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Wednesday, March 10, 2010

And so it goes...

    Basically the next day, I got another message from Dave telling me that he had landed safely, and over the course of a few days, we decided we had to see each other again. I asked him when his birthday was, and he said it was January 7th. At that point it was July, which was far away. But considering the fact that I worked a retail job and had rent, a car payment, etc..., any sooner wasn't realistic. So, it was decided I would go to Australia to see him for a month in January. And, I started saving...boy was it tough.
    We talked everyday, at first via text and internet, and a phone call once a week, and the phone bill was HUGE..(sorry mom!!), I eventually got a second phone with a really good international texting plan so that we could keep in contact (and I would be the one picking up the bill, not my mom). We stayed up for hours talking about our hopes and dreams, what we saw ourselves going in the future, and we realized we wanted each other to be IN our future. We decided that once I had gone to Australia, that he would apply for an extended holiday Visa and stay in LA for 6 months or so, and see where we wanted to live permanently. We knew that we wanted to travel, ( I once got an email from him with a slideshow of photographs of Malta entitled: "Come here with me"). Even Dave's friends approved of me, the only one that seemed to have anything to say was Tristan, who said " Diane's cool and all, but don't you hate smokers??" and Heath so very sweetly responded "That's love". Dave told them they were exactly right. I have decided to make an effort to quit, even though Dave wasn't trying to force me to ( but I knew he secretly hoped for the day that I didn't smoke).
    We knew that we didn't want the typical "White Picket Fence, kids, etc..." right away. We weren't ready for that just yet. At the time we didn't even really want to get married. Not specifically NOT to each other, but to anyone at all!
    My birthday was in August, and I went to Disneyland, My friend Shelley took me to the Paradise Pier hotel! It was amazing, except that I missed Dave so very much...But I was lucky enough to get a package in the mail! He got me a stuffed Emu ( which was funny because of 2 reasons: 1, I have gotten 2 stuffed animals from boys in my past, and both times I was so completely turned off by them and 2, we have a discussion at the airport about the proper pronunciation of "Emu", which then became an inside joke of ours, therefore, refuting my distate for stuff animals and turning into LOVE for it!)
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    I still have him to this day. He was named Bobby Slayton, after all the ads in the hotel in vegas for his comedy gig (Funny enough, Heath actually ran into Bobby Slayton himself in the hotel bathroom one night). Then Halloween, I don't even remember, except that I went to Disneyland one weekend with my friends Sancho and Moose From Arizona that I had missed tremendously. Then Thanksgiving, I went to Vegas to spend it with my bestie Graham because it was also his birthday, and for Christmas my honey got me a bumblebee bead made of glass, from Tasmania, on a necklace ( If you know me, you know my love for bumblebees!)! Another thoughtful gift from my sweet man!
    So January was getting closer and I didn't have my plane ticket, and we were both worrying, especially since the ticket prices were going up.  Dave was nice enough to help me ut with the rest of what I needed for my ticket. We were both thrilled! It was only a matter of time before we got to see each other face to face again...Would it all be the same? Would it be awkward? To be honest, I was most worried about the fact that I was going to meet his parents during my trip! The last thing you want is for your significant other's parents to loathe you! After much reassuring on his part, my fear slightly subsided.

    The day finally came for me to get on the plane.

