The Tale of Dandie
Hello my loyal readers! It has been a long time since I posted last. Well over a year actually!! I did not mean to go MIA, but other things in life stole my attention, both good and bad, and I needed to just tend to those.
When last year started I had every intention of dedicating more to my blog and making writing more of a habit for me. I felt like I had a nice foundation in my writing and had developed goals when it came to this area of my life. When 2019 started to be around the corner I knew I wanted to resurrect this part of my life. So what stole my attention from writing last year?
Well….I fell in love!
At the beginning of last year I started talking to a man that had been on my radar for a long time at that point. We grew up in the same town and went to all of the same schools, even college. He was one year ahead of me in school, and we literally grew up on the opposite sides of the mountain from each other. I would always see him around, especially in college. I always thought he was cute, and he got even better looking over time, but I was always too shy and awkward to say more than a “hi” to him. We had known of each other our whole lives but didn’t really know each other because we never had talked or hung out before. However, we had been facebook friends for a very long time and followed each other on Instagram.
Around the middle of 2017 he started liking my Instagram pictures on my personal account on a regular basis, and even started watching my Instagram stories and replying to them through direct message. It is so funny for me now to go back and look at those direct messages between us! I wasn’t necessarily cold towards him and would respond, but I wouldn’t respond with a lot of words and didn’t give him much time or attention. He persisted on and off for around six months though with trying to get my attention.
Last January he posted a picture on his Instagram of him flexing his arm muscles showing his progress in the gym. I will say if there is one muscle group I like on a man it is their arm muscles! I always swoon when I see nicely defined arms! Now, he isn’t the kind of person who posts pictures like this all the time so he isn’t one of “those guys.” You know the ones I am talking about! Nope, he was just saying how he was proud of the progress he was making in the gym. I love working out myself and I know how hard work it is to see results, so I decided to comment on his picture and literally said “Awesome job!” The rest is how they would say history.
We started commenting back and forth on this picture and he literally asked me out for coffee for the whole world to see. I said yes but I wasn’t sure if he really meant it, so I just chilled to see if he would bring up going out for coffee again and actually scheduling it.
About a week later he direct messages me replying to my story and brings up us going to get coffee again. I remember thinking, I guess that would be cool to go get coffee and see what he is all about. We also finally exchanged cell phone numbers and Snapchat user names at this point and started talking even more so.
I remember not being sure what he wanted from me or from us talking, and just being really nervous about truly saying yes and scheduling the coffee date. I didn’t want to get my hopes up, and I wasn’t 100% sure I was ready to possibly date someone right then. I didn’t want to get hurt, and if I truly wasn’t ready to date someone I didn’t want to hurt him. I was getting WAY ahead of myself I know, but I typically do that in all areas of my life, which isn’t always a good thing, and it always comes back to fear.
My best friend and I walked and talked about it, and she listed out all the reasons why she thought so highly of him and how he would meet some of the important things for me in a potential partner. She literally talked about how great he was for a mile! At the end of the mile I decide, I should be brave and give this guy a chance. If anything maybe I will gain a new friend.
Me and him talked back and forth through Snapchat and text for about a week before we went and got coffee. I was SO NERVOUS before our first date! I was also really excited about it as well because I had really enjoyed talking with him up until that point. He was really easy to talk with from our Instagram, Snap, and Text conversations, and he seemed to have an awesome personality so far from what I knew about him. A funny part of our first date is how I got lost and couldn’t find the new Starbucks on campus where he worked, and where we were getting coffee from. I texted him and told him I couldn’t find it, so he gave me some directions, and I even asked some students. When I finally made it to Starbucks he greeted me with a hug, which I didn’t expect but it was very nice, and it also felt nice to hug him.
We ended up staying there talking for 3 and 1/2 hours. I was starving because I hadn’t ate dinner, and come to find out later he was hungry as well. When we decided to say goodnight, I don’t remember who mentioned it first exactly (I believe me) but we both agreed that we should get dinner the following week. He hugged me goodbye and I just knew that there was something different about him, and his hugs felt different then any other hug I had ever had.
I didn’t know it then, but I know now that in that moment I was hugging my home.
One year later we are together and as happy as can be! His hugs are still the best thing ever to me after a long day, when I am really upset, or I just want or need a hug. He balances me out in the best way, and just brings out the best parts of me. He challenges me and makes me grow in areas as a person that are long overdue, like how to confront issues when I am upset. He has helped me be willing to show my vulnerability not only to him, but in multiple ways and areas of my life. He has introduced me to new experiences and things like playing Disc Golf and Board Games on the regular basis. The list of how my life has improved since him is ever growing, and I feel so grateful and lucky to have found my person.
Like our couple name “Dandie,” which is the combining of his name (Daniel) and mine (Jodie) given to us from my best friend I walked that mile around the track, we are planning on merging our lives even more so and moving in together this summer. So right now just getting my house move in ready for him and the two cats is my goal. I have a LOT of stuff I need to get rid of, so I have been going through the Kon Mari Method, which has been interesting to say the least. However, between now and then I hope to write a little bit more, and if not I hope I can get to scheduling it more into my routine in the near future after our move in week.
Stay tuned my loyal readers and followers!! I still have goals and plans for this little blog of mine.
