fact that it wasn’t Valentine’s Day weekend, so it felt special but not clique. Thanks for the lovely and thoughtful dinner, sweetie. I also enjoyed our night cap at Cyrano’s for the Erin Bode concert.Vin de Set

CyranosI had seen a cute adult graphic book (not the dirty kind, but just a picture book) about a couple’s love story a couple months back. I had also made a mental note to get that for you for Valentine’s Day. I saw sample pages of it and thought it was really cute and kind of quirky, like us. So, I ordered “Soppy” and hoped that it would ship in time even though it was out of stock. (When I gave it to you this morning, I had forgotten to write a note in it for you. I wanted to gift this blog via that.)

After I ordered it, I started looking for more sample pages of the book on Google to see what parts of the book resembled our relationship. I should have probably done this before, but even if it didn’t, I thought it would be fun to read together. I really wanted to create something like this for us when I first saw the book, but it would have been impossible to find the time to complete it.

Then, I decided that the next best thing was to create a website or blog about us. Tani shared a website that her friend had made for him and his girlfriend before and I always wanted to do something like that with you. We’re both in the business of making websites now, so it seemed fitting for us. I started getting down to business last Saturday morning.

I was so excited that I got so much done that Saturday afternoon while I was by myself. I spent the rest of the weekend typing away my thoughts on my phone whenever I got a chance and making a list of all the memories I wanted to capture. You were curious about all the secret notes I was taking and got a glimpse of me working on a website before I could shield your eyes. You probably had a clue…

I’ve had a lot of fun putting the pieces of our relationship together from its beginning. It’s been a journey to see it grow and evolve. I had to use my superhuman power of data recollection based on my outfits of the day to help me remember the details and dates. I thought that it would be neat to post-date all of the posts of our dates and memories to the actual date of the event. I’m pretty confident of the accuracy of the dates.

While I’ve managed to get over twenty posts completed in just a week’s time (which by the way, is more than I could even do on my personal blogs), this still incomplete and will always be a work in progress and I hope we will continue to build this together. Let us reminisce about our history and continue to create more memories together.

I am looking forward to finishing the movie “Chocolat,” making chocolate-covered strawberries that you were too cheap to buy :), and enjoying this beautiful, snowy winter day with you. Thanks for shoveling my driveway and walkway and for the sweet presents. I look forward to enjoying them with you. You are the best boyfriend ever!

Happy Valentine’s Day… I love you.

Nick and Cuc holding hands

The First I Love You

I had flown out to the NYC the weekend before to meet with my client on his website design and had just gotten back that Monday. I think the first time I saw you was on Thursday. I missed you a lot while I was gone.

I had a lot of feelings for you that were sort of pent up by now. I told my friend that I thought I was ready to tell you that I loved you but I was a little nervous about saying it to you first. We were going to do fireworks (fireworks go BOOM) at Shelly’s and I thought that it would be nice to tell you “I love you” during the fireworks.

We were just laying around and talking about my trip to NYC. I told you how eccentric my client was and that he was an interesting character. The apartment that he used as his office was nice and I enjoyed staying there. I told you that the food near the outskirts of Harlem was much better than any of the stuff we had in the main parts of NYC. It was also cheaper.

You said that you were nervous about the whole trip and was afraid that it was sketchy. I had told you that I felt that you before I left too. I had a lot of stuff going on at the time and you didn’t want to scare me, so you kept those thoughts to yourself. You figured everything was okay, but you could help being a little concerned that you didn’t hear from me the next morning. I met my client at Starbucks around 10am and I didn’t want to wake you up since I was an hour ahead. We got so busy talking about the work that I didn’t get a chance to text you or even eat. It was 3pm when I had my first meal.

 

While you figured everything would work out, you said that in case anything had happened to me, you didn’t want to have regrets of not telling me that you loved me when before sending me off. I didn’t expect you to say that but it was sweet that you were worried about me and cute that you just told me you loved me.

I hugged you and told you I loved you too. You started feeling it during our NYC trip and had felt it a little even before that. I’m not sure when it all came together for me, but I’d say it was about the same. I hadn’t really been paying attention to it because I am always so caught up in the moment when I am with you. I was really happy that we exchanged these feelings for each other and had moved to the next level of our relationship.

