Overwhelmed

This was clearly my best Valentine’s Day ever. We made ourselves Facebook official that day. My friends in Oklahoma immediately started commenting that they needed to meet him. Tyler liked my changed relationship status on Facebook, which felt a little awkward to me. Chris and I also changed our Facebook profile pictures to a photo of us together. He changed his to the same one I did. I had to laugh at how goofy we were. I loved it.

My coworkers and I exchanged a few cards and candy. Cupcakes were in the kitchen for Valentine’s Day and two birthdays. I may have eaten three cupcakes over the course of the day.

Chris emailed me around lunch time, and asked, “Soooo did you get anything at work today?” I hadn’t received anything and wondered if he was sending me flowers. He kept asking throughout the day if I had received anything. Nothing came though. He tried calling their service center, but a message said they weren’t taking calls right now because of the holiday rush. He also sent an angry email. I was itching for the doorbell to ring at the office. I waited until 5:15, but nothing. He said he was sorry I didn’t get surprised today, and that the company had better make it up. I was a little sad because I’ve always wanted to receive flowers at work. At least he had tried.

He came over that night at 8:30. Before that I attempted to clean up some and make things romantic. I burned candles so my place would smell nice. I arrange his gifts on the bed. I put out ‘toys’ on the night stand. I set up a romantic play list of songs. When he knocked on the door I answered the door in lingerie – one of his gifts. He loved it. Everything went so well. I led him straight to the bedroom and turned on the play list. After a very long and enjoyable time of foreplay, sex, and gazing into each other’s eyes, he opened his gifts. He just seemed shocked that I did so much for him. He loved everything. His responses reminded me of myself. He pulled one thing at time out of the gift bag, examined it, and thanked me. His favorites were the card (which I practically wrote a novel on) and the photo collage I had made which included seven photos of us. By made, I mean I created it on Walmart’s website and had it printed, and then framed it. After opening all of his gifts, he hugged them and put the card over his heart. He said nobody has ever written such nice things about him, and he felt overwhelmed with love and happiness. It was wonderful. I felt extremely overwhelmed with love and happiness as well. He said that everyday can be like Valentine’s Day for us if we want it be. I had to agree. He added that next year we can do something even better for Valentine’s Day because he will have more time to plan. He said if we were in Washington we could be on a mountain overlooking the ocean. That definitely sold me on moving there.

We talked a little about the moving stuff again. He said he will have to buy me an HD webcam. We discussed things for a bit, and then ended it with him saying I need to visit him in Washington before I decide to move up there. Again, my biggest fear in all of it was whether I would be able to keep my job. I decided I would talk to HR first about the corporate policies before saying a word to my bosses. He said he went through the same thing when he first moved to Washington, and his company ended up letting him work from home.

                                                                        

That night I dreamed about receiving a bouquet of flowers at work. He slept over, and in the morning we discussed possibly taking a four day weekend to visit San Antonio. I had never been and we wanted to have some sort of vacation together before he moved.

Chris got an update from the flower company. Apparently he had bought me a big bouquet and Godiva chocolates. They were going to give him a refund instead of delivering the items late. He suggested that he could use the money from that to either buy me a new vacuum since mine barely worked or to pay for a hotel in San Antonio. I felt shocked because that seemed like a lot of money to spend. I couldn’t help but feel a bit guilty since I wasn’t used to a guy spending so much on me. 

I planned to take Chris with me to Oklahoma the next weekend to meet my family and friends. It seemed dorky to admit, but I wanted him to know all about me. We had admitted that we are both hopeless romantics.

Pregaming Valentine's Day

I met Chris at his dad’s house just before 8 p.m. and was quickly introduced to his grandparents and Heike. We sat around and chatted until about ten, then went to change into our ‘going out’ clothes. I was a little unsure about my outfit. I wore dark jeans, a lacy spaghetti strap shirt with lots of cleavage, and a short black jacket that came courtesy of Clare’s closet. I wasn’t used to showing cleavage and kept the jacket zipped up until we left the house.

Chris drove the four of us to Trinity Hall, an Irish pub in Dallas. Luckily, we found a table and were soon waited on. I was pleased to find that they served my favorite beer – Lindeman’s framboise. It’s a fruity Belgian beer. Abby and Heike tried it, and decided to order some too. We talked a lot, mainly about Germany in relation to the United States. Chris also kept sneaking glances at my chest. I felt a little awkward about being that exposed but I loved his attention.

Just after midnight we decided to try going dancing. We drove over to Greenville Avenue and looked around for a possible club. We soon found one, parked, and ran through the cold to the door. Once we were inside, Chris quickly bought shots for all of us. And again. He said we needed shots to be able to dance. I agreed. There weren’t too many people dancing, but we went for it. Abby could dance very well. I just stayed close to Chris. More girls soon joined us on the floor. After awhile it was getting hot so we decided to go to the upstairs balcony of the club. We walked up the stairs and found an outside bar and dancing area with a roof over it. Again, not many people were dancing, but we went for it. I guess Chris and I looked good together, because a few people started yelling for us to kiss. We couldn’t ignore that order and went for a deep kiss. People cheered and we laughed. I suppose they thought we had just met. We soon went back downstairs and danced until 2 a.m.

