I love you more than 100 posts.

Apparently, today’s post is the 100th post. That’s pretty neat. But I’ve been thinking back about this blog in general. In general, I’ve come to the conclusion that I won’t be posting anymore.

I’ll keep writing, because I enjoy it nicely, but I just won’t post here anymore. One day, maybe I’ll put something else out, but for now, nope. There are many reasons, but the main one is that the reason I started this blog is no longer the reason I continue doing it. Some mornings I had to force something to be put on the screen that isn’t really worth being put on the screen. So I’m going to stop doing that too.

It has been enjoyable, and if there are any readers, I thank you for reading. I do apologize for leaving the story off so soon, but more will come, just not so soon.

May the force be with you.

- Michael

I love you more than dental care.

I haven’t always had the best dental hygiene. I had a few cavities when I was younger, I hated flossing, and especially hated going to the dentist. These were all experiences that hurt, thus, they were bad.

I’ve changed in the past 10-ish years though. It began with me brushing more furiously. I now brush at least 2 minutes each time, twice a day, or more if my teeth feel nasty. I spend way too much time going over and over my teeth, it is wacko. I even have one of those toothbrushes that vibrates to let me know that it is apparently doing more than a regular toothbrush. Who knows.

I also began mouth-washing every morning and night. Mostly the morning one is to further rid my mouth of the coffee breath, but it also feels super refreshing. Plus, believe it or not, I never ever get those mouth blisters/cold-sores/ulcers anymore. I used to get them all the time, but since mouthwash, I get none.

I also floss. Wow. This one didn’t start until after the marriage. It really helped to see Lauren flossing every night, and I felt like a weenie not flossing. It hurt, of course, for about a month, but now I tear those gums up (not literally) every night.

All this brings me to my point; I was surprised when I opened my mouth to see two black dots on my back teeth. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, I haven’t been to the dentist in a while (we’re fixing this), but I take crazy good care of my teeth now! The dots wouldn’t come off when I used my tongue, and I was not happy. This would mean yet another bill. Bummer!

Luckily though, they did come off. Turns out blueberry seeds are exceedingly sticky. Phew!

- Michael

I love you more than Harry Potter.

I may have mentioned it before, but we’re kind of into Harry Potter. Lauren wasn’t always. I have been though. A friend of mine recommended I read the first one when it first came out. He said it wasn’t like other fantasy books. He said it wasn’t as cheesy as it sounds. I obliged, and I loved it. It was perfect for my age at that time.

Then the series grew up with me. The first few books are easy reads, pretty short, and the subject matter is straight forward. The last books are deep, involved, and not as black and white as the first few. They’re also very long. Very long.

Anyway. Lauren and I love them now. We started by reading children’s books out loud to each other, as a sort of therapy to help us go to sleep and to just have fun in sharing stories the other missed out on as a child. So we read the first one, and I figured she would want to move on, but we just kept reading the series. I read aloud each night, trying to do slight changes in my voice to accompany the different characters. We’re on book five now, and man, it is great. It is such fun to see Lauren love something so much that I practically grew up with.

And that’s enough of us being geeks for now.

- Michael

I love you more than a date at Sonic.

Ok, so, remember that big ugly/awesome van I had? The one I drove up to Lauren in? The one that you could easily find anywhere around Boone, NC?

Yeah, so it was huge. It was massive. I mean, it had a bed/couch in it. And a sink. And two (two!) places you could put a table. Or two tables. So that’s what we did. I told Lauren to get ready for a date, because we were going somewhere nice. Not too nice, of course, I didn’t want her to get all dressed up for nothing.

We were going to Sonic, of course. I tried to keep it a secret from her, make it a surprise, but somehow she found out. I guess she just knows me so well. In any case, we rolled up to Sonic, and found ourselves a nice spot in the drive-up thing. We ordered our food, and I started to set up our dining room.

I set up the extra chairs, put a small round table in its place, and threw a tablecloth (read: my extra bed sheet) over the table. I even lit a couple of candles, and looking back, in a van full of shag carpeting, this was probably not a great idea. We survived anyway, and it was fancy!

Imagine what the waitress must have thought. Roller-skating out to this big green monstrosity, looking for the people to give them food and she finds them in the back, with a table set up, looking somewhat fancy. How odd!

Dinner is always improved via candles.

- Michael

I love you more than still not being awake.

Why are the weekends so short? Why are there only weekends? Why can’t we have weekmiddles too? A small break on Wednesday. That might be pleasant.

We’ve discovered, very recently, that when both of us work from 8 in the morning until 5 at night, the rest of the day after that seems to not exist at all. Even the weekend. We get off work, cook or re-heat leftovers, sit for an hour, then it’s probably time to get ready for bed. Phew! What a day!

Then the weekends are jam-packed with getting groceries, doing laundry, and attempting to relax. Phew! What a day(s)! The whole process of getting ready for bed on a Sunday night is different in a subtle way. We sort of add a little bit of a grumble here and there. Not much, but just enough to make it seem like we only just got out of bed.

Then when we do get out of bed, even coffee won’t wake us up. The slow shuffle to find clothing, glasses, and use the restroom is ridiculous. Why can’t I pick my feet up off the ground? Why did I try to put my deodorant, instead of my glasses, on my face?

Then once I get situated on the couch to catch up on news, with cereal, coffee, and water (gotta hydrate!), I just want to fall back to sleep. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Well now it is time to brush teeth and all that.

- Michael

Interesting note: In Germany, Wednesday is Mittwoch, which means Middle-week, or Wednesday. But they don’t relax that day. I want to relax that day.

