May 7, 2007
Weekending: I should do this more often!
Long distance relationships rarely acquire the sort of tedium that you experience in a non-LDR from spending every moment together, and there’s always a sneaking suspicion that you’re missing out on some of the more precious moments and underlying nuances that reveal your beloved’s personality. Getting a date is much more complicated than just making a call and confirming dinner reservations, even more so as a working gal on a budget; if the bills aren’t calling, the work deadlines are. We tested a rather reasonable compromise this weekend, though, and it was a rousing success!
I flew up late late Thursday night after work. Friday was a work-from-home day (just not my home) to eliminate my normal 2.5 hour commute, and maximize BoyDucky time. It was so fun! He took a half day while I kept working until 3:45 which is absolutely unheard of. We tried to watch Spiderman 3 even though I knew it was a hopeless quest because we were trying to hit a last minute matinee: of course it was sold out. That was ok, though, rushing to the theatre like a couple of kids trying to make the movie before curfew was fun. Since there is NO WAY I was ok with spending $10.50 per ticket, we skipped the theatre.
He introduced me to the wonders of Draeger’s and their amazing wine selection, so we cruised the aisles for a couple of hours. A bargain bunch of spinach, three cookies and a lemon bar later, we had dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant down the street. Their pho wasn’t half bad, and their eggrolls were small but tasty!
Daily subtotal: ~ $20
Saturday, he indulged my need for a (free) mini-facial at Origins, and even underwent the ordeal himself so that we could both get the free full-sized cleansers they were giving away. Like senile old coots, we completely forgot that we’d decided to try for the matinee of Spiderman 3 again before dinner with his family, and instead lunched on soup and sandwiches from Boudin Bistro to while away our overbudgeted hours.
Confession: We went into the Guess store because they had those beckoning 70% off! signs. I couldn’t resist. I’m not admitting that I didn’t try too hard to resist. But come on! 70% off!? It wasn’t that it was a Guess store, it was the 70% off. And then I way overspent on a pair of really comfortable, fits-perfectly jeans that turned out to be 50% off, not the promised 70%. In my defense, I’ve been wearing the same pair of jeans to work for weeks. And they aren’t even really comfortable, so it’s been fat-pants-day for … a while. On the other hand, I was originally so proud of only spending $15 on my last pair of jeans that turned out to be less than comfortable several months later, perhaps spending a little more for a pair I can get LOTS of wear out of will average out. BoyDucky feels like it wasn’t as world’s-end for me to spend that much as I did, but he later felt properly ashamed for encouraging me to spend beyond comfort level.
We had dinner with his very Taiwanese family, so I did my best to intuit the conversation and pretend I didn’t understand when they were asking when he was getting married. That’s always the logical question that follows, “How old are you, 30?”
Dinner ended so early that we even had time to squeeze in a movie rental.
Daily Subtotal: $14 (B), $60 (me)
Sadly, we only had time for brunch and stop in at a friend’s baby shower (there were babies, babies, everywhere!) before I had to fly home. It’ll be nice when I don’t have to go to the airport to go home anymore. That’s a point to the pro-marriage team. Still, I have miles to go before I sleep.
We’ve concluded that we both understand that we have jobs and responsibilities, and if the only way we can spend time together is to be in the same place and working, we’re ok with that. So, we’ll give ourselves a chance to be together a little more, even if it’s with respective laptops. Weekends have always been a complicated affair of cramming work during the week so we can cram a TON of social stuff into a couple days, this should be more relaxing.