I had actually enjoyed myself. I have no rhythm whatsoever, but with Chris, dancing was fun. I slept over that night and spent the day with him and his family. That night, all ten of us went out for dinner at a barbecue restaurant so Heike could have some typical American food. We went back to his dad’s house after and decided to again wait until after ten before going out. Chris and I sat at the dining room table and spent a huge amount of time playing with a little box of magnets. We made strings of the balls of magnets and stuck them on our faces as if they were piercings. Of course we took photos of this.

The four of us got dressed up again. This time I went with a black, silky, lace top with short sleeves. First we drove to Deep Ellum in hopes of finding a good club. We found a parking spot in a lot and walked a few blocks. There was only one place and it didn’t look very fun for us. We walked back to the car to find a boot on it. A guy soon came up out of nowhere and informed us it would be $100 to remove the boot. We were shocked. He said we didn’t pay to park. We hadn’t seen a sign or anyone around when we had pulled up. He pointed to a tiny sign on the other end. We also realized his truck had been parked right by us when we had arrived and that he had been inside it at that time. Chris immediately took the defensive and asked why he hadn’t said anything to us then. The guy ignored the question and just kept saying it would be $100. Chris pointed out that the sign was tiny and there was no sign next to the entrance we had pulled into. The guy still kept saying it would be $100. I had the cash and offered to pay for it. Chris and Abby promised to pay me back. The boot finally came off and we left angrily.

We drove around complaining for a bit and finally found another club inside a hotel. This time we parked in the hotel parking garage. We got inside to find that the club was packed. Chris grabbed shots for us again and we all began dancing. More shots were taken. Dancing with him was fun. I loved being close to him and, yes, grinding on him. Abby and Heike found guys to dance with, though immediately told the guys they weren’t single. Surprisingly the guys seemed ok with that and just danced with them. We stayed until 2 a.m. again. I felt like I had got in a great workout from all the dancing.

I stayed the night with Chris again. Heike and his grandparents left around 10 a.m. the next day. Abby left soon after and hugged me goodbye. After that we went to my apartment to hang out.

We went for a walk on a trail behind my apartment complex. The weather was comfortable and it was nice being able to talk outside. We ended up talking about the future and love. He said he felt guilty about possibly saying I love you, then moving away a few months later. He also talked about his fear of going to school. He said he wouldn’t allow himself to fail at his goal to graduate, but he was a little nervous about it being tough and nervous because he would be giving up a good paying job for it. He said he was afraid that if I moved up there as well, that my friends and family would resent him. He didn’t want anyone to tell us that we are making a mistake. He said he had been trying to look at things from an outside perspective. He was trying to hold back his feelings but also felt like he should be completely open and honest with himself and me. I cried a lot as we talked. I just felt so emotional. He had exactly the personality I wanted in a partner, and seemed to be everything I could want out of a partner. I didn’t want to throw that away just because he was moving. He also said he never wants to hurt me. I told him he makes me happy and that was what mattered. We also discussed how things would be different if we were together in Washington because he will be broke and busy with school. Right now he had excess money and plenty of free time. I told him it would be fine because he’s working toward an important goal. We also talked a lot about our families. I told him about my grandma who passed away last fall and I cried because she and he would never meet. I wanted him to meet my family.

We joked that we were “pregaming” for Valentine’s Day, which was the next day. He gave me my gift, a Roku. It’s a box that connects to your television to stream Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora, etc. Clare had one and I had fallen in love with it while visiting her. I gave him a few gifts as well. That night we talked about our mutual love of antiques, and I pulled out my bisque doll collection from around the 1920s to show him. I hadn’t looked at them in at least two years so they were almost new to me. He looked closely at each one, around thirty of them, and we talked about the markings and what they meant as far as the age of the dolls. Next I showed him a scrapbook type thing I had made for English class in the year 2000. It is a super nerdy scrapbook. I was extremely embarrassed and he was cracking up over it. But it was wonderful sharing these things with him.

We cooked dinner together for the first time as part of our Valentine’s Day pregaming. We picked adobo-lime chicken tacos from my pile of recipes to try. They were freaking delicious and easy to make. The hardest part was making flour tortillas by hand. They taste a zillion times better than store bought though.

We got in bed around 11:30 p.m. I was having a hard time falling asleep because I still had a headache from the crying earlier in the day. He kept looking at the clock and saying things like, “15 minutes til Valentine’s Day!” Once the clock struck midnight, he said, “Happy Valentine’s Day! I’m not going to hold back anymore when I want to say I love you. Anne, I love you.” I immediately said, “I love you too, Chris,” and turned the lamp back on so I could look into his eyes. Our eyes met and we looked into each other’s eyes for a minute before hugging and curling up together to go to sleep.