Babysitting and being lovesick.

[eohartman]

I spent my Valentine's Day with a sweet, handsome guy named Brenden. Of course, he was three years old and still wears diapers, but it was still a good night. :-) He had a bit of trouble falling asleep, but nothing I couldn't handle. I went to Brenden's house 30 minutes before his parents were scheduled to leave, so his mom could show me around and Brenden could get used to me. It was obvious they haven't had many babysitters, because Brenden spent 20 of the 30 minutes saying "Mommy I need you" and "Mommy I love you." But I managed to get him to start playing play-doh with me, and he loved that and then was totally fine with letting his parents leave him for the night! They must've been impressed with me because they paid me $50 instead of our earlier-agreed-upon fee of $35. Wahoo!

Dustin and I didn't really celebrate Valentine's day, although he is taking off work on Friday so he can come down on Thursday, instead of Friday night! He also has Monday off of work (yea president's day!) so we'll have an extra-long weekend together. I know it sounds cheesy, but spending such a long weekend together is a much better treat than any flowers or cutesy teddy bears or anything like that. Lately I've been so bummed out about being long distance again, all I can think about during the week is "How many more days until I see him again." I just do my homework and do what I need to do to get through to the weekend. It doesn't help that the one other thing I've been looking forward to most weeks, w(h)ine Wednesday, hasn't happened these past two weeks. Blargh.

I talked to my brother today for nearly two hours. That was an interesting conversation. He told me all about his weekend and what he got his girlfriend for Valentine's Day, and while I'm glad I'm not in the "beginnings of a relationship where things are so new and you're trying to figure out what to buy the SO for a holiday/birthday" stage, I wish Dustin and I did more couply things. Last weekend when I went to visit him, we went out with his friends for dinner. And then went to WalMart to buy him some deodarant and some tampons for me. Oh, the excitement. I know we can go out on real dates every weekend or anything, but a real nice date would be nice. We go out to eat a lot when we're together, since I don't have a kitchen in the dorm and dining hall food sucks on the weekends, and when I'm up there it's usually not worth it to go buy ingredients to cook for just two meals, but it's not like an exciting "we're going on a date" dinner, so much as "we're hungry and need to eat." So I kinda miss those early times in our relationship, where we planned out day trips for our weekends together, and had dates, and did other exciting things. Or maybe I just miss him.

Comments

[glowbutt.livejournal.com]

We've fallen into that "its not a date, but we're hungry and dont want to cook" going out to eat thing...we've always gone out on saturday nights, or fridays when he would have to work saturday night...but now maybe it's less special because it IS a ritual...that's weird, like it's nice to have that ritual, but at the same time, it's boring...

I know that you have essentially no income and that the trip to see him or him to see you sucks up some serious money, but would it be possible to maybe meet halfway one weekend instead and get a cheap hotel and explore a new town together or something? that would be fun and interesting, and nothing enforces couple-ness like being the only people each other knows in a strange town (trust me, this i know;-))...February is not exactly prime time for cool outdoor (free admission) fairs and stuff, but maybe there's some random things going on in either of your areas that you're unaware of...check out the newspapers for who knows what type of activities, it doesn't have to be anything expensive or terribly exciting or even anything that screams "couple-ness", but just something to break up the dull weekends together...even a bad high school musical production (it IS prime season for those i believe, at least mine were always late feb/early march) or something will probably be more entertaining than tampon buying trips:-P... or how about candle-lit takeout at home rather than eating in some loud restaurant one night? that's nothing way outside your usual activities, but it's more special...

it's really stupid, but one of jason and i's new hobbies is finding all the IQ/Mensa/whatever other kind of trivia test things online that we can and trying to beat other's scores...it's amusing at least:-)

I'm sure the majority of your problem is just plain missing Dustin right now, I just for some reason felt the need to spout out random suggestions anyhow:-P

[lizzie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the suggestions, actually. I'll have to implement some of those. Chattanooga is halfway between us (about a 2 hour drive for each of us) and we've talked before about meeting there for a weekend. Maybe we need to do that sometime soon, get a hotel and just wander around the city. There's a lot to do there.

We've just gotten used to "we're so busy during the week that the weekends are spent doing the errands we don't have time for in the week" rut, so instead of going to a new attraction, we go grocery shopping or take my car to the shop or whatever. In two weeks, I have spring break and I'm looking forward to visiting him for the week. He'll still have to work, but his friends from Fl are coming up to visit, so I can play hostess and everything and that should help break up the monotony of our visits to one another. Maybe we'll save the Chattanooga trip for near our three year anniversary, in May, since I'm sure we'll spend some money over my spring break and entertaining and stuff. *shrug*

I like your stupid idea. :-) Dustin and I used to have competitions with whack the penguin and other dumb online games, and maybe we need to start that up again. Just something, anything that's not the typical weekend routine would be nice. And you're right, the majority of my problem is just plain missing him, and the fact that it was around this time last year when he got transferred, so I keep on remembering how it used to be when we lived together and how wonderful that was, and then I remember that's totally not what we have, and yeah.

Not only are you living with your boyfriend, but you have snow. :-) How are classes going? I haven't heard much about how school is going for you, except for the annoying girl. lol

[glowbutt.livejournal.com]

not only do i have snow, i have a forecasted high temp for tommorrow of NEGATIVE something or other, and yesterday was -39 wind chill when i left the house, don't be jealous:-0

classes are going very well (well one at least, i'm kicking more class ass in basic sociological theory class than i ever thought i was capable of:-P, the rest i just took my first tests in this week so who knows yet)...the actual concept of making my transfer credits work for me to enable me to ever actually graduate from this damn place is still a major headache though...(btw- the girl who stares at my eyes, i now want to beat the shit out of for other reasons, she's a freshman of course because i'm stuck in comp 2 which most people take their first year...she's 19 and thinks she knows all there is to know about the world and that she's all high and mighty...something in class discussion the other day was about online interaction and relationships, and she's like "i just don't know who could do that, it's weird and stupid" making this awful face as if people who meet online are all retarded losers who can't face normal society...she's not worth my energy to get into it with over this, but GRRRRRRRRR she pisses me off:-0)

i'm really anti-lj right now, the posting part at least...i still read multiple times a day of course;-)

one other random cheap (and reusable!) suggestion- do you and dustin have any board games that are fun with just 2 people? (jason adores scrabble because i play to make big words, he plays strategically and always manages to kick my ass using the stupidest small words ever just because they land on the right squares)we've built a small collection from purchases during visits and then living together and buying stuff, we don't play often, but they're a nice change of pace from sitting around and just watching tv or something sometimes...

[lizzie.livejournal.com]

There's a girl in my education class who reminds me of your staring girl. When we have a presentation in class, the prof will sit down in one of the desks, diagonally in front of me. This girl who's two rows over and 6 seats up (in the front row, of course), will CONSTANTLY turn around and look at the prof during people's presentations so she can know how the prof is reacting. It's so freaking annoying! It's not just a quick glance, either, she has to physically turn her head around nearly as far as she can, and then she just stares at the prof (and at me, since I'm diagonally back from the prof). Argh! I've tried staring back at her but to no avail. I think I'll start making faces at her next week.

Dustin and I have some boardgames, although they're not the two-person type. I'll have to invest in some, thuogh, 'cause that'd be fun!