How the love of my life and I struggle to keep our love strong

Monday, October 31, 2011

It just doesn't work

Hello, friends!

It just occurred to me that a lot of things have changed in just a few years. When I was growing up if we wanted to communicate with my aunt that lives in a different city, we had to talk fast on the phone, because long distance was very expensive. If we wanted to communicate something longer we'd have to write a letter, because it was impossible to afford a talk of more than 20 minutes. Letters took forever to arrive (that hasn't changed).
There were no fax machines, no internet (for the most part), no cellphones, no SMSs. Only rich people had computers.

Today we have email, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, webcams, netbooks, laptops, tablets, smartphones... We can contact anybody anywhere in the world. For those that don't have computers or internet connection there are internet cafés. Long distance calls are quite cheap nowadays. Buying things online from China and getting them shipped home is not something out of the ordinary.

So we grew a lot closer as a world, but whenever somebody mentions they are in a long distance relationship the default answer is "it just doesn't work".

Lack of physical contact is annoying and it makes things more difficult, but isn't it time to revise that answer and adapt it to modern times? Long distance relationships were obviously a lot more difficult to keep not many years ago.

I communicate with my girlfriend pretty much every day now. We listen to each other's voice and we can record videos or take as many pictures as we want, in high definition. Long distance relationships are not what they used to.

So, I think that whenever you find someone that's in a long distance relationship, before giving the default answer of "it just doesn't work", be happy that they have someone that cares for them and that loves them. Some of them do work and technology helps a lot with that!

Friday, October 28, 2011

LDR in the media

Hello, friends!

I just watched the latest episode of The Big Bang Theory (season 5, episode 7: The Good Guy Fluctuation) and I'm really disappointed. If you haven't watched the episode you might be wondering what it has to do with long distance relationships... There are some spoilers ahead, so don't read if you don't want to find out what happens.

If you follow the show you already know that Leonard is dating Priya, Raj's sister. You also know that Priya is back in India, hence Priya and Leonard are in a long distance relationship. So now comes the spoiler for the latest episode: Leonard cheats on Priya: he makes out with a girl he met in the comic book shop. What's even worse, he confesses to Priya and she's okay with it, since she also cheated (she slept with an ex-boyfriend).

I know having LDRs that fail is kind of a cliché, but LDRs can work with love and dedication (what couples should have, regardless of the distance). It's sad that the media capitalizes on this. I know it's a funny show and it's not supposed to be taken seriously... but it makes me value what my girlfriend and I have even more.

Sunday, October 23, 2011

In a relationship far far away...

Hello, friends!

It's been a while. I should mention, although it's obvious, that I can't really honor the update schedule I had mentioned. I'll update whenever I can...
If you have a problem with that then talk to my lawyer, haha.  No, I'm actually sorry I can't update more often, but I don't have a lot of free time.

Anyway, here's the update!

My girlfriend and I enjoy reading. We enjoy reading a lot. In fact, when we first started to chat books was the main thing we talked about! One thing about long distance relationships is that we can still enjoy books together. We recommend books to each other and after we have both read them we discuss them. Kind of like a book club, but more personal.

Now, we kind of went beyond that. Since my girlfriend and I really really enjoy the classics, we tend to visit the Gutenberg project a lot. For those that don't know it, the Gutenberg project is a digital library full of books that have entered the public domain. The books are free, which in this case means that you don't need to pay anything and it also means that you can pass the books around, make adaptations, translations, etc. without having to ask for permission. I am not a copyright lawyer, so you'd have to check what the public domain laws are in your jurisdiction.

I also used to visit Librivox. That site has the goal of making voice recordings of classics in the public domain (so it's kind of like an audio Gutenberg project). Librivox gave me the idea of recording short stories for my girlfriend: she can enjoy the stories and listening to my voice at the same time. She also does the same for me now. We also write original short stories for each other sometimes.

Listening to the sweet voice of my girlfriend reading a story for me is something I enjoy very much. If you like reading and you are in a long distance relationship, you should try it.

I'll be mentioning other activities that can be done to make a long distance relationship get a little closer. Things that my girlfriend and I like doing. If you have some activity that you'd like to mention, please do it in the comments.

Wednesday, October 12, 2011

A bit under the weather

Hello, friends!

I missed a few updates, but I'm going to pretend that nothing happened so I'm quickly changing the subject to...

The weather!

I really like the rain. Today there was a storm where I live and it's funny to see people running away from the water, as if it wasn't raining right in front of them anyway. It's raining behind you, it's raining in front of you, no matter how fast you run you're still going to get wet, haha. Even so, I don't understand why people are so afraid of getting wet, it's just water! It wasn't even cold today! Let me say this: the rain is not going to make you melt...

My girlfriend and I love storms. We like walking under the rain and we love seeing the lightnings in the sky. We like telling each other when it's raining where we live. I even have a weather widget on my computer that's configured with her town on it, so I can know of future rain in advance! It's another way of keeping the long distance relationship a bit closer, knowing what's going on where she lives.

I'm quite certain a lot of people probably think we are crazy because of all this, but I'm sure we're not alone and that more people love the rain just as much as we do, right?

Do you enjoy the rain or do you escape from it like a kitty? If you're a rain lover like my girlfriend and I, let me know! If you think that what we do is crazy, I'd also like to know.

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

No shoes, no flying partner, no service

Hello, friends!

I missed my Monday update, but I was kind of busy having a bit of a discussion with my girlfriend. So I'd like to know what you guys think.

I mentioned before that it might be possible for her to visit within the next 6 months or so. I would be paying for her flight tickets and her stay here (food, transportation, etc). There's a small issue, though: she's scared of airports. Apparently they are big and confusing and she won't fly unless she finds somebody to come with her (airports are automatically safer if somebody is with her). She has mentioned before that she didn't like airports, but I thought that the happiness of visiting me would be greater than her fear; that doesn't seem to be the case. The bad thing is that nobody appears to be interested in spending money on visiting a south American country with her...

Should I be more understanding or does it make sense that I'm disappointed? I love her and I want to see her soon and it makes me a bit mad that the opportunity to see each other is missed over this.

Please, leave comments telling me what you think about this. I really want to know what your thoughts are. Thank you!