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

Showing posts with label love. Show all posts
Showing posts with label love. Show all posts

Friday, June 15, 2012

So near, so far

Hello, friends!

Still not back to a normal schedule, but here's a new update.

I was talking to a coworker the other day and he was telling me about something I had never thought about. This guy is from India and there's a girl he knows that he really likes; he also told me that she really likes him back. Everything would be perfect for them... except that since they are from different castes they'll never be able to be together.

Now, I don't know exactly how the caste system works, but it made me sad knowing that these two people really loved each other and there was something stopping them from being together. I know my girlfriend is really far away, but one day we'll be together and we'll stay together forever. This guy, my coworker, gets to see the girl he likes all the time knowing that it's an impossible thing.

I don't know if he could elope with her or something, I wasn't sure if it was polite to ask, but I sincerely hope that love prevails.

Do you know of other cases of impossible love? I'd be particularly interested to see comments of situations like this that actually had a happy ending.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

Merry Christmas!

Hello, friends!

I haven't updated in a very very long time and I'm sorry for that. Work has kept me extremely busy.

I just wanted to wish everybody merry Christmas. If you live in the western world, even if you are not a Christian, Christmas is a joyous time!

So, whatever you believe, I hope you have a wonderful time with those you love.

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!

Friday, September 30, 2011

Super happy

Hello, friends!

It's going to be a short post, but I'd like to share two things with you.

The first one is that today I got my first paycheck at my new job. It's only for half a month, so it's not a lot, but it's exactly what I was making at my previous job, haha. I have mentioned before that I'm making double and I wasn't kidding. Even though I won't be able to visit my girlfriend for a while longer, I'm happy I made the switch because then I'll have more money for us when I finally visit... or when she visits!

That's right! She might be visiting at the beginning of next year! That's the other thing I wanted to share. I'm very excited about it, even though it's not 100% certain yet. She might start taking some classes at college, but since she does want to visit she thinks she should enroll at an online college so it wouldn't matter where she is.

Well, that's it for now. I'd like to proudly point out that I actually updated this blog when I said I would. I'm going to get myself a shiny gold star, hehe.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Good news, everyone!


Hello, friends!

This will be a quick update. It's getting late, I'm sleepy and I need to wake up early tomorrow. I just wanted to mention that my girlfriend has internet at home now! We can't really chat a lot because by the time she can get online I need to go to bed already, but something's better than nothing.

We didn't get to chat tonight (she had something to do), but we chatted yesterday and we'll be able to chat every night at least for a bit. We'll probably take advantage of the weekends, since I won't have to wake up mad early for work then.

Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. I'm very happy now! (and sleepy, did I mention that already?). I hope you folks are having a good week. I'll try to update again on Friday (perhaps I should do a Mon-Wed-Fri update schedule from now on...)

Sunday, September 18, 2011

I'm like a bicycle...

Hello, friends!

I'm sure everybody knows the punchline to the joke of the title of this post: I'm too/two tired. I've been waking up very early to get to work and I'm not used to it. To top it all, I haven't chatted with my girlfriend in about 8 days so I'm just cranky.

I can't say much about my new job; all I did last week was read legal procedures and security procedures in order to get clearance for the client stuff at some point next week. So the last few days was all about reading 30 or 35 PDFs of an average of 50 pages each, about how to handle the private information of the client and what to do in the event of something going bad. It's all common sense information, but I have to read it, understand it, and then sign a form acknowledging it all.

What keeps me going is that I'm making double the money that I was making at my previous job. My country's currency is worth 4 times less than the US dollar, so I need to work four times harder to make money for my girlfriend's and my future. Just the plane tickets to visit her are more expensive than a month-worth of my salary... I feel like I'm in that episode of The Simpsons where Homer has Maggie's pictures at work covering the sign that says "Don't forget, you're here forever" to say "Do it for her". I know it probably sounds very corny, but my love for her keeps me going and working hard now is going to be totally worth it once we're married and with our very own house.

