Our Love Story: Honey's Guest Post

My honey wrote this post to share with you about how he was feeling during the time we were changing from friends to falling in love. I am so glad that we can share with you our dating, love and relationship story of how we met... Oh and in honey's first draft of this post he called me a bulldog not just a real fighter :) I won in the editing room.
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A few evenings ago, Laura, or more correctly, her lovely readers asked how I felt during our friendship phase leading up to her return to San Francisco. All I can say is that some things end up being too good to be true, like when you think you have chocolate-vanilla swirl ice cream and you find cookie dough nuggets inside.

As we talked about her return to San Francisco, my first concern was for her recovery. I wanted to make sure she had everything needed to get better as quickly as possible. Her surgery was tough (similar to what football and basketball players go through when they tear their knee) and her recovery was tougher. However, I knew she would be fine, because Laura is as tough and positive as they come, no matter what the circumstances.

She's actually the first person I think about when I need to push through to get something done… Don't let her pretty prose fool you, she's a real fighter. =) Actually, shortly after we started dating, I went to Peru and did a four-day hike of Machu Picchu. Mind you, this was two cross-globe-travel days after a weekend trip to Vegas for my birthday, with friends. My aggressive travel planning guaranteed a pretty nasty case of altitude sickness on the hike.

Just picture the following: I am hiking up in the rain to Dead Woman's Pass (13,800 ft.) on the way to Machu Picchu. I'm thousands of miles away from home, a fireplace and a cup of hot chocolate… trudging in damp socks that got heavier with every step as the socks grabbed every wet dirt clump on the trail, carrying a bag of equally soggy and dirty clothes and hiking equipment, failing to properly digest some half cooked rice and vegetables, all while struggling for breath… The trail guides asked if I needed the oxygen tanks to help me out. Somehow, I found myself being able to keep pushing knowing how much harder Laura was pushing to get better and to be able to walk again. I made it through the four-day hike and home to Laura.

But I digress... as we talked about her returning to San Francisco from Los Angeles, it became very clear at how close we were and how much we enjoyed spending time together. After our little restaurant incident (which she wrote about in an earlier chapter), there was tension when it came to talking about our feelings for each other. That was definitely frustrating for me. It was increasingly awkward that we kept talking about our social lives, sharing stories without acknowledging what was right in front of us. I knew we were going to be great together, but wondered if we would give ourselves that chance…

I found our conversations, especially in the last couple of weeks before her coming back to San Francisco, to be like a game of Pictionary. Normally, not one to read into everything, I would think through our conversations and wonder what she actually meant. Is what she just said a clue that she wants more? How did she interpret what I said? Can she guess what I'm talking about? Do we have the same vision? The game can be fun, but not in real life.

In the days leading up to her coming back to San Francisco, I knew I wanted to bring the subject up again, and I tried to think of the best way to discuss it with her. How would you feel in this situation? What would you have done? What else can I tell you?

Signing off,
--honey