June 25th, 2011 (for the next 4 minutes)

Dear A,

As I said previously, thanks again for punching me in the face with your feelings in that last letter. It made my face hot and my eyes all misty and my heart grow 3 more sizes. (< --- that's my jokey way of saying: I love you too)

It's late and I'm super exhausted but if I don't write you now then this whole thing will be just another good intention gone to waste. So I must.

BUT because I'm so tired (and you have the day off tomorrow YAY!) I'm sticking to the highlights.

-Totally almost plowed into the 4th of July Clawson kiddy parade.
-Double checked to make sure I didn't fall into a worm hole and come out a week from now.
-Confused but comforted that it was still June 25th.
-Went to bank.
-Cried about lack of funds for the deposit.
-Went to Clinton Twp for a fun filled Henry and June day.
-Found an empty house instead - relocated and found them at Partridge Creek.
-Bonded (see photos below)
-Unfortunately it lasted about an hour. June needed a nap, Henry needed homework finished and I needed food.
-Drove to Berkley for Zane's bday party and MTTC tips from Megsy.
-Drove to Bywater Estate for a high dose of crabby pants family members.
-Drove to Rochester for dinner.
-Drove back to Berkley (saw geese!) to grab Megsy and hit up Ferndale for RW.
-Met Davin. He's cool.
-Sat around slightly awkwardly and then drove back to Berkley to drop off M.
-Came home to cat vomit on the freshly clean bathroom rug. AGAIN. :(
-Climbed in bed and wondered why you still haven't called yet. Hope you're alive.

Sorry this is far from entertaining. <3 you lots. Now enjoy some photos from the day. I'm not in any, but I looked hot today. Just thought you should know. (ok...that took forever, the rest will be on facebook)

Say that you'll stay, forever and a day.

I do remember you as the girl I met at the coffee shop and played chess with.

I remember you as the girl I met again at Jimmy Johns.

I remember you as the girl I had champagne with in my basement bedroom.

I remember you as the girl I tried to forget, but couldn’t as a scent would waft through the air on my bike and remind me of you.

I remember riding our bikes to the cider mill, and having breakfast with you before I left for my first triathlon.

I remember the exact moment I fell in love with you.

I remember us sitting on the cliffs of the Pacific, poetically penniless, gazing out into the infinite as the sun fell below the horizon.

I remember asking my Mom for her Grandma’s ring to give to you, and I remember your face when I took it out of my pocket.

I remember the sun coming through the clouds and in through the stained glass as we were saying our vows.

I remember you as the girl I hear in music, and smell in the air. See in my dreams, and hold in my sleep.

I remember you as the girl who pushes me, every day, to be better than I am. Gives me a direction to drive in, and a place to come back to that I can call home.

I love you L, and I hope that you know it, especially when we don’t see each other for days on end. I think of you every time I taste a ravioli, or cook a medium rib eye. I hope for a message from you every time I look at my phone, and smile each time there is one.

I try to creep into the apartment and into bed, trying not to wake you but secretly hoping that I drop something and you rouse, so I can hear your voice for a fleeting moment before I go to sleep.

I long to hear the seemingly boring stories of your days. I hang on every moment as you tell me about dysfunctional printers, and useless coworkers. Lunches with R, and smoke breaks with no cigarettes. I crave news of our families and friends. Of sunburns and popcorn dinners. You keep me connected to the world that I miss out on while I’m trapped in my, “bomb shelter.”

It’s been a long and stressful week, possibly the most of both that I’ve had in my professional life. The only thing that has kept me getting up each morning is the touch of your skin and the sound of your breathing next to me each night.

They say the book of love is long and boring, let’s keep ours here.

Because I love when you write to me, and you can write me anything.

June 21st, 2011

Dear A,

You might remember me as that girl you met in that 24 hour coffee shop back in 2004, back when we were much much skinner. The one you married exactly 10 months ago (high five!). Yes, it's your wife here. Attempting to stay connected to you and keep you connected to the world outside of that pesky kitchen I've have a love hate relationship with the last few years. Or maybe that's just with you (a har har!).

Here's how it works. Every day that you're gone and I only see your unconscious body lightly snoring in the morning light and you only see my unconscious body taking over your side of the bed in the midnight hours, I write you and you write me. No judging my typos and spelling errors btw! We're married sucker. Take me or leave me. I'm un-fixable in that department, so deal.

Moving on...

I've had a trillion thoughts rolling around my head to tell you tonight, but here I am.

Blank.

Instead of me writing you. It's me battling the computer. The blank page. Once again I find myself wishing I had ticker tape flowing from my ears recording my every thought. Something to sift through by candle light. Maybe that's why someone invented Twitter.

(Sigh) I should probably just get over it.

It's the longest day of the year today, which you probably knew. What you didn't know (since you work in a bomb shelter all day) is that the weather is very very applicable. This morning it was cool and musty. This afternoon the sun came out. This evening it was humid as hell and right now the thunder is so loud Honey is hiding under the bed and crying.

Work was fine. Since I know you're totally wondering. I didn't do much, per usual. At least nothing productive really happened, unless you count crashing the department scanner/printer/copier/all-in-one magic machine. Classic Lauren. Mostly I just sat around half managing other people's work. Not exactly sure if that's my job, but I gotta tell you it's totally one of my callings. I'm constantly getting up and talking to Jody about ways to fix things and advance things and questioning why things are flowing the way they do and begging her to just give it all to me so I can revamp everything. Naturally I know when I say things like "Hey are we having a meeting tomorrow?" it sounds more like "Hey slacker, even with the worst manager ever we had weekly meetings! It's 455 and we haven't gotten an invite. Geez you're awful. Can't you do anything right you lazy bum!" buuuut I think she secretly loves all my helpfulness. It does make me feel awful about leaving in a few weeks though.

Well you just walked in. Home early and ruining everything now. Figures.

I'm going to ignore you though and keep typing because hello, the 21st + first day of summer + longest day of the year ='s fate for this creative endeavor!

I pictured you fumbling in the dark towards your computer late at night to read and respond to me OR reading it on your phone while doing inventory OR checking it all out while sitting in the office at work before coming home so you can let it all sink in and create the perfect response for me to read during work. Then I got jealous that you had all the good late night creative juice flowing time for your letters. It was quite the montage floating in my head earlier.

Family dinner went well. Can't say you missed out on anything exciting. Except for Codysaurus's appearance and delicious pork tenderloin and Leah bringing back the cropped top and Bruce Lee's drastic weight loss. Christoph (cousin from Germany) is high fiving Erika in the sky when they switch countries in a few weeks. His 16 and will be staying with Erich and Connie but we'll hopefully be seeing a lot of him. He's already nagged my sister to go to the disco and get drinks.

I've also decided that our future 4 children will be named...Ella Rose, Eberhart, Julian and Archer. Best be getting on that bandwagon because I'm a stubborn lady. Here's a photo of my Onkel Eberhart (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1335842174750&set=a.1331387103376.41602.1791980318&type=1) As if you could convince me he's not super adorable. Go ahead and try. I'll wait..........

Hmm. I'm betting that link didn't work.

Anyway it's getting ridiculous typing to you as you're laying next to me playing with your new coffee grinder so I'm out. Your lost though. Seems I got over my writers block and have lots of stories. Until tomorrow.

<3 L