A Week from The Wake-Up Call to The Nudge

Yesterday was a long day, as per usual, but since it's my nature to see a silver lining in even the darkest of clouds, I realized that yesterday marked a week until Kaia finally hits NYC yet again. So despite the fact that both of us powered through busy, successful days yesterday, last night was a quicker-than-usual wind-down for us both. She had woken up an hour earlier than normal to hit an early-morning meeting, and I had also been up early running around far earlier than normal.

So by the time night approached, and we had finished our co-conspiracy regarding her impending visit and everything we wanted to do, we both quickly fell asleep. Around 7:15 this morning, I got a call from who I expected was my sister about her doctor appointment this morning. Instead, it was Kaia. Apparently, she had been having trouble sleeping and didn't want to call me until my normal wake-up hour, and when she called my machine picked it up. Half-in and half-out of sleep, I checked my messages and immediately called her back once I knew it was her.

We talked for a little bit as she slowly drifted back to sleep, and as I tried to quietly ease her back to sleep, I realized how much I was looking forward to waking up with her in a week. We have a lot of things planned -- a couple day-trips over the holiday weekend, maybe the beach, some museums, a possible boat-ride on the East River (if a friend of mine gets his ass back in town sometime this year ;) and a lot of shared time. But as much as the "events" -- dinners, parties, cocktails, brunches, whatever -- are fun, the best part of her being here, for me, is the mundane, daily stuff; coming home and seeing her working at my desk, bringing her some new, unexpected flowers on a whim, getting out of the shower while she's putting on make-up in front of the hall mirror...it's always a treat.

Now despite the fact we'll have been dating for close to two years this November, part of the fact, perhaps, why this mundane stuff still rocks me on a regular basis is because it isn't -- she and I live on opposite coasts so the "regular" stuff is not really regular. While that helps instill "newness" in the relationship, it can also casts doubt as to whether we can handle a shared daily life. Considering we've spent two- and three-week periods together without a break of any type, and that we rarely have even a minor disagreement, I'm far from concerned. I keep waiting, on some level, for the other shoe to drop -- it doesn't seem, after all the shit I've survived and/or endured since and before she and I met, that this could be this good -- but there's no other shoe, nothing about to drop, and all we really need to do is pick a zip code, some furniture and live happily ever after.

Sure, there are some obstacles. There's cross-coastal plane trips for family, holidays, work, appointments, cleaning to pick up, laundry to do...it's all in there in the tapestry of our lives. But the real key to it is that I'm looking forward to the day we're sharing a mailbox and a set of keys. I'm looking forward to her nudging me rather than calling me when she can't sleep.

And most of all I'm just looking forward to seeing her when I walk through the door on the 29th, and thereafter.