Natural Ink: Closing the Long Distance Romance Gap

As some of you know, my boyfriend Justin of 2.5 years finally flew in last Saturday. Up until then it was strictly long distance, him in California and me here in Alabama. I picked him up along with my parents, my niece and Charlie the Chihuahua. He stayed for almost a week and things were pretty amazing.

Zoe (my niece) LOVED him. And Charlie, who usually hates men and growls/barks at them for a long time was immediately in Justin's lap. He slept in his lap a lot that night and didn't mind being close to him at all. Kids and animals have great radars, so for both to be so taken with him so quickly was lovely. I wasn't even invited to play with Zoe and Justin. She wanted him all to herself. I didn't even get a, 'good morning, Aunt B' I got a, 'Where's Justin?" And when she went home on Sunday and he wasn't awake to say goodbye, she almost cried and made him a goodbye card, sucker included. So. Sweet.

He stayed at my house through Tuesday and then moved to a hotel. I have an irrational hotel phobia so I didn't stay there much. We hung out at my house or around town mostly. I showed him the 'high points' which aren't super interesting. But he's a big craft beer guy, so we did head downtown to the Straight to Ale brewery. The guys there were really nice and I recommend a visit if you're around downtown Huntsville. We also hit up the flag line at the Wounded Warrior greeting. My parents are part of the motorcycle escort every year, so we went in support.
It was all just nice, sharing day to day things and talking and being close.

I was way more comfortable with him than I imagined. Even my parents were floored with how comfortable and relaxed we were together. My parents loved him, by the way. Everyone got along, everyone enjoyed each other's company. It couldn't have gone better except either he brought plane germs or we all shared Zoe's virus because everyone had a mild cold/flu for most of the week. But that aside - perfection.