rainy day romance

I don't know how things were this weekend in your neck of the woods, but it was pretty darn gloomy all weekend by us. Earlier in the week I toyed with the idea of heading to Gainesville for the weekend to go to the Gator game with my college girlfriends, but given the fact that Jason had a week off from shirting (yep, you read that right, and it makes me giggle every time) as well as the fact that I was coming off of two very jam-packed weeks at work, I decided to stay home and enjoy a relaxing weekend in Jacksonville. However, as Friday approached, I started feeling more and more like I was missing out by not being in Gainesville. (Growing up, my mom always told the story of how I didn't sleep through the night until I was like two years old and she swears it was because I felt like I was missing out on all the fun the family was having without me. Sorry about that Mom. I suspect this is the adult version of that.)

Anyway, to compensate for this feeling I told Jas I wanted to "do something fun." Now this is a dangerous request because, depending on my mood, this could be as simple as heading to a movie (throw in some popcorn and Sour Patch Kids if we wanna make it a party) or it could be as elaborate as finding a random kid's birthday party and crashing his bounce house. (Okay, I'll be honest, I've never done that, nor would I dream of ruining a little kid's birthday, but boy oh boy does it sound fun.) The point is that to Jason, this was a rather nebulous request. He told me to plan whatever I wanted and we'd do it. And of course that was the only green light my over-active imagination needed to spend far too much time day-dreaming about our picturesque weekend together.

I had big, BIG plans. On Saturday I wanted to take a day trip down to St. Augustine. I imagined grabbing some lunch at a cute place on the water and spending the day taking artsy photos of the bridge, the quaint shops, the aimless-looking tourists. Or I thought maybe we'd drive down to Orlando, crank the music up loud and fly down the highway with the windows down, the sun beaming in through the sunroof. We'd get ourselves lost in IKEA, me mentally decorating our house and Jas probably picking up random objects to poke me with (this is VERY entertaining evidently.) Can't you just see me laying this whole thing out in my head? Of course you can because I'm an insane woman and this is what we do best! Yep, I've come to realize that I just dream up these perfect scenarios in my head so that reality can then come behind me, selecting to remove that one pesky side-Jenga-tile that sends my carefully crafted tower of dreams tumbling down. (I will sleep well tonight knowing I was able to work a life/Jenga metaphor into this post.)

Friday rolls around and it is a full weekend of, you guessed it, rain. Not even like moderate drizzly rain, either. I'm talking full-on, thunderstormy, wind gusty, scary lightningy rain. When I woke up on Saturday morning to a gray sky, our driveway under water, and the faint rumble of thunder off in the distance, I could feel my big, BIG plans dissapating before me. Jenga.

But hey, let's be honest here. There was no way any weekend I had planned was going to play out the way I envisioned anyway. The scenarios never do. For one, I'm certain my better half wouldn't let me get away with such an idyllic day of casual romance. (In fact, I'm positive the phrase 'idyllic day of casual romance' is slightly vomit-inducing for him. Hell, it's a little vomit-inducing for me.) Jas has got his own ideas of romance and it's what I love about him. And that's exactly what our weekend ended up being - unconventionally romantic.

We went to a morning showing of Drive, a gritty, stylistic drama starring Ryan Gosling as a getaway driver. (No secret that the romance there was Ryan Gosling's beautiful mug.) I'm just kidding - kind of - because as you may have read before, there is something so fun to me about a Saturday morning movie and it's become a sort of tradition for us. I think in a relationship it's so important to have at least one interest (hopefully tons more!) that you truly enjoy and share together - movies are that thing for us and I love driving home after every movie talking about what we really liked (the baller soundtrack) and what we didn't (awkward dialogue, moreso a Jason dislike and not a Carol dislike). We spent the rest of the weekend watching football while we played speed scrabble (a forced ruling because I typically take a MINIMUM of eight minutes per turn, usually for a whopping 14-point word, and it drives him crazy), working out thanks to our new exercise-at-least-once-a-day-for-ninety-days-so-we-can-have-bangin-bods regiment, playing with our precious pup, Plaxico, and cooking some delicious healthy Paleo cookies.

Now again, this probably sounds like an utterly lame weekend to most of you out there. And if you would have told me two years ago this is what my idea of fun would become, I wouldn't believe you. But the truth is, when you're with someone that makes you laugh, that is as equally weird and quirky and perfectly satisfied with the simplicity of life as you are, well then really anything can become romantic. Including a dreary, bleak, non-idyllic weekend of Scrabble. We cozied up on the couch, the three of us, listening to the dripping branches outside our window, and I realized that my perfect tower of daydreams and wistful romance was no match for my pile of scattered Jenga blocks. Hey at least they're real, right?

Yep, bring on the rain.

I lost by over 100, in case you were curious. 

Just my boys, gettin comfy on the couch

Oh, hello.