Long trips and big steps

I'm finally getting back into the swing of normal life. The last several weeks have been, well, an experience.

It started way back in the middle of June when Ryan and I embarked on our whirlwind roadtrip back to the midwest, which included visits to Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City and Indiana. As soon as we got back to Maryland (the next morning, in fact), we reloaded the car and headed out to Ocean City for a few days of beach fun with some friends. In the midst of that adventure, I got the terrible news that Grandpa Deetz had passed away. The next morning we were in the car headed back to Indiana. I ended up staying there for a week and a half while Ryan came back and got back to work and puppy-sat for me. On the 3rd of July I went out to start my car to take a quick trip down to Logansport to visit Grandma Murphy and found that my car wouldn't start. Fortunately I have well connected relatives (thanks, Uncle Randy!) and was able to have my car towed into a local shop to have it looked at. Unfortunately the shop determined it wasn't something they could fix, so I had to have it towed further down the road to the Saturn dealership. They, of course, were not working on the holiday weekend, so I had to wait until Monday for them to look at it. Thankfully, they were able to get it fixed before noon on Monday and I took off for Baltimore. No sooner had I left Indiana when I developed an awesome chest cold that gave me virtual laryngitis for a few days.

While I tried to work last week, I don't think I was really at full speed until this past Monday. But now, I'm finally feeling like I'm catching up and realized I need to do some updating on this blog.

So, first - the roadtrip with Ryan went great. We had a lot of fun visiting our respective relatives and friends. Our countless hours in the car allowed plenty of time for good conversations and amazingly we didn't get totally sick of each other! Even with no air conditioning on the trip down, Irie throwing up in the car a few times, our very different taste in music, etc. Not a small feat at all! I enjoyed meeting his family and especially enjoyed getting to know his pup, Sierra (aka The Gremlin) who currently lives with Ryan's parents.

Somewhere on the road between.... Kansas City and Waterloo, I think, we started talking about next steps in our relationship and came to the decision that we're going to move to St. Louis together this fall. All the fun details like jobs, housing, etc are still being worked on, but the plan at the moment is I will be relocating to St. Louis October 1st and Ryan will join me at that time or soon after depending on his job situation. I'm really excited and while there are things (and people) in Baltimore I will miss, I can't wait to get back to the midwest and closer to family again.

I know that people think I'm nuts for following my brother and his family around the country, but I've come to accept it and just roll with it. St. Louis is a good in-between spot for both Ryan and me since his family is west of St. Louis and mine is mostly east, roughly at equal distances, it just seemed to make sense. Plus it's still a city and offers many of the things we've both become accustomed to without being as big as Chicago. And it's cheaper! :-) And, I just can't help being obsessed with my niece. I just am. Really what's wrong with wanting to live near people you enjoy? I just wish all my family lived closer to each other. But maybe that's a naive concept!

Having never lived with someone I'm dating before, I'm a bit unsure about all of that, but not nearly as concerned as I thought I would be. Something about Ryan just puts me at ease, I guess. What a nice feeling that is! It gives me more time to worry about things like jobs and housing! :-)

One of these days I'll supplement this post with pictures, but until then, I'll just have to rely on my story telling to inspire pictures in your mind!