Changes In Latitudes, Changes In Attitudes

Dear Blog Readers, How Are You? Fantastic! So lucky you a blog post from me. You must have hit the jackpot or something, first Jill actually posts on her blog and then I show up. Go buy a lottery ticket or something.

The title of the post is one I find most appropriate at the moment seeing how I am in Ft. Lauderdale and near many of Jimmy Buffet's haunts. Now some of the more annoying readers might point out, "But JP this blog is supposed to be about living with you, how can you post about life with you if you're in FL and Jill is in DC?" Well #1 shut up, and #2 I'm JP $%@&ing Walsh I can do as I please.

That said life for Jill and me has always seemed to involve points where one of us is gone or traveling. This little sojourn of mine just so happens to be the longest period since college summers when we were required to separate.

Wish I could say that I am enjoying my time down here, a needed break, loving the weather, ect and so on. But to be honest I find myself counting down the days till my return. I truly miss Jill, the Dean Monster, the season of FALL, and my awesome new bed.

I had a conversation recently with one of my coworkers who I've struck up a friendship with about true love. Let me preface this by saying that I am among a very rare and elusive minority among politicos, I am a member of the "under 35 and committed" group. In a job that requires long hours, moral compromises, unrealistic amounts of stress, and spur of the moment travel there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of people in relationships. Go figure.

Anywho, so this friend says that he doesn't believe in fated love, that with the number of people in the world it is statistically unlikely that there is simply one person for each of us. I asked him about true love, he responded he had not found it yet but he wouldn't rule it out completely (however irrational the idea). So I shared our story with him.

Jill gave you all a wonderful, if slightly fanciful, overview of our courtship and ongoing punishme... relationship. What I can say with certainty is that the moment I began to seriously think about Jill in more than a platonic way my mind was made up. I didn't want to chase after anyone else, there was no need; I somehow knew that she was the one for me, no doubts no second thoughts.

Jill won't admit this readily, I mean when does she ever give me an inch, but one of the reasons she was scared to admit feelings for me at first was she also had a sense that I would be the last guy she dated. One of my friends from HS seemed to know this as well; on a visit near the end of freshman year this friend accompanied me as we went to Jill's Cold Stone Creamery (completely out of the way) where he pulled me aside and said, "Yep you're whipped like a bitch, you're gonna marry that girl, I'm calling it now." When I decided to propose to Jill, he was one of the first to know. I hope to write all over his face with sharpies at the bachelor party.

So against all odds, against those staggering statistics, and modern society's contemptuous view of old school romance I found my other, the missing piece I didn't know was lost. And now, after so many years of being alone, after trying so hard to convince myself that the solitary life was what I wanted (or what was destined for me), I find myself with a home of my own completed by a woman who loves me for who and what I am... and a cat. Especially the cat.

Truth is I don't want to be away from Jillian, she keeps me sane and all of you alive. I take no pleasure in having to travel and any delight I find in Florida is quickly lost when I find myself alone at the end of the day, having to talk to the ones I love through a brick of plastic and metal.

Yet maybe my skeptic friend is right, perhaps there are other women who would satisfy me, who could duplicate my feelings for Jill. But unfortunately for them they will never get the chance to find out, I am perfectly content where and with whom I am.

Eight Days.