being in a relationship with someone in another city presents its own unique set of opportunities and challenges. one of the things that i love about the long distance is that seeing each other becomes such an event that it forces you to step outside your usual day-to-day world and do fun and adventurous things.  when lauren is in town, the time we have together is so valuable, that i always want to fill it with exciting fun things.  we spend our days in parks, museums, and going to my favorite restaurants.  we seek out the best things our cities have to offer and enjoy them together. because of this, i have done and seen more of my favorite things in richmond in the past few months than i have in the entire year before.  it’s fun when you have an entire city that you want to share with a person.  i love that i get to show lauren a lazy day beside the james river or explore all the hidden corners of maymont together.  and in the process, i fall in love with richmond all over again.  on the other hand, i also find myself falling in love with philadelphia and its quirky statues, beautiful fountains, and amazing skyline.  our weekends together in philly are often spent outdoors enjoying the city’s parks, touring old cemetaries and churches, and sharing her favorite secret brunch spots. this past saturday we decided to make dinner at home together.  after a trip to trader joe’s and about an hour in the kitchen, we enjoyed a delicious dinner together followed by root beer floats.  while we cooked, we made greyhounds which definitely lead to a lot of laughter as we quickly realized how strong we had accidentally made them.  after dinner, we sat on the couch and watched star wars, quoting our favorite lines to each other and joking back and forth.  it was a really great night. as we walked together down the aisles of trader joe’s and later throughout the evening, i kept thinking to myself, “this is what it would be like if we were both living in the same city.” our relationship doesn’t have the quiet weeknights in, running saturday errands, coming home exhausted after work, making dinner together.  instead we get weekend adventures, meet-ups in other cities, roadtrips, and discovering each other’s favorite things. i can say without a doubt that the long distance is working so much better than either of us had ever expected.  we came into this relationship both a little skeptical and have turned out to be ridiculously happy.  i’ve loved exploring this new city and i’ve loved sharing mine, but just for a moment, it was nice to stumble upon this other side of the relationship that we don’t get to see that often.  something as simple as taking a trip to the grocery store and making dinner at home was something that we simply hadn’t gotten around to doing yet in between all our trips and activities of past weekends. it wasn’t an adventure, but it was pretty much perfect.

being in a relationship with someone in another city presents its own unique set of opportunities and challenges.

one of the things that i love about the long distance is that seeing each other becomes such an event that it forces you to step outside your usual day-to-day world and do fun and adventurous things.  when lauren is in town, the time we have together is so valuable, that i always want to fill it with exciting fun things.  we spend our days in parks, museums, and going to my favorite restaurants.  we seek out the best things our cities have to offer and enjoy them together.

because of this, i have done and seen more of my favorite things in richmond in the past few months than i have in the entire year before.  it’s fun when you have an entire city that you want to share with a person.  i love that i get to show lauren a lazy day beside the james river or explore all the hidden corners of maymont together.  and in the process, i fall in love with richmond all over again.  on the other hand, i also find myself falling in love with philadelphia and its quirky statues, beautiful fountains, and amazing skyline.  our weekends together in philly are often spent outdoors enjoying the city’s parks, touring old cemetaries and churches, and sharing her favorite secret brunch spots.

this past saturday we decided to make dinner at home together.  after a trip to trader joe’s and about an hour in the kitchen, we enjoyed a delicious dinner together followed by root beer floats.  while we cooked, we made greyhounds which definitely lead to a lot of laughter as we quickly realized how strong we had accidentally made them.  after dinner, we sat on the couch and watched star wars, quoting our favorite lines to each other and joking back and forth.  it was a really great night.

as we walked together down the aisles of trader joe’s and later throughout the evening, i kept thinking to myself, “this is what it would be like if we were both living in the same city.”

our relationship doesn’t have the quiet weeknights in, running saturday errands, coming home exhausted after work, making dinner together.  instead we get weekend adventures, meet-ups in other cities, roadtrips, and discovering each other’s favorite things.

i can say without a doubt that the long distance is working so much better than either of us had ever expected.  we came into this relationship both a little skeptical and have turned out to be ridiculously happy.  i’ve loved exploring this new city and i’ve loved sharing mine, but just for a moment, it was nice to stumble upon this other side of the relationship that we don’t get to see that often.  something as simple as taking a trip to the grocery store and making dinner at home was something that we simply hadn’t gotten around to doing yet in between all our trips and activities of past weekends.

it wasn’t an adventure, but it was pretty much perfect.