Ahh! ...

Posted by Cassandra

The weekend! Two days of rest and relaxation, or, if you're me, two days of working so you have enough money to take on your trip...

And after the weekend, only a few more days until I go to Chicagoland, check out the college, and that boyfriend of mine. :) You'll see the pictures when I get back. By the way, I'm still hoping for a storm that makes it impossible for me to get back home for a few weeks. Maybe if I hope hard enough, it'll happen, and I'll be stuck (not unhappily) with my boyfriend for a few extra days...or weeks, perhaps?

Not much to post, other than the fact school is wearing me down, day by day, and my headaches have slowly started dissipating...Hopefully they'll just go away on their own; you can only hope, right? The whole being a senior thing is getting old, what with the daily dose of homework, and don't forget the force-fed amount of daily drama, as well.

On the knitting front, I've done no knitting whatsoever since I finished The Boyfriend Hat. I'm think about making another one, because I have plenty of the yarn, but the casting on, and the first row of stitches was a nuisance.

I had a pretty crazy dream last night, as well. Something about a big garden that I hid in (and ran through, like a child) wrapped in some sort of sticky vine, a house I kept stumbling through to get away from whoever owned it, a big body of water behind it, sort of like a pool, but it was more like a lake, these tiny cats, called "wildcats", that kept attacking sheep, and a HUGE yarn expo, set up like a supermarket, with the wares in wooden crates with prices stuck in them...

Anyways!
Have a nice (relaxing) weekend! :)

New Favorite..

Posted by Cassandra

I have a new favorite blog, and it's definitely worth checking out if you're artsy and love decorating...

Simply Grove.

Now I'm going to make some vegetable soup...

Happy Monday! :)

Two Years

Posted by Cassandra

Today is my boyfriend and I's two year anniversary.

Two years ago today, he called me and asked me to be his girlfriend. But, before you can understand the full meaning of today and why it's so amazing we're together, you have to know how it all started:

Over the summer, starting about freshman year, I would nanny to a family I know that lives on a ranch. On this ranch, they run a business, Giant Rubber Water Tanks, which they travel all over the U.S. selling, and they also raise cattle. Kyle's grandfather happens to hunt there, and over the summer before my sophomore year, he brought his family to The Ranch to have fun and enjoy the wilderness, as they live in the city.

I was there the day the family arrived. My boss told me that there was a family inhabiting downstairs, and I asked if it was a big family, if they had kids, how old the kids were, if they were boys...you know, all the normal questions a 15 year old girl would ask. When we got there, I got to meet them. And yes, there was boys, ever a boy that was my age.

After being introduced, I avoided them. I was shy, and they were boys. On one of the last days they were there, all of us ended up getting in a water fight. The older boys weren't playing, so I thought to include them, by, you know, dumping water on their heads. That broke the ice, and all through the night, we talked. I fell more and more in love (awe, maybe?) of Kyle, the boy my age, but was too chicken to ask for his number, or even his last name so I could look him up.

They left the next day.

I was devastated, to say the least. I was sure we had chemistry, but I didn't even know his last name.

A few weeks later, The Ranch got a thank-you card, and I learned his last name.

I instantly looked him up on Myspace. Turns out there's a lot of boys with his name in the same city.

I forgot about him. Even in my little town there are boys to distract.

Then, one night, I decided to try Facebook to look for him. I typed in his name, I had lots of hope...There were 181 results.

Crap. I strained my eyes looking at all of the profile pictures, hoping to find one that looked like him. I couldn't remember what he looked like.

On the last page, I found one that sorta looked like him, and I clicked on it, and sent him a message. An awkward, loser message. (This was in November, his family visited in July.) Exactly two hours later, I got his message back. It was the right boy, and get this! He remembered me!

For two months, we talked, we got to know each other, we fell in love. :)

He called me, and we'd never talked on the phone before, and February 14th, 2008, we became boyfriend and girlfriend.

It wasn't until over a year later, July 2009 that we got to be together, as actual boyfriend and girlfriend. We ate sushi, we shopped, we went to the Mayhem Festival, with Marilyn Manson, we went to a museum; we had fun. We found out how much we loved to be together, how well we got along, and how good we looked together. (As we walked past glass windows, "Look. That's us. We're cute.")

