I know it’s not quite December yet, but it’s snowing out and feels so Christmasy and the first is tomorrow and I don’t want to wait anymore, so… …hi again. Let me begin by saying: I missed this. I missed you. I knew after two days of not writing that even when it’s hard, this is such a source of joy in my life. This community is such a source of joy. I did need the break, and I’m glad I just took a bit of time to draw inward. It was good for me, and it helped me gain a bit of perspective about what I want to do…

He said “Yes”. After a nearly perfect first date do-over, neither one of us were ready for it to end. We stole inside to the warmth of my residence apartment, happy to find that my five roommates were either out or in their rooms for the night, which meant that we had the living room to ourselves. It was already quite late, so I didn’t expect him to stay long. We sat down on the couch to talk and I flipped on the TV for background noise. While we began on either end of the couch, over the next half an hour or so we slowly moved closer together so…

The morning after our ski trip / concussion incident, B felt that he was okay to drive, so we decided to head back into the city. Remember: this was an unplanned overnight excursion, so as attractive as I had looked the night before, it was doubled come morning with no clean clothes or personal care supplies. If you can’t quite picture it, I was lookin’ fiiiiine. ;) We were all exhausted after the events of the previous evening, so we were all quiet on the drive home. When we arrived back on my campus M left to head home, and I finally had a moment to reflect on our first…

After conquering the bunny / learner hills, L and I began to hit the slopes. I figured we’d eventually run into M, B and the rest of my family, but it was still just us several runs and at least 45 minutes later. I hoped M was enjoying himself somewhere, though I felt badly that I had invited him to come and had barely seen him since we arrived. B was also conspicuously absent. L and I hopped on the chair lift and made our way back to the top. As we eased off the lift and headed toward the hill, I saw B standing near a group of people…

After much tribulation we made a second attempt at a first “date” and set a time to go night skiing. My family lives in an area of the province known as the snow belt. There are several ski hills in the area, and my parents happened to be friends with a couple that worked at one. They invited our family to attend a ‘friends & family night’ to go skiing for free, which they excitedly accepted. My parents invited me, and I in turn invited M. …and my male best friend B. To go on a date / meet my entire family at the same time. No pressure. I asked…