11 Days

This Tuesday morning I left for work, leaving my girlfriend Jennifer at her apartment. After work today I went home to my house, marking the 1st day since Friday, May 28, that Jennifer and I did not spend the day together. That's 11 days in a row! I know it's not anything outstanding or to marvel at; but for Jennifer and me, who live 59 minutes from each other and normally only get to see each other on weekends, it was a big deal and a lot of fun!

The stretch started two Fridays ago when I met up with her, and her friend Danielle, and Danielle's boyfriend Pete, as we walked around Chagrin Falls for the Blossom Festival, which was basically a carnival. Jenn and I had some awesome Italian sausage while Danielle and Pete had an elephant ear (I think) and some French fries. Well, I think I ate most of their French fries since they forced me to. Haha! The next day Jennifer and I left early with her sister Amanda, going to Andover in extreme Northeast Ohio to camp for the Memorial Day weekend. While there we met up with their mother Deborah and other friends of their family. Jenn and I had a good time raking and blowing leaves, putting up tents, making fires, roasting “gigungous” marshmallows, watching ducks walk on top of fish, and playing putt-putt, cornhole, Apples to Apples, and Phase 10. It was relaxing and fun, and we needed a weekend like that. Monday we traveled into Jenn’s home town of Conneaut for their Memorial Day parade where I met her ex-fiancé, Adam, who is in the military and also attended the parade/ceremony. We got back Monday evening in time to have Amanda's boyfriend Kevin come over to have dinner... the four of us (Amanda, Kevin, Jennifer, and me) had stromboli that Jenn and Amanda made, and then we hung out on the patio watching the thunderstorm roll in.

Originally Jennifer was supposed to work that Tuesday, but she got a late, late text telling her she no longer had to work; and since she and I were leaving for Columbus Thursday morning and she had nothing else going on until then, she came to stay with me at my place for the next two days to ease the logistics. I worked Tuesday and Wednesday while she stayed at home during the day doing anything she wanted. Thursday morning she and I got up bright and early and left for Columbus, Ohio, where we were going to watch the Ohio High School baseball state championships! There were four games on Thursday: the DIV and DIII state semifinals; four games on Friday: the DI and DII state semifinals; and four games on Saturday: all four state championship games. It was a LOT of baseball and a LOT of sun! Saturday's games got cut in half due to severe storms, so we stayed in Columbus an extra day to watch the rest of the games finish on Sunday. The night before (Saturday night) we were able to stay over at her Aunt Judy's house since our hotel was only booked for Thursday and Friday night... plus it saved us some money and was just outside of Columbus! Overall on the weekend we saw 12 games and spent 43 1/2 hours at the ball park. Wow! But we had an absolute blast, no matter how burnt we are now!

We didn't get back to my house Sunday night until about 10:30 or 11:00 PM, so we decided, since Jennifer didn't work Monday, that she would stay at my place that night. I went to work Monday while she stayed at home and did her laundry from the weekend (since it costs money to do it at her apartment). That night (last night) we went to my summer basketball league where I coach a junior high basketball team. Our team is pretty good but didn't have all our kids there last night, so we did not win.

Anyway, I took Jennifer up to her place after the game where Amanda had made dinner for us. Then we watched a movie about two gay guys, and went to bed. I got up in the morning, got ready for work, and headed off to "the grind" straight from her place. So, that was a summary of the last 11 days, all of which were fun and would not be taken back for anything!

The week ahead still holds a non-stop schedule: a softball game tonight, another basketball game tomorrow, a softball game Thursday, possibly ultimate Frisbee with Craig (from work) and some of our common friends, the (Craig) Wheeler Poker Tour (aka WPT) Saturday night with that same group, then a softball double header Sunday. Man, my life never stops - I swear! One of these days I’ll get a break... maybe. Haha! I've always said, though, that I love being busy and that I'd take being busy over being bored ANY DAY. I still stand by that, no matter how tired I may get or how unbearably heavy my eyelids may be. It's time for me to go now and maybe get a nap.

Smile! May God continue to bless you.