retrospective.

Greetings from the Windy City! I've had such a wonderful trip back to the Midwest, so it makes
it hard to get excited about going back east tonight...except for the fact I'll get to see {cv} at the
end of it all. I'm so excited to have got some good quality time with my girlfriends--old and "new."
It's funny because I feel like {jd} and I can't be classified as "new" friends because it feels like
we've known each other for years. Yay for the blogosphere--and for finding lifelong friends!
Truly and honestly, there is nothing like a weekend with close friends...

 While I'm away, I have a better vantage point by which to realize the good {and the tough} parts of long distance.  I realized the other day this was the longest {cv} and I have been apart since our wedding. I've taken weekends away, but this five-day stretch in the Midwest accounts for our longest separation since April 10th of last year. I appreciate {cv} more every day...and hopefully, this post
affirms just what kind of dividends a healthy long distance relationship can provide.

Now, when you see a face like that, you may be asking yourself: why exactly would she share

this ridiculous picture when the caption mentions the "long distance retrospective"?
I have a few very easy answers to that question.

For starters, this photo makes me laugh SO HARD. One of the things I love about my relationship with {cv} is that he always keeps me laughing. Case in point: this photo perfectly embodies his playful razzing. I had to take photos of {cv} for my class at RISD and he was being such a trooper. Even though he hates having his photo taken, he was agreeing to my continual camera clicking...until he reached his breaking point, as evidenced in this photo. It will always make me laugh because I know just what's behind that goofy face of his. When we're apart, I definitely miss his sense of humor, but mostly I miss that smile he sports when he knows he just cracked a great joke ;)

Beyond the obvious ridiculousness of this photo, the simple fact of having photos of {cv} on a semi-regular basis means that we're in the same place, which is a big improvement on the three years we spent in different cities during our relationship. Now, with two years together in the same place, I sometimes wonder if I'm losing my perspective on just how hard it is to be long distance. When either one of us is gone for a few days {either electively or for work}, we both know how to survive without the other...though we'd much prefer to be surviving with each other. I think one of the lasting impressions of our years apart is that understanding any separation is only temporary. That perspective proves invaluable when we're apart because it means we're not spending hours on the phone with one another--distracting from what took us on the trip in the first place. We're able to focus on the friends {or the work} in front of us and know that when we come home, we'll have each other.

I pray we'll always keep this long distance retrospective, though I also pray we never have to live apart in the future. I've said it once and I'll say it again...I am so grateful to have had those years in different cities to help me fully appreciate what it's like to finally be in the same city.

Have you ever had an experience that you can now look back and appreciate, 
though you couldn't fully appreciate it when you were going through it?


I'm back in Rhode Island tonight--and you better believe I'm excited to see {cv}! It helps to distract from the fact I'll already be missing my girlfriends after a wonderful few days together...

Hope you had a fabulous weekend--see you back here tomorrow! xoxo {av}

P.S. Big thanks to the College Prepster for the shout-out on Friday about sun savvy!
We hit the 100 mark for pledges this weekend and I'm overjoyed!