Separation Stinks

As everyone who has ever truly been in love with someone knows, separation and distance, stinks.  By now, most of you know, or have probably ascertained, that Meghan and I are moving to Chicago (Naperville, actually).  In fact, I'm already here.  We drove up last Thursday so that I could begin my new job and Meg flew back to DC to finish out the year at her school (she's extremely dedicated).  Finishing out the year for her means staying through mid-to-late June, so we're talking a long time here.

We've been apart from each other for about a week at a time before, whether it was for a business trip or a girls/guys vacation somewhere, but this is completely different.  When you have those shorter trips, you miss your significant other, but you know that a week comes and goes with the wind, so you push through and are rewarded by the welcome smile of your best friend.  Three months feels like a lifetime!  I realize that many people do it, especially those in the military, but we're not in the military and that's one of the main reasons I chose not to live that lifestyle.

Really, it's not as bad as I'm making it seem.  We're not actually going to go for three months without seeing each other.  In fact, she'll be back here a week from today.  What's really making this more difficult for me is not being able to be around her during such an important time in the pregnancy.  I know that entire pregnancy is important, but so many things can happen during the first trimester and while I realize my being there probably wouldn't have an ounce of influence on the outcome, it would definitely make me feel better if I knew I was taking care of her.

Also, I've been completely consumed with my new job, but there isn't an hour that goes by that I stop thinking about my adorable wife and the three heartbeats in her belly.  I'm sure that I'd be thinking about her a lot if she were here, but having her half the country away, just exacerbates the problem.

Fortunately, one of our good friends, Sarah, has moved in with Meg for the next three months and I can't think of a more fun and caring person to have there with my wife.  Sarah and Meg are friends from college and I get the impression that she'll miss us the most when we leave (Sarah, we'll miss you too).

If I look past the agony of missing my wife, I'm actually living the good life up here.  Meg's cousin, Kelly, her husband, Steve, and their awesome kids, Kaden and Keegan, graciously offered to let me stay with them until Meg moved up and/or we found a place to live.

As I mentioned in my last post, we found our new home and we close on April 20th.  Once that date comes, I'll really have to make a tough choice--move into my new, empty, unfurnished house and eat take-out every night or find a really good excuse to stay put where there's a home-cooked meal almost every night and endless conversation.  Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I'd like to give the Smith family some major props for taking me in, so I'm including some of my favorite Smith Family photos, below.

I took this one last year when we were "scouting" Naperville to see if it was someplace we wanted to raise a family. That's Keegan and Steve.  You can't see it, but Steve's cell phone is flying out of his pocket a millisecond later.

Here's Keegan showing me she knows how to swing AND look good doing it.

This is Kaden rockin' it out!

Last year, we went downtown so that I could experience Ed Debe.vic's. Here's Kaden and Meg.

Yes Kelly, that waiter did just insult and then make you wear that silly hat.

Here's Keegan on the right, all dressed up and getting ready to go to the Father-Daughter dance with Steve.

This is Steve, showing that he's a stand-up guy, not only taking his daughter to the dance, but standing in for another father that couldn't make it.

Here's one of Meg, Kelly, and me from a couple of years ago when she came to visit us in Arlington (obviously, before we started working on getting pregnant).