    I forgot I was afraid of flying! Not quite screaming and crying, but enough to think we were doomed every time there was a bit of turbulence, nothing a few drinks couldn't help. I was sitting next to 2 lovely young British girls. We talked quite a bit on the plane. I love making new friends and getting to know some of the people I'm flying with! My layover was in Auckland New Zealand. By the way, I'd like to say that Air New Zealand is by far the best airline I've ever been on. The food is DELISH, the options last even if you're at the back of the plane, and the employees are extremely friendly! Upon landing, I asked the flight attendant what to do about taking a smoke break while on my 4 hour layover, she took my customs card, and gave me a cup full of candy! She was really sweet about it, and I must say I do owe her a little bit, because I haven't had a full cigarette since then! I exchanged email addresses with the British girls and headed to the terminal with the plane that was taking me to my final destination.
    My soundtrack for this trip consisted of :
Bloc Party-Signs
City and Colour- Bring me your love
Air- Playground Love
Radiohead- Idiotheque
    I think I may have been so terrified of crashing on this plane that I wanted to make my own soundtrack to make my death epic. I was convinced that our story would be so tragic that I'd never see him again because I'd die before I saw him again. Reminder: I did warn you that I'm afraid of flying. AND that I hoped for some of my life to be like in a movie ( even if it HAD to be a tragic part).

    Yes, I know I'm crazy, but just accept it and we'll move on. Ready? Good.

    On the next leg of the flight, I was in the middle part of the plane, where there are 4 seats to a row. Well, my designated seat was an aisle seat. No problem! Except for the fact that I had a 6 year old seated next to me, and she kept spilling her drink on me and pushing on my tv screen. After a few minutes of observation, I'm afraid she may have had some sort of disability. What I did NOT understand, is her mother did not apologize or perhaps explain why this was occuring, and she DID have an empty seat to her left, so she could have had SOME common decency and either scooted over a seat with her daughter, or traded so that she was sitting next to me. But instead, I spent five hours with a wet left leg and not being able to watch my movie.
    We finally landed. Face check: hideous. I spent 10 minutes in the bathroom trying to make myself look even half-way decent. Oh come on, don't tell me YOU haven't done that before! I hadn't seen Dave in 5 months, I didn't want the new first impression to be that I looked like death!

   Then I was walking down the walkway in arrivals, and I was so nervous I bet I was beet-red in the face.

    There he was, waiting for me...I almost for a second pretended I didn't see him ( He was EVEN CUTER that I remembered!!!) Nervous...And there he was in front of me. I gave him a big hug and we shared a really awkward passionate kiss, I thought I was going to pee my pants. Look for a distraction...He brought Heath with him! Thank Goodness! Not that I was afraid to be alone with Dave, but I think he may have had the same thought that I did, to relieve all possible awkward silences while on the hour-long car ride back to the Sunshine Coast. Turns out, he wasn't really needed as such. We had a grand old time talking on the drive, and I looked out the window mesmerized by all the greenery along the side of the highway.
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    It was almost noon by then, so the boys took me to a nice place by the beach called the Lime Grill. I was too nervous to eat...
    We got to the house he was sharing with Glenn (aka Rocket), Brendon (aka Squiggy), and Heath.
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My stuff was taken into Dave's room, and instead of taking a nap, of course we had to have ourselves a little makeout session, didn't we? I took a nice long hot shower, we hung around the house, I met Dave's Oscar fish "Fifty"
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I played with Rocket's dog "Callie"
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, and it was eventually time for dinner at Montyzuma's, where we met up with Tristan, another one of Dave's friends that I met that past summer.
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    We had some sangria, and by the time my food came I was falling asleep into my plate. I was so incredibly exhausted, I couldn't wait to be in bed. The food was good, but still no comparison to the Mexican food I'm used to, coming from LA. I will say, however, that as Aztec food, it IS indeed delicious. When we got back to the house, I had about half a cigarette and felt disgusting, lightheaded, sweaty, just plain gross. I decided I would only smoke if I really felt I needed it...The last time I had a cigarette was the following day.
    During my stay, David took me to explore all of what the Sunshine Coast had to offer. On his birthday, We climbed up to the top of Mount Coolum. This was particularly difficult because I'm not a very sporty person, and keep in mind I hadn't exactly quit smoking yet. (He recently told me that he was TESTING me to see if I was a quitter...I was shocked because it wasn't fair that I was a smoker and I had bad knees...what a meanie, right??) But I was tough and didn't complain one bit, and we made it to the top! We took a few photos up there.
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Another skype date, sorry, i'll write more tomorrow!

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