Happy New Year 2015

We had plans to ring in the new year together with some champagne and lucky foods. But first, I had to go to Yuan and Kyle’s for hotpot with their mother and friend. It was the first time I had hotpot with them and it was really good but I was eager to go over to your house. I ended up coming over a little late.

You had been sick from drinking too much the night before. It might have been the continuation of your birthday celebration. I think we had discussed going out for a short bit, but plans had changed from the looks of you still being in your PJs. You heated some traditional lucky German food you had made for us earlier and made some pistachio pudding too. I told you that I never had fruit cake when we were talking about A Christmas Vacation, so you got some for me to try. You tried it first and told me not to, lol.

We channel-surfed through all the performances and I told you how much I didn’t like Pit Bull. He just looks so greasy and slimy. I also told you that the performances were nothing like they used to be and you knew what I was talking about. They used to start earlier and last past the end of the countdown. Nowadays, it seemed to be lacking. I would have enjoyed a drink with you while we were watching TV, but you were still hungover.

It was a little weird to watch TV with you, because you were usually on one end of the couch and I was on the other. We had been dating for about three months by this point but there were still barriers. While our conversations were always consistent and I always had fun with you, rarely were we cuddly or psychically close.

You know that I take things very slow, but at the same time, I love the small innocent and sweet gestures of hugs and cuddles. I always felt confused about this especially after an amazing date. I felt we had a really great connection but it didn’t always translate. It seemed like things would build up, we would have a “moment”, and then wait for the next burst of affection. You gave me a quick peck after it turned 2015 and I went home shortly after. I always have a good time with you, but I have to admit that it felt a little awkward sometimes. I just figured you weren’t an affectionate guy, so I left it alone. Or I was sending off the wrong vibe.

When I Returned From China

I had been back from China for a few days and this was the first night I got to see you. It was the day after Christmas. We had been texting since I got back and you had told me that missed hanging out with me. You also said that you would miss me before I left. It was nice to hear. I thought about you a lot when I was in China. I didn’t like not being able to communicate much those two weeks. t was happy to be back and doing things with you again.

You made dinner for me that night. As you were finishing up with preparing for dinner I told you about my trip. I told you about being scammed at the teahouse and how it didn’t quite live up to what I remembered. It felt different and the nostalgia from ten years ago no longer resonated with me. I learned some lessons from the trip and I had no desire to go back to China anymore. Maybe if I went with you…

I brought you back those lucky lions “dragons” because we had such a debate on what kind of creature they really were. I wasn’t expecting anything from you for Christmas so I was surprised when you gave me presents. It was so thoughtful. You got me the book of places to travel in the U.S., the treats for my pets, the orange watch that I regrettably lost the next evening when I was out, and that Ritz tin as mockery of my Secret Santa gift in first grade. This was the first glimpse of your amazing gift-giving skills. I didn’t experience your wrapping skills yet.

pet treat

I was so glad to be home. It felt comfortable and right to be where you were.

Our First All Day Date

We had our first morning date on this day. I left for your house in the morning and you drove us to the Mastermind Distillery in IL. Everyone there were couples and there were a handful of us. While we waited we got some tasty drinks. The Bloody Mary I got was one of the best I’ve ever had. I could feel myself warming up from the alcohol and the heat while we were attending the demonstration.

When we got the tastings for the vodka and other products they had, I really took a liking to their moonshine, LPR. The guide explained the story behind the name. It was provocative but easy to guess what it stood for. I ended up buying a bottle of it after our tour. You got to take home a bottle of the vodka that we got to dip and seal ourselves. I forgot to ask you to save the bottle as a keepsake.

When we got back to your place, you put old Christmas records on and we tried our new alcoholic purchases in your lab. After a little bit, we started working on the gingerbread house. It was a cute idea and I’m glad you saved it for us. We had a lot of fun with and found many ways to be creative. I think it’s the best gingerbread house ever.

gingerbread house

This was in a way our Christmas together. I was leaving for China on the 9th and this was one of our last dates before I left. I might have seen you one more time before I left. I was bummed that I left while the night was still young. My friend was in town and staying at my house, but I honestly didn’t want to be with anyone but you. I had started realizing that my time with you was my best times. It diminished the desire to be around anyone else. We had spent at least twelve hours together and I still wanted more.