Then it was over. We both had to go home, and try to live without each other for what seemed like forever. (In all actuality, it was about five months., but at the time, we didn't know we'd be together. We thought we would have to wait until graduation, which was awhile away, to say the least.)

I cried the entire eight hour drive from Denver to my sister's house to pick up my dog, because she had fed him and kept an eye on him while I was with Kyle. He called every so often to make sure I was doing okay during the drive, and everytime I saw his name on my phone, I cried. I didn't want to go back to the way it was before, only talking on the phone and MSN.

I was miserable and I didn't think I would be able to wait to see him again.

But I didn't have to wait, because once we got home, and settled back in, we started planning another trip. This trip was over Christmas break, and I would be at his house for about 9 days, which was a vast improvement on the Denver trip, which was only about 2 days. We were going to go out to movies, to dinner, shopping, cuddling, watching movies at home, until the storm hit.

Days before I was to fly out, a huge blizzard hit. There was snow everywhere. We got feet in a day's time. But I didn't lose hope, because the news said it would be cleared up by time Christmas rolled around. On the day I was supposed to fly out, we drove to the airport, with Kyle calling every once in awhile to tell me how the flights were looking. Mine was okay, it was still on time.

When we were about 15 miles away, Kyle called and told me the flight was delayed 45 minutes. I said, no big deal, I'll wait.

When we were about 5 minutes away, he called and told me the flight was canceled. We were both close to tears, but we kept going. When we got to the airport, every flight was canceled, and I was going from desk to desk begging them to find me a seat on a plane leaving today. No luck.

I cried.

It seemed like the entire universe was conspiring against us. Nothing wanted us to be together. It seemed like we were working against the world just to be together and to be happy.

Kyle's dad found the earliest flight, but that was the following Tuesday. That was four days later. My entire break was ruined because of the snow. He booked me for the last seat on the flight, leaving at 6 am. I didn't even want to go anymore, because I didn't want to hope again. I didn't want to have my hopes crushed.

We went back home, and I went straight to bed. I didn't want to do anything for those next 4 days, except cry.

Finally, Tuesday came, and I woke up at 2 am to get ready to go. My flight was on time, and I was on board, ready to see my boyfriend.

I finally arrived in Chicago, and I saw him. I was sweaty and tired and just wanted to rest, and I made him feel bad because I wouldn't give him a proper kiss, like I told him I would when I saw him.

We went home, and I showered, and we went out shopping. We went to see movies, we shopped, we went out to eat; we were getting used to being together as a couple again, but it was too good to last, apparently.

The week flew by. On the last day, we rode the metra and went to the Art Institute. This whole museum on the last day thing turned into a tradition.

On Saturday night, we lay in bed, him rubbing my arm, me laying on his chest crying. My flight was at 6 in the morning, and the trip was almost over. I couldn't fall asleep, and I just cried.

The next morning, we woke up and went to the airport. His dad drove us, saying it was easier to just drop me off and then leave. He said there was no point in Kyle walking me to the counter. It was easier this way, he kept saying. I resented him for that; I may resent him for the rest of my life. On the way there, we sat in the back, holding hands and whispering "I love you". We got to the airport.

The goodbye was bittersweet. We kissed one more time, then I took my bag, and I walked to the door. I didn't look back, and I didn't allow myself one tear. Not one. I called him when I got to Denver, and I called him when I got to Rapid. Still, there were no tears.

I never cried after that trip, because I know if I had the choice, I would say goodbye every day of my life, just to have that precious time with him again.

But the good news: In a few weeks, I'll be there again, and in May, he'll come for my prom. Then after that, we'll be attending college together.

And you know, if the universe is conspiring against us, we're fighting even harder to stay together. :)

Happy anniversary, honey. I love you.



Edited to Add:

On the knitting front: I finished "The Boyfriend Hat" for Kyle, but I like it a lot, and I'm going to have to make him another...

Specs:
Yarn: Caron, color: Heather Grey
Needles: US size 8, sixteen inch circulars
Pattern: The Boyfriend Hat
Time: About two days
I liked knitting it, even though it was a bit repetitive. The decreases were genius, and I get complimented whenever I wear it! The yarn is really soft, and was a great choice for this hat.