On The Road Again...

That's a great song, isn't it? Anyway, I just talked to Kara and she is probably about 25 minutes away from my house in Mundelein. I'm super jacked up for a multitude of reasons. I will list them off in reverse order (sort of like David Letterman's Top 10). Here it goes:

5. I get to say hello to Kara's sweet car!

4. I get to go shopping for flip flops with Kara this weekend (she really needs a new pair).

3. I get to eat sushi and do Sake Bombs tonight, both of which I love!

2. I get to spend an entire weekend with Kara!! (This was a close second, nearly numero uno)

AND....

1. I get to see Kara without having to drive at all... especially out of state!!

Number one is number one only because it involves number two. So it technically trumps number two slightly. The worst part about long distance relationships is finding the time to see each other. The second worst part is finding a means of transportation to actually complete the act of seeing each other. The smartest way for Kara and I involves a 4-hour drive from Indy to Mundelein (for Kara) or Mundelein to Indy (for me). 4 hours in a car is a very long time. I start losing focus around 3 hours, so the extra hour really takes a toll on me. That is why I love when Kara comes to visit me, because I don't have to do any driving. That is also why she loves when I go to visit her. It's give and take, which is a good lesson to learn because I think every relationship needs a lot of give and take.

But this weekend is TAKE for me! No driving and I still get to enjoy Kara's company. What could be better?

TGIF!

I am soo excited because today is Friday, and I'm taking a half-day, so I get to leave work in approximately 45 minutes. I'm then driving straight to Mundelein from work to see Jeff! It's going to be a super fun weekend!

This afternoon, we're going shopping for flip flops (again). Jeff is not satisfied with my choice of Target flip flops, so he's going to find some that he approves of. Weird, I know. But, tonight, we're going to get sushi and do a sake bomb to celebrate his entrepreneurship and my five sales so far! It should be eventful. I don't know if we'll do anything else since we have to get up relatively early to go to Jeff's second-to-last baseball game tomorrow (thank God..I only have to watch one more baseball game... until softball leagues start I suppose).

After the game, we're going straight to Jen and Chris' place (Jeff's sister and brother-in-law) for their annual Mayhem on Melrose party. It should be a really good time. I'm excited to drink and relax for the night..for once! Sunday will be uneventful, as I'm going to head back to Indy when Jeff leaves for his last game in the afternoon. I'm so excited right now with anticipation, but I know I'll be really bummed Sunday afternoon when I have to leave. Ah, the joys of a long-distance relationship.

Can't wait to see J in about 5 hours though!! :)

Just Go with the Flow

I have noticed recently that things are going really quite well for me. I am starting to get some business (thanks to my excellent entrepreneurial abilities). I finished up my internship at KTR Video Productions on a positive note with my boss, who has invited me back to work odd jobs when I am home from school for vacations and holidays. Kara is coming into town Friday afternoon (this is easily the most exciting part of my good news). And my summer team, Team Impact (which you can follow over at my other blog, A Day in the Life of Jeff Greco), is dominating the playoffs in the Skyscraper Baseball League and may be able to pull off back-to-back championships.

Now, I am saying that I have noticed these good things happening recently in my life, but the truth of it all is that they are probably constantly happening in my life. For example, things are usually good with Kara, except for the difficultly of the long distance. Baseball is always fun. Work may sometimes be boring, but it always ends up well. My point here in this post is that despite my emotions, things are no better or worse than they usually are. It's just my perception of the things going on in my life that makes me think things are going better or worse than normal. The reason being that when one good thing happens to me, I usually let the emotional high carry over to the other aspects of my life, bringing a positive impact to those other aspects. When things are going bad, I let the negative emotions enter other areas of my life, most notably my relationships with my friends and Kara (however, Kara is awesome and puts up with it great).

