Learning to Love What She Loves

When Jenny and I first started dating, she never ceased to make it very clear what her expectations were. One of those stipulations was that if we were to end up together, I would have to learn to appreciate camping.

Having become an Eagle Scout, I have had my fair share of camping experiences. Through the years, I have grown to have a special hate for the activity. If I have a free weekend, the last thing I want to do is sleep on the hard ground outside in the cold after walking five miles with 80 pounds on my back. Not to mention the lack of showers, comfort, good food, and being woken up at 4 in the morning to the sound of chirping birds. Oh, and did I mention that's just when the weather is good? Unexpected snow, rain, hail, etc. can only exacerbate an already excruciating camping excursion. I remember one occasion in particular in the Boy Scouts where we were trying to camp in snow caves on Lookout Pass in Idaho. It rained that night. Snow caves and rain do not mix. That, and many other experiences have led to my distaste for camping. Why spend the weekend being miserable (i.e. "roughing it") when you can have fun doing something cleaner and more relaxing?

This was not going to sit well with Jenny. Her experiences have all been good. So, last summer, she orchestrated a trip for us to the Olympics and Washington coast, much to my distaste. I wasn't helpful at all, but she pressed forward....

....and I had a great time! We had a nice, long drive towards the coast, and had one of the best burgers I ever had at Smitty's along the way. After arriving as far west as we could go, we took a short hike down a cliff to Shi Shi beach, where we did some exploring. Jenny educated me on the wonders of tidal marine life, and I had a blast prying starfish off the rocks to inspect. We later spent the night on another beach somewhere else and woke up to a sunny day and low tide that must have gone out a mile or so. I couldn't believe it, but I was enjoying my time camping with Jenny.

Later in that trip, we also took a hike to Sol Duc falls, spent some time at a hotspring (that was commercialized to be populated more like a water park), and went cliff-jumping at beautiful Crescent Lake.

When it was all said and done, I had to admit that I had a really good time and loved Jenny even more for it. Camping still isn't my preferred weekend activity, but if it's with Jenny, I know I'll have a good time. In fact, if any activity is with Jenny, I know it will be fun. She has a way of waking me up to new experiences that I learn to love.

The Perfect Wink

As of today we have been engaged for one month and one day. HOLY SMOKES has it only been that long!?! All the hard, time-consuming wedding stuff is done, and now we're just playing some terrible, tortuous waiting game.

Ugh.

Patience, young grasshopper they say... well never in my life have I wanted to see a summer end more than this one. I'm just so tired of saying goodbye, of driving home, and of morning texts. I can't wait to begin our forever.

When Morgan and I first started dating, we kept it a secret for various reasons for almost two months... Well, I think we thought it was a secret for that long, but I would venture to guess after a month, most people saw the twinkle in our eyes. At any rate, one of my favorite memories is of our first Sunday back at church after the first time we kissed. I walked into the chapel, talking to a few friends at once, and Morgan was discussing something important with the relief society president. As the door opened and I walked right past him, both of our conversations paused for a split second as our eyes locked, he winked at me, and my heart melted into oblivion. I remember feeling as if the whole world had paused and gone silent for a minute as my entire cardiovascular and respiratory system stopped functioning all because of that little wink and knock-out smile. But as I came to, shaking myself back into reality, the conversations continued, we wandered into church and found seats expertly placed a few rows apart, so that nobody would notice. Ha... how naive we were.

The Luckiest

One time a friend in a somewhat condescending tone rebuked me for having been knocked so far off my feet I saw little else in the world beside Morgan. Apparently my world was revolving around "us" and she saw this as a problem. For a split moment I was taken aback, maybe she was right, but then I realized how wholeheartedly I disagree! Yes, I am topsy turvy, completely enamored with Morgan, and yes, my life now does revolve around "us" but my goodness I would never want it any other way! I firmly believe because we have this sense of a joint universe, we are the LUCKIEST!

Imagine, everybody in the world is the center of their own universe. They realize their thoughts, they act according to their own sphere of influence, and such is life. What Morgan and I have discovered, as I would hope most couples truly in love have, is that these two 'centers' are in fact so close to one another, their spheres almost entirely overlap, and we can share this new center of the universe together. I am A OK with that.

So mushy mushy stuff aside, I have TACKLED this wedding head on. Since last blogging, I have booked a photographer (Redbox Pictures), I have bought my wedding dress, bought the bridesmaid dresses and some accessories, began the alteration process, met with the wedding planner, purchased the wedding bands, the invitations, and am starting to truly check things off the list. With Hilary involved (the wedding planner - which yes I watched last night, and no she doesn't quite look like J-Lo), I can now hand over all responsibility and begin thinking about getting a job - a very unattractive concept, but money does seem to be somewhat necessary in this overly capitalistic world.

Anybody know of any awesome government relations/ political affairs positions or internships around here?

Would the company care if I was gone the last half of September?

Yea, maybe I should just enjoy the summer... which perhaps will one day come to Seattle.

Tomorrow is Morgan's birthday, and for the first time, I have realized the terrible irony of buying someone birthday presents with your (shared) money. We haven't melded bank accounts yet, but I guess what's mine is pretty much ours now anyway... this has a unique advantage seeing that I don't currently have an income. Morgan and I are both turning 25 years old this year, which means we only had to live 1/4 of our lives without one another, assuming a 100 year life-span. If I keep eating cookies at the rate I've been going in the last week, this span may decrease significantly. BUT, that means I will have spent a greater portion of my life with Morgan. So, I suppose, no matter how you look at it, we really are the luckiest.

Inspiring Others to Love

A few weeks ago, Jenny and I attended a fund-raising breakfast for a non-profit that is also a client of mine. At the breakfast was someone I work with on a fairly regular basis at the bank named Sharon. I spoke with Sharon this week about an unrelated matter, and part of our conversation went essentially as follows:

"Morgan, Byron tells me you have some good news!"
"Yep, I'm engaged!"
"Oh, that's so exciting! When I saw you two lovebirds at the breakfast, I knew something special was brewing. You two are so adorable together!"
"Aw, thanks."
"You know what I did after I saw you guys at the breakfast? I pulled out my cell phone, called my husband, and told him I love him! You guys inspired me!"

Much like anything having to do with Jenny, it made me smile.

I don't know how you do what you do.....I'm so in love with you

So the honeymoon is supposed to be up to the groom, right? I was all over that, but with me not being a big traveler, not having much time outside of work, and not being fond of seeing prices for such an endeavor, I found it best to outsource said responsibility to Jenny. Don't get me wrong, I'm still paying for the great escape, but Jenny was so good at reading my mind and offered to take over in the planning. Oh, how I love that woman.

It looks like we'll be spending a little over a week in Costa Rica at a couple different venues. We'll be spending three nights (give or take) in a beachfront cottage here: http://www.hotelplayahermosa.com/index_eng.htm and four nights in a romance suite here: http://www.paradisus-playa-conchal.com/ And for the first time in my life, we'll be flying first class! I may be looking forward to that the most. Ok, second-most. Being with Jenny is a hands-down #1.

Jenny has taken on a whole new form now that we're engaged and I don't know how she does what she does. I get so tired just thinking about the honeymoon (probably the easiest part), yet she has all this energy to plan that, the reception, the invitations, the logistics, the dress, the designs, the pictures, etc.

She's on fire and I'm in love with her more and more every day.