Our Love Story: Separated for the Holidays

My Honey flew to Las Vegas and to Peru for a fourteen day vacation duirng the holidays. Those were the hardest two weeks for me. I called him in Vegas to wish him a happy birthday. My friend 'Chloe' said to me,"Isn't it crazy that we're calling your boyfriend?" It had been so long since I had been in a relationship and I was kind of shocked at the thought that I had a boyfriend. "No not me," I thought. "I am Miss Independent who travels by herself, pays her own way and doesn't have to answer to anyone." (Can you tell that I had been hurt before?)

Everything had changed so quickly and I was happy and content about it. And then Honey left for Peru. We couldn't talk to each other and I looked forward to his emails.

At first, I was very excited to be in San Francisco by myself. After going to my usual coffee places, shopping streets and book stores, I realized that I had no plans for Christmas. Most of my friends leave the city or go on vacation during the holidays, so I spoke with my family and flew down to Los Angeles to be with them even though I had just lived with them for 5 months. I had actually missed the chaos of their house. Well almost :)

Every year my family goes to our annual Christmas eve/Hanukah party at my Aunt and Uncle's house in Encino. Being at the party really made me miss my Honey. Especially when some of the men were flirting with me and I said, "Oh sorry I have a boyfriend." They would then ask "Oh well then, where is he?" "He's in Peru traveling."

I wondered if this was like saying you had a 'boyfriend' in Canada that no one ever sees or meets.

It was very romantic courting over email. I got very excited when I received his emails about his travels, the people that he was meeting, the places he was staying, the new food he was trying, how sick he got while hiking Machu Picchu, meeting the children in Cusco and telling me that he missed me.

Despite the distance, I felt so calm and safe every time I heard from him. Before New Years, I flew back to San Francisco and started planning for New Year's. I booked the Hyatt in San Francisco and requested a room overlooking the Ferry Building - one of my favorite places in the city. I ran around the city getting New Year's party hats, champagne and counted down the days to his return.

Finally the day came for Honey to return home. It was December 31st, 2006 and as I was running some last minute errands, my phone rang. "Miss me?" he asked sarcastically from the Houston airport. "I should be in San Francisco in a few hours," he exclaimed.

As I waited for my Honey, I sipped on a glass of champagne to try to calm my nerves. Finally, he came and picked me up from my apartment. We kissed and embraced and I was happy to be with him. We went to the Hyatt. All of my surprises worked perfectly as we ate at the revolving restaurant at the top of the hotel and talked about what we had both missed over the past weeks. Plus Honey had taken over 1000 pictures on his trip. After looking through all of them, I felt like I had been to Peru also.

After dinner, we went down to the main floor. Never mind me having a couple of knee surgeries. You couldn't hold me back. We danced the night away. On New Year's Day we had a perfect and clear view of the ferry building. We were finally really together. What do you think will happen next?