I'm sorry if this post was kind of a downer; I'll try to update this blog again maybe on Wednesday, no matter how tired I may be, and hopefully I'll be more cheerful. In fact, I think I should start with the cheerful attitude right now: I wish you all a great beginning of week!

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Wish me luck!

Hello, friends!

Tomorrow is my first day at work. I'm kind of anxious, since I have no experience in this line of work (it's a technology in particular in the IT field), but they said they'll train me, so I hope everything goes fine.
So... wish me luck, haha! I have to wake up quite early, so that's kind of sucky, but I guess that was to be expected from any job.

On a sad note, I haven't chatted with my girlfriend in quite a while and I miss her a lot. She hasn't been able to get online and now, even if she does get online, she won't find me awake. The time difference plus the waking up early for the new job is going to make quite difficult for us to find the time to chat. I guess we'll go back to a gazillion emails...

Friday, September 9, 2011

Job update

Hello, friends!

I talked to my girlfriend last night and she's a bit sad like I am, but she's proud of me. She says it was the right decision, even though the fact that I can't visit sucks.

Yes, I got the job! Even after arriving 30 minutes late to the interview!

So I don't have many free days left; I start next week and I'm quite anxious about it. I promise I won't neglect this blog too much!

Monday, September 5, 2011

Why don't you get a job?

Hello, friends!

I told you on my last post that I had quit my job. I also told you I was having an interview this week.

So... I went to the interview today. I wasn't confident at all about this job because it's about something I don't have any experience about, but they still wanted to interview me. I was so not confident and I cared so little about this interview that I arrived late. When I say late, I don't mean 5 minutes late... I mean half an hour late!

Once in the interview things went really well, though. It turns out that the team I'd be working for has contacts all over the world and they needed somebody with my previous experience that could also speak many languages (that's me!). They said that they can teach me anything I don't know, so training is not a problem.

Even though I arrived late, I'm quite confident I'm getting this job. I'll keep you updated regarding that!

The bad thing is that I won't be able to visit my beloved girlfriend for another year and a half. I hope she finds the time to visit me before that... The good thing is that if I actually get this job, I'd be making double what I was making at my previous job.

I really miss my girlfriend, but I hope I made the right decision; I need to make money so we can get a place of our own once we marry. I'd really like to go visit her, but I can't spend all the money on plane tickets, right? What do you think?

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

I quit

Hello, friends!

It's been a while since I updated this blog, so I wanted to leave a few lines.

I've had enough of my job: long hours without any kind of additional retribution, low pay, no possibility of career advancement...

I quit.

By the end of the month I won't be going to the office anymore. I have already started the search for a new job and I have an interview next week (wish me luck!)

Sadly, this means I won't be able to visit my girlfriend soon, but we have been chatting the last few days and she might be able to visit before the end of the year! *crosses fingers*

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Bad day

Hello, friends!

Sorry for not updating for a while, I'll try to be more constant.

The other day my girlfriend got online when I wasn't around and she sent me some pictures and she told me she had had an awful day. Her day had gotten very hectic with some errands she had to run and some people that complicated things (nothing serious now, but she was quite mad at the time). It made me feel awful that I couldn't be there for her when she needed me. Luckily she could get online again that night and we chatted for a bit; I only found out later that she had only gotten 3 hours of sleep. She kept that information from me because she knew that if I had known I would've forced her to go to sleep and she really wanted to chat with me.

It's very frustrating knowing that sometimes she needs me and not being able to be there for her. I really wish we were together already so I could help her when things get bad.

Sorry for the emoish post, but I'm feeling frustrated and I needed to vent a little. I promise a more cheerful post next time and I promise I won't let so many days happen between posts.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Movie night

Hello, friends!

I was going to post last night, but something came up!
Last night my girlfriend got online for a little bit. She had to wake up early but we watched a movie!
It's a little weird, but she was going to watch a movie and I have the DVD of the same movie so we decided to watch it together. We synced it and we were watching the same parts at the same time.

