Scheduled maintenance

the boyfriend is coming home tomorrow for three straight weekends. hurrah! i'm long overdue for takeout from north park and yellow cab, for vcd marathons and shadow of rome on the ps2, late-night movies at greenbelt, lots of warm hugs and general all-around pampering.

also on the agenda for us is AAI's once on this island at the rcbc plaza. it's my absolute favorite broadway musical of all time. i played erzulie, the goddess of love, in a high school production and it was one of the best experiences of my life. can't wait to share this play with marlon. i booked tickets for opening night; to get yours, call AAI at 5365844 or silang productions at 7517647.

my congratulations and best wishes to G (nice to meet you at last!), and my "condolences" to J. you must be insane with grief. hihi.

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different views of distance, from an article on long-distance relationships that J sent to me and charlie last week.

What's the big deal? - if you were brought up in a family where absence was the norm, it may be that periods apart are no problem.

But it's not for long - it might be your nature to look at life in the long term and see a bigger picture and, therefore, you may find it easier than your partner to see this as a temporary phase of your relationship.

most of the time, i'm somewhere between these two frames of mind. if it seems like i'm really strong, well i'm not. i'm just really lucky that i get to see marlon almost monthly, and for at least a week at a time. (most heard phrase from my acs friends: "ano? nandyan na naman si marlon?") another thing that helps keep me sane is that i really enjoy spending time by myself. and of course i've always been a really busy person. i'm not the type to sit by the window and pine away, and i flip out when i feel i'm doing precisely that.

but that's most of the time. there are moments that slip through the cracks in "me" time and "ngarag" time, when i find myself horribly lonely and the tears just keep flowing. but i'd rather not think about that.

Beware the reunion anticlimax - When you get to see each other again, chances are both of you will have built up great expectations of how fantastic your reunion is going to be. However, the reality often doesn't match up to the fantasy. Many couples feel disappointed and frustrated when things aren't as they'd hoped... remember, it may take time to get used to being around each other again.

thankfully, this doesn't happen anymore. somewhere between the first six months and the first year, spending so much time with marlon after his protracted absences was mentally and emotionally tiring. it felt like someone was playing tricks on my mind. it would feel weird just to look at each other, and we'd have to wait for our minds to catch up to the reality that we were together again.

while walking in the mall, i would actually stop in my tracks and look at marlon as if i couldn't believe he was really there. and even our face-to-face conversations flow like phone conversations, punctuated by the odd "hello" to mark the return to a previous topic, or as a reaction when one of us is teased by the other.

that said, i'm still counting the minutes until he comes home tomorrow. and already dreading the thought, after three weekends together, of goodbye.