The Sorta In-Laws

This year, The Boy and I are spending the holidays with each other's respective families.  I get him at Christmas, and I had the priveledge of spending Thanksgiving with his family.  

I'm used to a very large traditional meal with more food (and more caseroles than you can name) available than could possibly be finished.  While, The Boy's family had all the traditional stuff, it was on a much smaller scale than I was used to - both by attendee numbers and quantity of food.  We had a great time though, and it was really nice to meet more of his family.

Last weekend, The Boy's family invited me to a very special family ceremony honoring one of his uncles.  If I thought I got off the hook easy with only meeting a few relatives at Thanksgiving, then this was a giant fisherman's net.  I met aunts, uncles, cousins, great-aunts, great-uncles and a few family friends thrown in there.  I was even "welcomed to the family" by a few of them.  

One of the funniest events of the weekend, however, came when we were taking our assigned seats for the ceremony.  The Boy's mother had called in to include all our names on the seats.  Something went wrong in the communication because I ended up being "X. The Boy's Last Name."  His mom thought it was hilarious, and I got a pretty good chuckle out of it as well.  The Boy was somewhere between rolling-his eyes and displeased at his parents' giddiness over a possible name change for me.  

I was thrilled to find out that his family is completely normal and really, very, very nice.  I'd be happy to join their family.

The Premise

I'm a 23 year-old professional living in DC.  I take my work seriously.  I take my relationship seriously.  Oh yeah...

Allow me to introduce The Boy: a 26 year-old professional also living in DC.  We've been dating for nearly 10 months now.  It was a relationship that both of us were hesitant to enter because we were good friends prior to dating and were afraid that it just wouldn't work.  (Not to mention we have a plethora of the same friends and a break-up would be really messy.)  Mid-January, I gave him an ultimatum: I wasn't going to continue our friends-with-benefits relationship because I was getting too attached.  His response, "Let's do it." (Start dating that is.)  It's been a wild ride since.

The Boy had a well-known reputation for being a bit of a player.  After being hurt before, I was afraid I was only going to be a brief dalliance in his life.  But I also knew something else - he was hesitant to enter any dating relationship, and it was therefore a big deal for him.  I, myself, have not have the best track record as it pertains to faithfulness.  Thus far, he is the only one I've ever dated that I haven't cheated on.  I intend to keep it that way.

While attending a friend's wedding four months into our relationship, the first Big Step happened.  We were laying in bed when The Boy turned to me and said, "This will probably be us someday."  Proceed a strange mix of emotions inside my head ranging from excitement to confusion.  A few minutes later he turns to me again and says "So, if we got married in a few years, would you still want to wait until you're 30 to have kids?"  This came from a conversation I'd had with a friend the day before while in The Boy's presence.  I asked that we put that question on hold and come back to it at a later date.

The second Big Step came not long after the first.  We were out at a bar with friends.  I got a little jealous for no reason over him dancing with a friend.  As we're talking through it, he says "I can't believe you're jealous of her.  I'm falling in love with you."  

The first actual "I love you" was spoken by yours truly while I thought The Boy was asleep.  He was not, heard me, and called me out on it.  A few weeks later, he said it to me after we'd been out drinking.  I told him he wouldn't remember it in the morning.  When we woke up, he looked at me and said "I remember.  And I do love you."

The Boy has a tendency to not show his emotions.  He doesn't say too often what's really going through his head, but every now and then he drops these little bombshells on me.  The day when I knew we were really serious came in August while visiting a friend in Pennsylvania.  We were talking about our relationship and the subject migrated to engagement.  He said, "I know now I want to marry you.  I'm just waiting till after our 1 year anniversary out of principle."  Me: Giggle, smile, swoon.

I'm so in love.  Not to say that our relationship is perfect - far from it.  He has trouble being sensitive to my sometimes fragile feelings, and I avoid bringing up things that are bothering me to the point where they become real problems.  But we're working through it, and hopefully sometime in the not-too-distant future I'll be the Future Mrs. Boy.

Check back for updates.  I hope to include candid insight into our very real relationship and the funny stuff that goes on in the mean-time.