I think this will be the last entry in our series well over a year after the first post. Not long ago, a friend of mine joked that we should wrap it up unless readers speculate we broke up and weren’t talking to each other. I’m glad to say that all is well with Jeff and me. We’ve grown so much closer over this year that it is hard to believe it hasn’t been longer. All together it’s been a very busy year full of change and I’m hoping for calmer waters ahead.
It has been a few months now, and this column seems to be winding down. We have unpacked, decorated and rearranged furniture. The house-warming party has come and gone. We have even celebrated the holidays in our new home.
We’ve obviously made a large jump in our narrative here and I won’t go back to a play-by-play recount of how we got here. I’m still amazed, in spite of the amount of talking, visioning and working things out between Jeff and I, how completely different the experience of living together is from the ideas I had.
We have taken the plunge! Actually, we moved into our apartment about six weeks ago, but let me take you back over some of the ground we have covered.
This has been an eventful summer for sure. Not only did we go on two beautiful vacations (see Jeff’s side for details), but we have also found an apartment.
I must apologize for the delay since the last installment. Rolf and I went on vacation twice (Wine tasting in Napa for two, then camping on the Russian River with a group of friends in July and one week in Germany in August, and yes we had a good time, thank you for asking.).
This is turning out to be interesting, though perhaps for different reasons than I thought. Different pictures pop into my head when I’m sitting in front of the keyboard than when I talk to Jeff. And I’m getting to know a different side of him too.
Wow! This writing thing isn’t as easy as it looks. Maybe if I put in a CD, an idea will come to me. OK, that didn’t work. I’ll go get something to drink. Snapple fact #18: A jellyfish is 95% water.
I know this is a bit off the topic of moving, but hear me out. I can tie it in. This past weekend, Rolf and I planned to go on a hike together with our outdoors club. Rolf wasn’t feeling up to it, so I went hiking alone, while Rolf went to his yoga class.
Ever since we’ve started to date, I’ve wondered how different Jeff and I are and at the same time how much alike some of our life experiences have been. I see this combination of the completely new and the familiar as the main reason why the last eight months have worked so well for our relationship and why we are now getting serious about moving this to another level of intimacy.
This morning over breakfast, Rolf proposed the idea of both of us documenting the “cohabitation dance” that we will be performing this year. While it has the possibility of arguments playing out over the internet, it also has the exciting prospect of two people exploring new territory and learning a little about themselves and each other, while the world watches. But first, I should go back and bring everyone up to speed.
Rolf Danner 