Let me tell you about my day!
Today has been very rough, but that's no way to start.
It started with a girl...
A girl I loved.
Her name is Crystal.
Crystal and I are getting married in just over one month and one week and one day. Too many ones? I think not!
Today was the day I said goodbye to Crystal for all but 11 days of that one month, one week, and one day. She finished her formal schooling last semester (being April) and she has just begun her internship, which is this silly thing people have to do that I am grateful Psychology majors do not!
For her internship, she will be at a Boy Scout camp called Treasure Mountain, located in Alta, WY. This camp is almost exactly a one hour drive from where I currently am!
This is sad.
We spent most of this week as we normally do:
Playing games, kissing, driving around, kissing, kissing, taking nice walks around the neighborhood when it is not blisteringly hot outside, and possibly even kissing some more.
Today was much the same, yet very different. Today had a much shorter timeline than our usual lunch to curfew routine. Today we would begin our journey to Treasure Mountain at 5PM, effectively cutting our day in half.
She, in her usual, loving, thoughtful manner, was thinking about me and what I would want to eat.
You see, yesterday was the annual Rexburg Tailgate Party at Egin Lakes.
What are we tailgating you ask? Good question! Seeing as how Rexburg has no real sports teams(or sports teams within 4 hours of here) it seems like a silly thing to do. But we decide to have a large party and call it a tailgate anyway.
I, being at least 1/2 ginger, am very susceptible to burning all of the skin off of my body at the slightest sign of sunlight.
Yesterday was VERY sunny.
I was badly burned because my loving fiancee is very bad at applying sun block. In her defense it was spray sun block, and that stuff and I just do not have a good track record. She did her best, but it was still not enough to help me defeat that old nemesis of mine, sunlight.
What does this have to do with what I should be eating for lunch? I'll tell you!
Because I was badly burned and spent most of the evening hours laying face-first on my bed with my back slathered in a thick coat of Aloe(also lovingly applied by her) I was very much unable to attend to my regular church meetings.
The thought of putting a collared shirt on was enough to make me contemplate time travel murder, resulting in the collared shirt never being invented.
Me skipping church being the case I woke up just before noon, and she was mindful of my nutritional needs.
She came over and we made a wonderful brunch of French Toast, Hash Browns, and Orange Juice. It was the best. Ever.
Best what, you ask? The best everything.
Then we laughed at the world while surfing the internet, defeated the Balrog in Lego Lord of the Rings(a completely appropriate Sunday video game) and watched Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, which she had never seen.
There are so many things about that movie I never got as a child...moving on.
Then the dreadful time came.
The drive was wonderful and we had some very inspiring words to listen to from the incredible Jack R. Christianson.
It created good conversation and the mood was light.
When we arrived at the camp, nestled in the beautiful foothills of the Teton Mountains, the air was cool and we were in high spirits, despite the fact that there is no cellular reception out there, meaning her and I would have no means of communication while she is gone.
We remained in a good mood until it was time for her first meeting and it was time for me to go.
I was the first one to cry.
I never cry.
Ok, I rarely cry.
But I cried freely at this moment.
Never have I loved someone so much. So completely.
Never have I allowed someone to be so close to me, and know me so intimately.
It felt like I was leaving half of myself at that camp as I drove away.
Our goodbye was short, but heartfelt.
I got a strange text from my mom on the way home simply saying "hi. How are you doing?"
I answered "it's rough" to which she was very confused. She had no idea that I had just dropped off Crystal.
I feel I did fairly well, because I only cried half of the way home on that hour long drive, and I haven't cried while here, yet.
She told me she would probably be crying later that night. She doesn't cry in the moment often, but she does afterwards.
The words of Jack on the drive there and home helped me to realize that I am terrible at recording my life. He stated a number of times that he keeps a very accurate journal, and that is how he has so many stories to tell and lessons to share.
I feel like I have wasted so many stories and lessons, and I feel a definite guilt from this.
So here I am updating the world wide web on my life. Perhaps someday I will have an ancestor view this ancient post on whatever futuristic technology they have and it will comfort them when they leave a loved one. Who knows!
Continuing with my day...
Upon getting home I wanted to be alone so I took a shower.
Showers hurt quite a bit when sunburned, so it became somewhat of a bath.
Baths hurt, too, but I felt it necessary.
I read some of my book and after finishing two chapters I felt I had been in there long enough.
And here I am.
All-in-all, it was a good day, despite it's many hardships. I think I will be ok tomorrow, and hopefully remain as such until I see my lovely Crystal again.
So, thank you Jack for helping remind me of God's mercy and more so for reminding me to write this down.
Thank you mom for being sensitive enough to the promptings of the Spirit to text me when I needed it.
And thank you Crystal for allowing me to love you. I will become a better man for you, I promise.
Good night moon,
~Boy
