The Dog Days Are Over

"Happiness hit her, like a train on a track" - Florence and the Machine

It's been a while, but here we go.....

On January 1st, I began a post titled "Real" with this paragraph:

"Last January 1st I said "I am going to make this a good year" - well, it wasn't. So I won't say that this year. I will say that I'm going to find some good in every day and focus on that. Hopefully by the end of the year - or December 21st when it all ends - I can look back and say "this was a great year." Fingers crossed."

Here we are, the end of this year.......so the big question of course is: was it a great year?

Yes. It was. Finally!

I haven't had this good of a year in a long time. Oh sure, I've had moments of years that were wonderful (such as my internships), but the years as a whole were less than desirable. This year, nothing *resume* worthy happened - school-wise/job-wise - I just worked at the same job it seems I will die at, took some classes (very fun ones!), and applied to PA and nursing school (still waiting on answers).

So what made it so great? Well, I'll tell you.

The first thing(s) was God, friends, and family. I continued strengthening my relationship with God through prayer (and faith!) and I became more involved in church, which has been wonderful! There have been moments of despair that my family has talked me through and listened to me vent and stress about. Going to Cozumel with my mom (and others) was so great! And I've had tons of laughs with all my friends!

The paragraph above was featured in a post about dating. If you remember, I kicked off my year with a date and continued to date a few guys for a couple of months.....

Which brings me to my second reason for this being a great year....

John.

*DISCLAIMER* I'm not really the type of girl to get mushy-gushy in a public post about a guy, BUT, he and I were talking about our "date nights" a long time ago and he said something about hoping to give me a date that was blog-worthy sometime, since I posted about my first date of the year and all. The truth is, he has done a ton of things that have been blog-worthy...I'm just lazy and haven't been blogging much. So while I was stressing over what to do for him for Christmas, a *lightbulb* came on - dedicate a post to him. Genius! I know :)

So here it is.....

We can start with a few of the nice little things he's done for me:
1. On 3 or 4 random occasions, he's surprised me with roses - not as apologies or holidays, but "just because"
2. He surprised me with a limo in Vegas
3. He bought a ballroom dancing Groupon for us, without my consent, but it ended up being really fun
4. He brings me a Dr. Pepper daily at work (sometimes even from Sonic), sometimes 2 if I'm cranky
5. He reads/subscribes to my blog and apparently has since before we started dating....which is either creepy or sweet, I haven't decided yet....haha, just kidding...he says it was to "learn more about me" since I wasn't very open
6. He took me to Philbrook and then the gun range on our second date - it was awesome!
7. He asked to go to church with me after a couple months of dating, and rarely misses now....he goes without me when I'm at work and takes notes for me.

There are a lot of things, but if I named them all, this list would be forever long....these are just the memories that I've cherished most this year.

We have been friends since I transferred back to the ER in April 2010...I had a crush on him after only talking to him a few times....then learned he had a girlfriend.....buzzkill. So I went on with my business. Fast-forward to January, he asked me to go out for drinks a month or so after he became single...I said yes but in the back of my mind I was wondering why and if this was some sort of rebound thing.....I refused to be a rebound so I definitely kept my distance and my guard up for a long time. Shortly after that, my grandpa died (the one bad thing from this year, but even that was bearable because I know he's resting now and not in pain or confused)....most people think I handled it pretty well. But really, I was putting myself in a coma every night so I wouldn't cry (either by way of Nyquil, Ambien, or Vodka...ha!). John ended up being the person I talked to about it most. I don't know why considering I was still getting to know him, but for the next 2 or 3 weeks, we just talked and talked - e-mails, the phone, in person - he listened very well and seemed genuine enough. I didn't want to comatize myself when I talked to him, so I'd like to say he was a big part of helping me through those few weeks and I'm very thankful to him for it.

Most people didn't know we were dating until a month or two ago.....which is what we wanted.....but things have went well thus far so we decided we didn't need to keep it so quiet anymore.

As far as the future goes, we are just rolling with it. Things are going great and I'm happy. We are waiting to see what happens with my school.....if I end up nearby or don't get in this time around, we'll continue with what we've got going. If by the grace of God I get into Chicago or NYC, neither of us are fans of long distance and don't want to hold each other back, so we'll just see. I just know that I've dated a lot of guys, most of which are on my "crosswalk list" (if I saw them in a crosswalk, I might hit the gas instead of the brakes), and well, John makes me smile and laugh and this is the best relationship I've been in. I trust in God's will, and whatever is supposed to happen will happen for both of us.

MERRY CHRISTMAS JOHN! I hope you know how grateful I am to have you in my life!