Continuing from my last post.
A few months after my grandfather passed I met my soon-to-be husband. We happened across eachother on the website Bolt. We exchanged yahoo messenger information and began to chat as much as possible. A few months after we decided to meet. Patrick would fly down to Alburquerque and I would pick him up and drive the 2 hours to Farmington. I had two of my friends come with me because 1. I had never driven in ABQ before and 2. Less likely to be featured on the 10 o'clock news....
The drive down I was so nervous! And I remember the first second I saw him he looked super nervous and scared too. I remember his hand shaking when I held it. I was living in an apartment at the time with a friend. It was kind of odd having a man under our roof. The highlight of the trip was when my parents found out he was in town. My mom had taken me to the doctor for a check up and wanted to spend the day together since it was her birthday. I knew I had to tell her about my visitor or he would be stuck at my apartment all day alone.
"Mom... You aren't going to be happy with me. I met a guy online and he is at my house right now. So can he come, I kind of want you to meet him." I laugh now, I just tossed it all out there on the table.
As we returned to the van I noticed my mom just hung up the phone. "I bet that was my dad...." I whispered to P. Sure enough....
"Your dad is going to join us for lunch." I could see P starting to sweat bullets in the back seat.
We went to Wendys and soon my dad pulled up in his work truck. He got out of the car and I could tell right away he had his "cop mode" turned on. He was a police officer for a while when I was young and sometimes his mannerisms would reflect that. He had his chest all puffed up and a no-nonsense "don't try anything funny" look on his face. He came in, P stood up and I introduced them. My father visibly relaxed when P said "Nice to meet you, sir." the rest of lunch was pretty much uneventful as my parents got to know P a little, I could tell they at least liked him a little by the end.
The week went by really fast as we spent time with each other, we went to a movie, checked out the local shops, and hung out at my work a little while I was working. When P went home he told his mom that he thought I was "the one".
That Decemeber I went up and met his family in Washington. I also moved back in with my parents to save money (which I of course did not do). When I arrived at the airport I ran into P's best friend and he walked up to me saying "You must be Mallory, I am C, nice to meet you. P is around here somewhere looking for you." The drive home was filled with tales of their adventures until C fell asleep in the back seat with dreams of Carl's Jr in his head. The first thing he said when we arrived back at P's house was "This isn't Carl's". While I was in town we went on a double date with his sister and her boyfriend at the time at the zoo, played video games with his best friend who was leaving in a few days to join the navy, and celebrated Christmas. The last weekend before I went home we went to the Oregon coast and spent some time there. I still love the coast as much as when I first saw it. I also spent a fair amount of time crying as this was the first Christmas without my Grandfather and I chose to spend it away from home partly because of that.
January I got sick from too little sleep. Getting 3 or so hours of sleep a night does not work for me. I am one of those people who need a good 8+ to not be a zombie. While I was sick, I realized I also had been neglecting my roomie. While trying to balance 32 hours of work, 18 credit hours of school, a boyfriend, and a friend, I succeeded at sucking at everything. School started to suffer and I was struggling with the desire to go, work was frustrating, and both P and my friend M were angry with me because I didn't have enough time for both of them. This lead up to Patrick and I's first real fight. We had to decide if the whole long distance thing was worth it or to just call it quits. Let me tell you, it was not an easy choice. Long distance relationships are hard. In the end I decided I was going to fight for us and convinced P to keep fighting too.
In March he came to visit again. I remember my dad asking before P arrived if we were getting engaged this time. I told him we had discussed it. I shoudl add here that my parents must have really liked him, they allowed him to sleep in the guest room in our house. We were so weird, we picked engagement rings out before we were officially engaged. He proposed in Berg park on one of the bridges. The ring I chose would serve as my engagement ring and also my wedding ring. We discussed where we wanted to live and we decided upon Washington. I remember meeting with my parents for lunch to tell them we were engaged at a Chinese buffet. The most memorable part of the whole conversation was my father telling P that once he married me there were no give backs.
Over the next few months we had many discussions about when we wanted to get married. P wanted to get married in August and I wanted to get married in Decemeber for some crazy reason. Partly because I was not sure we could pull off a wedding that quick and partly because I kind of wanted a wintry theme.
In October, P flew down to help me drive up to Washington. My car broke down before we even left town. Finally, after the repairs we were able to make the drive. I don't remember much of it, it snowed at one point in Utah. We arrived at our new apartment and were able to rest a little.
I think everyone's first home is a little shady. Our's was not the best place but we loved it non-the-less. We expirienced many things together in our little hovel a shooting, and earthquake, and a tornado to name a few. The month and a half or so until our wedding passed quickly.
Before we knew it December arrived and it was time to commit to each other. The wedding was a blur really, it wasn't exactly what I wanted but it served it's purpose. P's best man C barely made it home from the Navy the morning of the wedding.
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