I love you more than spending countless hours together.

Ok if you thought (if you knew us) that we spent too much time together as freshmen, when we weren’t even romantically interested, then it is time for you to think again.

Once we got back to school and found out that being together was puréed awesome in a bowl of amazing, we didn’t stop. Especially before classes began. We only had about a week before class, and we made the best of it. I believe there was a span of two days where we literally spent every minute of it together aside from sleeping. It was a blast! We watched movies, more movies, walked around, and just enjoyed it.

Then classes began. Fortunately for us, we had a bunch of them together. It was easy, since we were both music majors. We would wake up in our separate dorm rooms, get ready individually, but once we met outside to walk to class together (sometimes Lauren made me coffee!) we were glued together like a major and natural minor scale. (I apologize for that awful simile)

And if you thought that was an obscene amount of time together, just wait! We get married later in the story!

- Michael

I love you more than first kisses.

Ok I’ll spare the weird details and all that and skip to the good part.

I asked. To kiss her. Yep. I asked permission to kiss my wife-now/girlfriend-then the first time. Somehow it wasn’t too awkward, I guess. We had somehow decided that I was to make the move, since she grabbed my hand to hold it. So I was in charge of the first kiss.

Well it worked out I think. We had been watching a movie or something, it ended, we were just hanging out, and I thought it would be better to ask than to just jump in there. Lauren appreciates that I did so, but I still feel like I could have been more romantic.

It was still the best last-first-kiss ever.

- Michael

I love you more than going back to school.

Well, this is another story from the past. I wish I was going back to school soon. But instead, this is about Lauren and I again.

After we talked that one fateful day about relationships and how we would like to have one, we talked a lot more. If it can be imagined. We talked so much, but we avoided the phone because we both though it was weird or something. I think we were weird.

Anyway, Lauren was going to be at school early to help people move in and some other stuff with a group she took part in. I did not have to go back early, but I did anyway. So on the very first day, Lauren was with a friend and they were helping freshmen move in. I was on my way in my old van. This is a picture of my van:

Look at this thing

So imagine, Lauren and her friend are hanging out when this giant green lawnmower pulls around the corner. I didn’t have this van the year before, so I can’t imagine Lauren being very excited to suddenly be dating a weirdo from the 70′s. Luckily, she thought it was pretty great.

Lauren’s friend went inside for a minute, and it was suddenly just Lauren and I, apparently “in a relationship” and we didn’t quite know what to do. So I said, “how about a hug?” or something silly, so we hugged, and school was off to a very good start.

- Michael

I love you more than electricity.

This week, we’ve been very excited for Thursday because our friend from school was going to come visit. Lauren even cleaned the entire apartment ahead of schedule to make it look pretty, which it always does anyway, but she has a nice way of adding a special touch. Anyway. Thursday comes, I’m at work, they’re at home having fun, and then I get off work a wee bit early. While I head out the door, I text Lauren to let her know, and she quickly replies, “good, our electricity is being weird.”

As it turns out, a tree that has been dead/dying/decaying since the giant snow storm this past season finally gave one of its limbs to our power lines. What a nice gift. It caused everything plugged in to our grid to swell and diminish with electricity. Lauren was watching TV and it went out, then came on/went out/etc. The lights everywhere were getting very soft, then exceedingly bright, flickering, etc. It was wild.

We quickly unplugged everything, smelled something burning, called the electric company, and got out of dodge. We couldn’t cook dinner, I needed to shower, and hey, Lauren’s parents live close enough to get there in a short amount of time. The whole drive, though, was us freaking out about what might be completely busted, and it didn’t help when the guy from the electric company called to tell us that stuff probably is.

After an anxious but fun night of hanging out with the in-laws, we head back to our apartment. The anxiety built like mad while we got out of the car, gathered our things, went inside, and hit the TV’s power button.

We all about had a heart attack when it actually turned on. It was nice to see. But there was actual damage done. An outlet in the bathroom no longer works. And any power cord plugged in to either mine or Lauren’s power-strip for our computers will no longer work. This means the appliances work, but the cord that gives them strength does nothing. Luckily I store excess of those kinds of things and we’ve got some of our stuff up and running again.

Today, we get to call people and say things to them about electricity!

- Michael

I love you more than relationships.

After some time, during the summer, Lauren and her boyfriend separated. Needless to say, I was ecstatic. Well, no, I wasn’t overjoyed that they had to go through this, but I was secretly happy because it meant one day Lauren and I had more of an opportunity than before.

Anyway, we continued talking online, and since Lauren had just exited a relationship, we talked a lot about relationships. We talked about what they mean, what would be ideal, how hard it can be and how easy it can be. We talked about everything, really, except whom our ideal mate would be. Interestingly enough, our mindsets aligned exactly (uh’doyee!).

A bit later, it all came out. We were talking, as usual, when the subject of relationships came up again. Somehow, Lauren knew I liked her, and somehow knew she could get it out of me that night. So she did. Somehow. I, thinking I was in control had asked, “Ok, so do you want to hear something crazy? Because you should sit down!” or something else equally lame.

Then I said, “Ok I like you… I have for a while… BaBoom!” or something exponentially lamer, I don’t really remember, whatever. She eventually replied that she felt the same! And I did a little dance to myself! And then we started talking about where this is going. We certainly did like each other. We certainly wanted to hang out more (if that was possible) during the school year.

And that’s what happened. We figured we didn’t need to worry about being “boyfriend” or “girlfriend” until it mattered, which it never did. We liked (probably loved) each other, and we wanted to be together and probably watch movies or something (we hadn’t gotten to the “what do we do” part).

- Michael