First, Daniel & I have lived a whole week as college graduates:
Second, I got a haircut:
But most influentially, Daniel moved back to Nashville... for (at least) 3 years:
And although I haven't had to go too long without having Daniel in my life, him moving away from Knoxville was the start of a new chapter, a chapter which I call "My Love-Hate Relationship with I-40." No longer can I convince Daniel to come spend time with me with the promise of food (which I may or may not have done before... a few times). Regardless, it now takes 3 hours and a shift of time zones in order for us to be together-and it sucks.
But among all of the suck, there was something great that happened. This past weekend, I was blessed to have Daniel come back into my life. Not only that, we got to spend the weekend with everyone that we loved: our family, friends and each other.
Don't get me wrong, I love spending time with other people but selfish Caitlin made an appearance this weekend and I just wanted to spend the entire time with Daniel and only Daniel. From Sunday night until this morning, I got just that. And, by a stroke of luck, Daniel's meeting today got pushed back to lunch time, giving us a few extra hours to spend together (and sleep because boy were we tired).
I guess what I liked most about the weekend was how refreshing it was. Granted, we both haven't been doing *too* much since the big break, but at least for me it's been taxing nonetheless. Not only did Daniel leave, but the roommates left, got jobs and the friends moved away from Knoxville. I've been flying solo for so long I was even able to finish a book in only a few days. Being able to get away from everything and just spend time with Daniel was probably the best thing for me.
Yes, I got to ride (and drive!) a boat on a lake for the first time, and then play Risk, but I think the best part was all of the in-betweens. Like watching Celebrity Apprentice, for example. Sure the show wasn't the greatest but we got to spend 2 hours, being sucked into a show, anxiously awaiting the announcement of the winner, all while just being with one another. Sometimes I find myself getting caught up in the actions of being with Daniel than the pure joy of just being with him. In a world where we have to be adventurous 100% of the time (or so we want to) sometimes it's nice to take a break to kick back, relax and just be with one another.
And if that wasn't enough, the drive home was even better. From the lake house we had a whole 2.25 hours to kill. So we loaded up a TED talk and prepared to be amazed by the wonders of the minds of our fellow human beings. Instead, we were bombarded with buffering and loading wheels. We could have flipped the radio and found some podunk station in the middle of Tennessee but rather we just talked... the entire way home. There wasn't ever a moment when I thought "gosh what a long drive" but after passing the Oak Ridge exit I said to myself "Oak Ridge already? Maybe Daniel will turn around for a few miles just so we can keep talking." Granted, he didn't, but it was still really nice. I felt like in that conversation we grew closer to one another. From talking about our high school drama to our thoughts on God, we challenged one another with our questions and commentaries.
Overall, I believe this weekend really rejuvenated both myself and Daniel. In a time of change and unknowingness, it was an absolutely perfect weekend to just spend time with the man of my dreams.
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