PJ traveled a lot during our first few weeks here and I was pretty lonely. I haven't made any friends - but don't feel bad for me because I'm not very social in general - let alone when you take me out of my comfort. I'm a pretty solidary person in general. I have my small group of good girlfriends that I love and I am so happy with living my life like that (something about I'd rather have 4 quarters than 100 pennies would fit in right about here). And it's a different down here - the people are so kind but it's a totally different culture. Mostly in the subtleties. So I haven't made a lot (any?) of friends and I am okay with that. This could also be a self preservation thing where I know we're leaving here pretty soon and I hate goodbyes! Nonetheless, it was tough being alone here with PJ traveling so much. I loved living on my own in my single girl days. I relished coming home to an empty apartment and doing exactly as I pleased. But since meeting PJ, I hate him being gone. Even when it's me and him at home, it feels like I am alone (in a really good way!!!) - as though I'm so comfortable with him that he feels kind of like an extension of me and therefore I'm kind of alone in my solitude. Does that make sense? I hope so! But when you remove him from my new notion of solitude, it feels like I am missing something. Whenever he has to go on a trip, I romanticize it and think that I'll do a deep clean of the apartment, go to yoga, cook, take a nice long bath, read, catch up on TV, etc. This never happens. I normally do about three of those things (and a deep clean of the apartment is never what I end up doing...whoops...road to hell, good intentions, you know what I mean). The bottom line is that I hate having him gone. And the three things I get done from my list of things to do? Same stuff I do when he's here. I know he hates to leave me. And I appreciate all hard work and sacrifices that he's making for our little two-person family. But it was still hard having him gone.
And the weather. I was sold a 'warm weather' deal on this move. I love warm weather (especially because our apartment has air conditioning so my sleep wouldn't have been hindered from outside being too warm)! I love sitting outside in the heat and reading. It has not been warm! In fact, it has been freezing!!! A couple of days in February were -10 degrees (-17 when you factor in the wind chill). And my beloved rainy Vancouver? It has been beautiful. Uncharacteristically warm. Seriously, if one more person tells me about the cherry blossoms 'already' blooming, I might scream (okay, probably cry!).
I miss home a lot. I miss my family (my new McNugget family and my old family too!), I miss road trips to Seattle to see my cute aunty Marilyn, I miss my friends, I hate not being there to help Alli plan her wedding, I miss my running friends (so much. So, so, so much.), I miss the good healthy Vancouver food, I miss Maggie, I miss people talking in Celsius and kilometres (and putting -re on the end of words instead of -er), I miss being in the same time zone as mostly everyone.
That's not to say I haven't had some good experiences down here! I never would've gone to Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Charlotte, Charleston, or New Orleans if we weren't here. It's just the first two months were difficult. More so than I anticipated. I was sad and the weather matched.
At the beginning of March, I thought something must be changing. It went from freezing to beautiful. It was a weekday so I was working. But it gave me hope! And it made me look longingly at the hammocks at our communal pool. There was a sign that I might get to use those hammocks!! Today, I did! It was wonderful, I hung out for three hours in 26 degree weather in March! I went to yoga! And I got to come home to a nice cool apartment where my PJ was diligently working (with a hockey game in the background). So things are looking up! Myrtle Beach is finally delivering on her warm weather promise. And I couldn't be more happy!
PJ also got me (us) an Adirondack chair this morning and helped me put it together. It is now sitting on our little deck. And after I got home from yoga, I contiued reading my book out there on it. And this was my view:
Not too bad!
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