Almost Perfect

The weekend was, for the most part amazing and passed by in a semi blur, with a few moments cemented in my memory that cannot be dislodged by pre-outing shots of tequila, lemon drops at the club, loud music or late-night confessions.

On Friday, I rushed home from work to do some last minute cleaning – Devon was being brought to st. pete by her best friend Leighann, Leighann’s fiancé, James – two of James’ friends which neither of us had met before, Leighann’s sister Lesley and Lesley’s new boyfriend. I’m running around the house trying to get things done, take a shower, finish the laundry, etc when the phone rings. It’s Leighann, saying plans have changed, and can I meet them in South Tampa. Oh, and to be at their house at 8, if we’re going to carpool – which means I have to leave in like 15 minutes. At this point, I’m naked, half washed, my laundry just got put in the dryer, and the house is in a semi-state of disarray. Yeah. Sure. No Problem. So I text Devon, and ask her if she’s up for South Tampa instead of first Friday – she calls me back in 5 minutes – yeah, no. So she tells Leighann to go ahead, we’re just going to stick to the original plans. 5 minutes later, she calls back – plans are back on for first Friday for everyone, no big, continue to get ready. Yeah. Have I mentioned that Leighann is slightly like a speeding freight train? For such a tiny girl….yeah.

Everyone gets to my house around 8:30-ish – well, Devon gets to my house, the rest of them are waiting downstairs since somehow they lost the tail of Lesley and her new boyfriend and were trying to direct them to where they were supposed to be. Before long, they show up and we all start walking towards downtown. We spent the majority of the evening at the Gardens – a cool little bar on Central – we got a table outside, talked, laughed – drank. It was pretty chill, really. Not super exciting, but nice. After awhile, we left for 5 bucks bar, which felt like walking into a frat party – and not too long after our arrival, Devon and I bowed out – she was tired, and I was sick of feeling invisible since every person in the world was jostling me. I didn’t manage to run into any of my friends that night – although the rumor was crazy bitch was around – didn’t see her either, thankfully. We walked home and crawled into bed, talking when the phone rang – Leighann and the gang were leaving (20 minutes after we left, after giving us a hard time about leaving early) and couldn’t find their way back to the car. She called two more times after that, and they eventually realized they went 3 miles in the wrong direction and had to take a cab back. I sat up for half an hour or so, to make sure they didn’t need me, then crawled into bed next to my already sleeping girlfriend (poor thing was wiped) and went to sleep. “How is it, Jules, that I keep falling in love with you more every day….I missed you so much…and love you so much more than that”

Saturday morning felt like Sunday, but thankfully wasn’t. I got up and made Devon breakfast, we watched Inception, lounged around and was lazy all day. I went to the liquor store and picked up some Tequila (yay) and some limes etc. We did have one big moment, Saturday afternoon – I was joking around about how the end of the year was going to be big for us – going to Maine to meet her parents, and potential life-smashing (moving in together) and she stopped me. “what do you mean, potential?”

“we haven’t really talked about it, and I didn’t want to assume anything”

“fine, lets talk about it”

“okay”

“In November, do you want me to move in with you?”

“yes”

“okay then. Settled”.

We then had a conversation about decorating, furniture, etc. Yeah. It was a big deal to me, and it makes the end of this year all the more special to me. So we will be living together for about a month, by the time I get to go up north to meet her family – I’m looking forward to it. She got really excited when I told her she was in charge of decorating. Saturday evening, she cleaned my house – although I had just cleaned it. Just felt like it, she said, doing the dishes from dinner (taco salad) and wiping everything up, dusting, etc. She said she was being “domesticated and wife-like”. It was cute. I, for the most part, tried to stay out of her way – she insisted, because I had cooked.

Saturday night we went out to the gay bar, Georgies…. We were meeting up with her friend Abby, and Jonathan and Ricky there. We did two shots of tequila before leaving the house – always a good sign. It was quite a night. Devon was drunk – like really drunk. I was drunk too, but not out of control. I kept a tight reign on myself and interspersed shots of lemon drops and Washington apples with water and soda. We danced a lot. Like a whole lot – and Abby and the guys were great. At one point in the night, amid the loud music, the people jumping around, random girls making out on the stage, go-go boys doing their things on the platforms, Devon wraps her arms around me and screams in my ear (the only way I could hear her, and even then, I had to ask her to repeat herself. Twice) “you better be ready to marry me”. At the time, even with the noise, all I could do was nod. And grin. Repeatedly. I’m not sure that counts as an invitation since it was kind of a cross between an order and a statement…good enough for me. It genuinely was one of the best nights of my life – being out in a place I was comfortable in, with the girl I loved, and new friends who were awesome just made my true self come out a lot more. As we were heading home though, she started freaking out about how sick she was going to be the next day, and I went into protective-mode. I got her upstairs….she went to the bathroom. Half an hour later, I had to wake her up to tell her that she couldn’t sleep on the bathroom floor, and I took her to bed.

Sunday was okay – another lazy day…she couldn’t really move, and we didn’t do much but sit around, nap off and on and stare at each other. She surprisingly remembered all of Saturday night, and didn’t take it back…there was a moment when I thought she might – but she reminded me that she was so happy…that she regrets how much she drank, but not anything that was said, not anything we did….that it was perfect. Late last night, I took the girl home.

I go to look at the apartment again today – fill out the application, and figure out if they’re doing the first month free promotion in June that they were offering in May. I really want this place – I’m a little concerned, since the application asks if you’ve ever had an adjudication withheld for any charges, even if it didn’t result in a conviction, and I have – and I’ve been denied an apartment for it before. I don’t want to be denied for this one – it’s in a perfect location, close to work, close to where Devon works, and closer to where she lives now. And really, living around there is the only way this would work out, with her living with me, being reliant on public transportation. She told me that for her 32nd year, however, she has set a goal for herself to start driving and she wants me to teach her. I guess we’ll see how that goes. Her birthday is coming up, right after mine – I’ll be 33 for 6 days before she turns 32. I get to be 2 years older than her (she calls it robbing the cradle) before she almost catches up. I still haven’t decided what I’m getting for her birthday…I have time to think about it – not until the first week of September, but I like to plan early….be more prepared that way.

Really, for my birthday, I can’t think of a thing I want that I haven’t already been given this year. This weekend was very nearly close to perfect. Next weekend, despite a slight hiccup in the plan that involves a birthday dinner for James on Saturday night, Devon and I will be celebrating our first Beltane…a little bit late this year, but good enough….I can’t wait. It may not be perfect, since saying it will be perfect may jinx it….but I can’t wait to see how it goes…and the imperfection is kind of what makes it fun at all.

Whew…big weekend update…it was a big weekend for me in many ways…I’m still smiling…I don’t foresee that stopping, any time in the near future. The present is lovely, and the future at this point is full of wonderful things….beautiful, wonderful things. I can’t wait.