So this is a totally random post, but it does have a lot to with the different emotions that can affect any relationship. Kara does a good job of dealing with my ups and downs, and I feel as though I do a pretty good job of dealing with her emotions as well (especially her emotion of fatigue... haha). Regardless of our emotions, we just try to help each other cope with the negative ones, and ride the highs of the positive ones, like any good couple should do.

Zzzzzz

I am sooo tired! I don't know what it is because I have been going to bed at my normal time - between 10 and 11pm. I even forewent going to see the Wallflowers at the Vogue with my friend Kate last night (which I was fairly excited about) because I literally couldn't keep my eyes open at work. I couldn't imagine having gone since I laid down last night at like 8pm and called Jeff and was pretty much incoherent. But, as soon as we hung up and I closed my eyes, I was wide awake. Maybe not wide awake - I'm pretty sure I probably fell asleep relatively quickly, but I know I didn't sleep well. I've been dreaming a lot, which I hate. I blame it on reading Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire before bed this week because my dreams seem to have magical, fighting evil themes.

Anyway, Jeff is like a fireball of energy almost 24/7. Being that we only see each other about two weekends a month (three if we're lucky!), we try to make the most of our time together. Unfortunately, my constant lethargy (is that a word?) really gets in the way. Jeff gets...annoyed...at my great ability to fall asleep. I will say that he is always gracious, slow to anger, and extremely patient with me, and I really do feel bad for being so tired, but I can't help it.

I would seriously enjoy spending every minute of the weekend doing an exciting activity, but we have done nothing this summer. We go out to dinner, but we've only been out two or three times(soon to be more- Mayhem on Melrose this Saturday!). I would have really enjoyed going on a long weekend vacation, but I don't have vacation days yet at my job so it would be hard to get away. Plus, my parents would probably frown upon it because they think I am approximately 13 years old. I would love to go crazy every weekend, but I am just the kind of person who can't go without sleep. Trust me, you won't like "cranky Kara." She comes out to play whenever I'm tired or hungry. Just ask Jeff and my parents - they love it. Not.

The point is that I feel like I waste our limited time together with the necessary act of sleeping, but if I didn't sleep on the weekends, I would be a mess for work during the week, and I'm trying really hard to be productive and successful. Basically, I hope that Jeff continues to be patient (or becomes more patient :) ) because it won't be too long until he understands the pain of working a full-time job. Actually, he'll probably be working in TV and will work weird hours and plenty of time to sleep! Oh well, such is life.

Dancing Queen

First of all, I wonder if Jeff can actually do the moonwalk... I guess only time will tell...

The night Jeff talked about in his post was a great one, but it didn't start out that way, so I'll tell the whole story. We did go out to Peppers, and a bunch of my friends from IU were also going to be there to see the Buzzkills. I was super excited because I hadn't seen most of these people since graduation, some were coming from out of town, and most had never been out with Jeff (since he didn't turn 21 until February of my senior year).

Of course, my lack of experience in going out with my friends and Jeff was a detriment. I didn't know how to balance, I was totally socially awkward, and I barely spoke to anyone for like an hour. I was just getting the vibe that since Jeff was there, everyone just figured I was fine and didn't feel obligated to even say hi to me, let alone have a conversation with me. And I don't want to be that couple who always stays in a corner by themselves and has no other friends. (A little contradictory to my earlier post about my Diedrich jealousy, but it is what it is.)

So, naturally, my paranoid self thought everyone hated me, and I became a little emo at the bar. I thought I handled it pretty well, but it was brought to my attention on Saturday night (in a series of never-ending arguments) that I was being a baby and freaked out. While I often am criticized/get my feelings hurt as a result of being sensitive, it doesn't mean I like it...for future reference. Anyway, I am feeling neglected (as I often feel with this group of people), and I thought about leaving so that Jeff and I would be able to spend more time together. But, I decided to go to the bathroom to pull myself together, and when I got out, I told Jeff we were dancing!

