29 March 2010

3,850 text messages with a stamp.

So I wrote a letter, like a written letter, for the first time in about 2 years, since the last of my friends that I actually wrote got home from their missions.  This letter, however, was easily my longest.  I mean, in two years of dating, you start to have a lot to say to each other.  Hannah and I were HUGE texters, I'm talking text conversations that lasted all day.  According to my phone's internal log, in the 27 months I've had it I've only spent 14 hours talking on the phone but sent and recieved 399,780 text messages.  That's almost 15,000 texts a month!  Guess how many texts have been sent and received in the 6+ days Hannah has been gone?  18.  So for those math nerds like me out there, this letter represented about 3,850 text messages, I had a lot to say.


While writing the letter I thought back to my ancestors.  What was it like not being able to communicate at the speed of radio waves?  I mean this six days to the MTC and back is going to take forever, how did people send their letters via Pony Express knowing they wouldn't hear back for a month or two?


Well this is already the second longest I've gone without seeing Hannah since we had our DTR, in some ways it's easier than I expected, yet more difficult in others.  One way it's been easier?  Well with my friends who went on missions their girls couldn't even wait three months without getting married, let alone two years.  My point is, so far I haven't gone absolutely crazy pining and needing for a girl.


It's been more difficult in that, I got so used to always having plans with Hannah, whether it was catching a movie, going to dinner, playing some old-school N64, or going down to race some go-karts.  Now I realize that I kinda took all that for granted, it became expected.


Well considering I've done nothing but Eat, Sleep, and Work this week, I'm holding up pretty well.  I did slack on going to church this weekend, singles wards have always been so fear-inspiring for me.  Hannah and I always went to her home ward, and since things with me and my home ward are a bit touchy at the moment, I have no choice.  Maybe if I show up ten minutes late I can get there just in time for sacrament, avoid all the clique-y meet and greet stuff, and hide out in the back of Sunday school.  At this point I don't think I'll get my records transferred, don't want to get called out... On second thought, I could probably really throw people off by having my name announced but not standing up, just do the whole who's-new-in-the-ward neck craning thing with everyone else.


Eh, I'll sleep on it.  I have two weeks to build the courage thanks to General Conference!

27 March 2010

...And so it begins...

My name is Chris, and my girlfriend, Hannah, of two years left this week for the Provo Missionary Training Center.  So begins 18 months of separation broken only by weekly letters.


I guess the best way to start this blog is to start at the very beginning.  Hannah and I actually met almost seven years ago, back in high school.  It was the stuff of corny chick flicks, we met through mutual friends, the meeting itself was nothing special, we didn't look at each other with anything more than a passing interest.  I remember thinking she was cute, her personality wasn't really my type, plus I was seeing Ashley at the time.


That was it, time went by, we saw each other a handful of times over the next few years as our groups of friends joined and separated.  It wasn't until about 4 years later, just over 3 years ago that there was a spark.  I was headed to treat an old friend, Jessica, who went to college down the highway to a birthday dinner.  When I get to her place I find out that she and Hannah are roommates!  I mean, seriously, what are the odds?  Well once again I was in a relationship, this time with Liz, but I can't lie, Hannah definitely caught my eye.


The next time Hannah and I saw each other was about six months later when we were both back home for the summer.  It was completely out of the blue, Hannah and I hadn't really spoken in about a year and a half and had probably only seen each other two times in that period, so I was really caught off guard.  I was still in the relationship I mentioned before the summer months had turned it into a long distance relationship.  She was putting together a gathering of old friends, so I went.  Well by the end of the night Hannah and I were talking pretty intensely, and before we knew it it was about 2AM and I had work the next morning!


Well believe it or not that was the last time I saw Hannah that summer.  In fact, I didn't see her again for almost a year, when I was helping Jessica move back home the next summer.  Hannah and Jessica weren't roommates this year but they remained good friends.  We all went to dinner before heading home, while there Hannah and I really hit things off and, since things with Liz didn't work out, I was single.


Well, the rest is history...