Three in Tennessee

The past three months of life in Tennessee have been good to me. 

From the start of the epic road trip across eight states, I've had a hundred new, exciting, frightening and humbling experiences. A terrifying leap was taken into the unknown that included quitting my steady job, leaving my family behind and donating many of my belongings to Goodwill. A risk, which may have appeared to others as a train off its tracks, that I was willing to take to follow my heart. A risk that had no certainty in a successful outcome, and quite honestly still doesn't. 

Without this terrifying yet perfect-for-me life moment, I wouldn't know what was possible.

With a long distance love, everything you do and every time you see each other after weeks can seem like the most magical experience possible. The texts as you're still descending in an aircraft, the holy-sh*t-i-can-feel-your-presence goosebumps, the first sighting, the first touch, the first passionate kiss, the insatiable desire for one another.

My fear was that this could possibly disappear if I were to plant my roots in Tennessee.

Who wouldn't be afraid of losing a touch of this magic while establishing a routine? Waking up together, working together, eating lunch together, walking to coffee together, grocery shopping together, sweating together, falling asleep together. Just to do it all over again the next day? Snore?

To my surprise and far-exceeding my expectations, it's not a snore at all. It's amazing! The past three months have given me every bit of validation that this choice was the right one to make. While everything may not be picture perfect, I've seen the importance of teamwork, communication, respect, honesty, laughter, silliness and adventure.

Adventure comes in many forms for us. A new restaurant, a new TV show, a different haircut.

Just Friday at lunch we were discussing our evening plans of gym, grocery needs and planned exit from the office. While this is my ideal Friday agenda, I went out on a limb and suggested a quick road trip to Nashville for the night.

For the night and right after work without already packing? To spend all that money on just a place to rest our heads and order late night post-bar calzones? He initially hesitated at the thought, but within a minute there was a huge grin on his face and the glimmer of Nashville's lights in his eyes. 

A spontaneous weekend trip to spend some frivolous cash is why we have an adventure budget (also funded by things like our ice cream tax, losers of Uno games and under the table sports betting).

We drove, we sang, we danced, we snuggled, we ate, we laughed, we drank, we planned, we goofed. We shared a triumphant ending to the night slow-dancing to a country cover of "I Want it That Way". We even squeezed in a trip to Trader Joe's that I wasn't expecting until our Oregon vacation coming up in 8 sleeps.

I'm a big fan of this new life and look forward to what the next three months have in store, no matter how they look.