Then, halfway through the movie, my internet died (gotta love my ISP... not). So I paused the movie for a while, then seeing how my ISP wasn't cooperating I decided to finish watching the movie. Then my internet came back, but my ISP's DNS weren't working, so I had to use public ones, but I managed to get online again.
My girlfriend had also paused the movie after a while, so she was only 5 minutes ahead of me.

We really enjoyed this sort of long distance date and we'll probably do this again at some point, but she's still traveling and doesn't know when she'll be able to get online again. She left right after the movie finished (like I said, she had to wake up early), but not before telling me that she loves me very much :)

If anybody has other ideas for long distance dates, things that would sort of work, like watching the movie, then I'd really appreciate it!

Tuesday, August 2, 2011

Unexpected love messages

Hello, friends!

My girlfriend got online for a few minutes today. She got on line on an open network, logged in and talked to me!
She told me "I love you, handsome." She saw some pictures I had sent her and she told me she misses me.
We also gave each other many many e-kisses, hehe.

It's not much, but it was enough to make me very happy :)

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Far Away

Hello, friends!

As I mentioned in my previous post, my girlfriend is away and we won't be able to chat for a while. When I chat with her I always tell her that I love her and I give her e-kisses and e-hugs. I always feel that typing those things is not enough, that typing those words is nothing like actually kissing her and hugging her and looking into her eyes while I tell her that I love her.

Sometimes an impulsive 2:00 AM cross-country trip is the only solution.
(In our case it would be cross-world.)
XKCD is under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.5 License

At this point, I'd be happy just being able to chat with her and read about how her day went; telling her that I love her and sending her an e-kiss would be simply amazing.
This is a reminder to my future self to learn to appreciate the small things and not take them for granted.

Monday, July 25, 2011

Going to Church

Hello, friends!

As part of my trying to understand my girlfriend's religion a bit better, I went to church with her. It was kind of a weird experience.

My family is Catholic, so I have a Catholic background. I used to go to Catholic church when I was a kid (they are extremely pretty) and I was baptized as a baby. I was kind of expecting to see something similar when I went to church with my girlfriend. What I saw, though, was completely different.

Catholic churches, for those of you that never went to one, have wooden benches and they all point towards the altar and they have kind of like a step that you kneel on when you pray. There are saints, icons, and a big cross on top of the altar and Jesus is on the cross.

The protestant church I went to had many tables and people sat around them. There was breakfast before the service and a band was playing some music. The have projectors and a stage. Jesus is not on the cross (He resurrected) and there are no saints or icons of any kind. More than half of the service was the band playing and the projectors showing the lyrics so people could sing. The people singing had their hands in the air (I had never seen that before and I was quite surprised). I felt completely out of place.

Even though I felt that I didn't belong to that Church, I see that they have a great sense of community and I find that very important. I promised my girlfriend that I'd attend service with her every Sunday, even though I don't believe what she believes. I mean, I love her and I want to spend time with her and this is very important for her so I want to be part of it even if I'm not Christian myself.

I want to know if you'd be willing to attend a church / temple / mosque of a different faith than yours on a regular basis. If you have already done it, did you feel as awkward as I did? I'm really looking forward to your comments, particularly ThatBastardFromBellingham's since it seems that we have a lot of things in common, haha.

Saturday, July 23, 2011

On virginity

Hello, friends!

Related to the last post, where I talked about my girlfriend's religion, I want to mention something else that is very important for a couple.

My girlfriend and I have been together for 3 years now and we plan to be together for the rest of our lives. The idea is to get married in about 4 years. Unfortunately for us (yes, for her too), she wants to remain a virgin until we're married because that's what the Bible mandates (or she thinks that the Bible mandates).

The Bible verse used to support that idea is Hebrews 13:4 which says: "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral.". I think that verse is very ambiguous, but to her it's clear that we are not to engage in sexual activities until we marry.

I said unfortunately for her too because she obviously would like to have sex with me and the only thing stopping her is the Bible. I respect this, even though it's very frustrating for both of us, and I don't push her to do anything (that wouldn't be a nice thing to do).

Dear followers, have you ever been in a situation like this? Would you accept it if you were in my position or no sex is a deal-breaker for you? Let me know in the comments!