Officially....

So, it’s all official now! At least according to the book of Face, Tom & I are a thing now. Not as scary as I’d imagined, taking that particular ‘leap’, just…good. Even with the crappy timing of his Korea trip, so none of my friends get to meet him until around Turkey Day, if he’s lucky enough to get back by then. I’m a little, tiny bit jealous that his work is shipping him off to the other side of the planet for a month, even if only because I did just find him & there’s that small part of me that just wants to keep him to myself for a while.

But career moves & experience & building & yada yada, it’s awesome for him. Plus, although he’ll be working long, hard ass days he’ll still be able to fit in some time to travel, &dude, Korea. It is wonderful, I just have to sigh & pout & ignore that tiny part of me.

But I do suppose it’s a good sign, happy even that that whiney part is smaller than the excited part-for him! Korea! Hand-picked because his employer knows he’ll get the job done well with a minimum of supervision, screw ups, & general partying around because he’s in a strange country. Though, to me, giving someone a week to prep for working abroad for a month is a bit tight. But it is a good job from what I’ve gathered, better than mine is or could be, which is why I’m still seriously exploring going back to school soon, but that’s a different post entirely.

I’m comfortable with where I’m at in my head with this. I’m justhappy. A little bit sad because of the crappy timing, but a month zips by impossibly fast, & there’s the whole miracle of Skype & phones & internet & time zones so we can still talk, & we can keep going with whatever we’ll be when he gets home.

Because what we are so far is comfortable, & exciting in the haunted house kinda way: You are mostly sure it’s all in good fun, but there is that .00009% chance that the zombies, ghosties, & ghoulies are real. I won’t lose myself again, that’s what I’m fighting for in some ways. I may learn slowly but that’s a lesson I only need once, because no matter what happens to me as a woman, Kade still needs a functioning mother. Tom understands as best he can that fine line I will always walk, between woman & mother & me, but it helps he seems blessed with an amazing reservoir of patience, which in true Jamé style I have tested pretty well.

Case in point, this past weekend. He’s on swing shift so we don’t get to see each other during the week, so we pack in what we can on weekends, but that’s when Kade & I carpe diem & get stuff done. I’m leery of dropping everything just over a guy & doing stuff only with him, that’s not my life nor what I’d prefer, so instead I gave Tom the option to either sleep in or join in on our to do list. The poor besotted man followed us on the following adventures, said with only a light amount of sarcasm:

Sold my car to my son’s teacher; watched a bunch of preschoolers run around in a big, clean, bright gym for almost an hour chasing soccer balls & generally being, in my opinion because I made one of them, absolutely hilarious entertainment. Bonus: while Kade bosses me around with impunity, he’s polite to the general public without prompting, so there’s some training/education taking effect there at least. We finished selling my car, purchased my parent’s Jeep, crammed in lunch before heading off to the park to get Finn adopted (he immediately crawled into his new dad’s soul, so there’s that!) There was way more paperwork than any weekend should be full of, & that was pretty much our Saturday. As a reward for helping me with all this, I dragged him way out of his comfort zone & went hiking at Silver Falls on Sunday, seeing as how the man was born & raised in Canby & never been hiking. Most of my hike was spent keeping Kade from falling off the cliffs, which he seemed attracted to as if by magnets, & negotiating a smidgen of quiet out of my magpie so we could, ya know, enjoy the silence of the nature.

His reaction to all this was to take us out to dinner at a nice place with dead cow on the menu, & not mentioning that my attention kept being dragged away to keep Kade distracted & happy & not bothering every single person sitting around us. You’re cute, kid, but there’s limits to how far that flirtiness will take you.

So, he’s got patience, charm, goofiness, geekiness, mechanical competence, the ability to manage his own budget, job & life, & that inner sweet niceness that still baffles me sometimes.

Have fun in Korea, honey, & welcome to life in the little red house.