And dance, we did. Now, I think Jeff is a great dancer. I guess it's not because of his skills, but rather his overall personality on the dance floor (and in life, really). He's super energetic and doesn't care what anyone thinks. Jeff pulled through for me that night because without his dancing, I would have left and looked back on that night as a bad memory. As it is, we had a great time, everyone kept coming up to us and complimenting us on our style, and Jeff was the life of the party, as usual.

It was a good lesson for me to not worry so much about what other people are doing and just do what I want to do, especially when out with a crowd. I hope we get a chance in the near future to go out with my friends, with or without dancing. We do have Jeff's cousin's wedding to look forward to in the fall - so get ready for Jeff to break out his moves!

The Indianapolis Two-Step

So I was having a somewhat difficult time deciding what to write about for this post. But then it dawned on me that I should write about dancing! Why, you ask? Well that is soon to come.

Just over a week ago, I was visiting Kara in Indy. On Saturday night she wanted to go see some her friends who are in a band play at a bar in Broadripple called Peppers. The band is called the Buzzkills, you can check them out at thebuzzkills.com (they have some awesome music, I especially like "Aww Honey"). Anyway, we are at this bar listening to the Buzzkills when people start heading out to the dance floor. Kara leaned over to me and told me she wanted to dance (note: she didn't ask, she TOLD me haha). Being the groovy rythm filled dancer that I am, I eagerly agreed. Now here comes what this post is really about...

I started getting crazy out on the dance floor like I usually do, basically making fun of myself because I really don't have any dancing ability. I like to think that although I can't dance well, I can at least have a good time and make it fun for everyone else. I'm sort of the guy on the dance floor who makes everyone else feel more comfortable and then everyone starts relaxing a bit.

So Kara and I are dancing and we are both having a blast. I'm laughing at myself, she is laughing at me, and I think everyone else was laughing too. But then one of Kara's acquaintances from IU walks on over and compliments me on my dancing ability. Not because I am talented or good, but rather because I am fun and that Kara and I look so cute dancing together. A compliment is a compliment people. I will probably never be on Dancing with the Stars or So You Think You Can Dance, but I will be at bars and weddings doing my thing.

It just got me thinking. What would a girl rather have? A guy who is a really good dancer? Or a guy who is a really FUN dancer? I'm proud of how much fun I have dancing and how much fun other people seem to have around me, whether they are making fun of me or just joining in with me. I just can't wait until my next opportunity to cut the rug. I might try to bust out a moon walk in honor of Michael Jackson.

The Third Letter is D

It is pretty clear that Kara gets jealous over the amount of time I spend with my buddy Matt, (see pic below) aka D, Big D, THE D, etc. But it is not that she doesn't like D, or that I choose to spend time with him over her. It is rather because Kara wishes she could be spending more time with me. She wants to be able to do things together all the time, which I also wish for, but it just isn't feasible right now because she is working a 9 to 5 job in Indy while I am playing baseball and interning up here in the 'burbs north of Chicago.

D is my best friend, and for some reason we just don't get sick of each other. I can easily get sick of people, even my close friends at college. But for whatever reason, I don't get sick of D. That is why/how we are able to hang out so much. It just works because we both have loose schedules that need to be filled with some sort of activity. So at least every Tuesday and Thursday (when D's girlfriend Natalie has to work clinic), the man and I hang out, grabbing lunch, playing video games, drinking, and whatever other shenanigans we can come up with.

So many of you might be thinking that the title of this post means that D is the third wheel in Kara's and my relationship; however, that is not completely the case. D also makes Kara feel like the third wheel when she is in Indy and I am up here. Either way, there is definitely a third wheel in this relationship... hell, it could even be me!

It's just a strange situation and I'm sure any girl would feel this way, but it is what it is. Also, it should be noted that while D and I have drank vodka/tonics previously, the drink of choice is always beer, whether miller lite, bud light, or coors light.

By the way, Kara was right, I am struggling right now. I'm not sure why I miss her so much this time as opposed to any other previous time, but I do. I'm just hoping the next 7 days go by fast.