Weddingbee Blog

Mr. G and I have been spending a lot of time together recently, and it’s been nothing short of amazing. We’ve spent the last year and a half apart, after seeing each other nearly every day for four years when we were in college together.

Here’s what happened—I graduated, and Mr. G had another year of school to go. I moved back in with my parents because I was broke and unemployed. Mr. G stayed down on campus over that summer because he had two jobs down there. I got a job at Jewel, and my hours got cut down (as did the whole store’s) after just a few weeks of work. I was working a 12-hour week, which was like nothing, so I would go stay with Mr. G for a week here or there. It was a giant adjustment from living in the same apartment (with other roommates) to just visiting him, but we still got a good amount of time together.

Then after last summer, school started again, and Mr. G hit the books. I was still at Jewel, so I’d come down and stay Wednesday through Sunday, or something like that, on weekends he didn’t work. (He only worked two of the four weekends a month). This kind of morphed our schedule into us seeing each other every other weekend. When I type it out like that, it doesn’t sound so bad, but at the time it was such a struggle. My mom jokes about how when we hit the two-weeks-apart mark (because we weren’t always able to see each other) that I’d be noticeably grumpier. I guess two weeks doesn’t seem like that much, but it was definitely an adjustment. It was also hard because Mr. G was at our campus, but I was back in my hometown…with no one, really. I have some good friends, some from around here even, but nobody lives around here anymore. It was kind of lonely, I guess, which made driving down to see Mr. G for a few days (even if I was just sitting around while he was in class) no big deal.

Fast forward to March, when I got a job. Finally getting a job was a huge relief, and it was so nice to finally be making the money to finance this big shindig that will be here in nearly six (six!!!) months. Well, I have to wake up early to drive into the city, so I go to bed relatively early to do so. When I first got the new job, Mr. Giraffe worked late at night and slept in because of it.

So what did this do for us? Well, I’d go to bed at night, and a half hour to an hour later, Mr. G would call me and let me know he was home, and I’d mumble something in response and then roll over, drop my cell phone somewhere, and go back to sleep. I wouldn’t call him in the morning because I didn’t want to wake him up after a late night. We were on totally opposite schedules. Like my mom says, “It was like ships passing in the night.” I’d taken to e-mailing him during my lunch break just to catch up with him.

Did we continue to see each other? Yeaaahhh, but the drive from my office to his place was just about double the normal route. It was a long haul to get there late Friday night and a pain to then have to leave on Sunday night. Sometimes he’d come up to see me, too, and this kept us on our every-other-weekend schedule.

So what changed? Well, Mr. G started his student teaching and had to move back here because of it. Now, for the first time in a year and a half, we’re not too far from each other! It’s about an hour drive to see him, but it’s only about 30–40 minutes from my office. What is our schedule like now? Well, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I get off work at 5:30ish, get to Mr. G’s at 6, leave at 9, get home at 10, and go to bed.

It sounds like a pain, but I’m so happy! Sometimes I think that during our long-distance phase I forgot how much I love spending time with him. Getting off work has been so exciting lately because I cannot wait to see him at the end of my day.

It makes me smile because I remember how exciting it was to see him between classes our freshman year of college…this is like that, only a hundred times better!

Happy because we’re together…like we are now!

Anyone else have to spend some time away from your fiance? How did you deal with being apart?