Are We There Yet?

Are you tired of reading my wedding posts? Too bad. If I don't write 'em now, I won't have the energy to write them after haha. People often ask about our relationship. Where we met, how we ended up living so far apart for so long, etc. I have to say, we're essentially a Jack Johnson song. This is essentially the condensed version. It's still a novel though. You might want to refill your beverage before you dive in.

Heck Yes!

Evan and I met while we were working at Zellers. I worked on the floor and he worked at the service desk. I thought he was pretty cute from day one. Apparently he thought the same. We got trapped in a vicious cycle where one of us was seeing someone else when the other was single. Thankfully though, due to that extra time, we were able to become really good friends. We made a lot of great friends through that job and it's something I'll always hold close. We found an old Zellers shopping cart while out for engagement pics. We had to incorporate it! (Our pictures were done by Shannon Lepere) Evan use to carry a lot of candy around with him. Having a bad day? You know Evan has the goods. I could always count on him to slip me a purple or yellow sweettart (my favourite) or some sort of other goodies. (Everyone knew my locker was also jammed packed full of goods, we live for February 15th and November 1st). Sweet treats and snacks are basically the fabric of our relationship. Fast forward a few years. We finally connected. It finally happened. We were dating! I was living in a questionable basement apartment. Early in the morning of May 28th 2012 we had just safely gotten some friends home from a party at my apartment. We tucked into bed and my phone rang. It was my mom, the basement at my parent's house was flooding. She was devastated (their basement had a tendency to flood) and told us that it was really bad, worse than it ever had been. She was worried that my apartment might be flooding... Thank goodness she called, I was grumpy that she did but we unplugged everything and moved my laptop off the floor. Also thank goodness we got our friends home, they were going to sleep in the living room/on the floor originally. We tucked in, it was about 3am at that time. I woke up to wet paws on my face (Pandora had a tendency to play in her water and then jump from the top of my ceiling onto the bed). I turned on the light and noticed that my kitchen floor was really shiny... no... not shiny... wet. My apartment was flooding. Not with water though, with sewer back up. As most of the city was. It was coming up through the drain. Fa la la.

This was half our living room.

The 2012 flood devastated a lot of our city. I moved back into my parents house. A few months later, Evan and I felt comfortable enough in our relationship to move in together. We were dating just shy of a year at that point. We found a fantastic townhouse, got ourselves a piano that took up the living room, and enjoyed a lot of laughs and have a lot of memories from there. We then decided to downsize as Evan was returning to school to take pre-technology and then hopefully the aviation program at our local college. We moved down the street to an apartment that we loved dearly. It had giant windows. We released the piano to a good home. (Thanks to all who helped move it in and out!) Evan didn't get into our local college. He applied out of the city as well and got into Sault College in Sault Ste Marie. We were so excited and devastated. The job prospects for me weren't super great there (we intended to primarily live off of my income so he could focus on school), and I had this nagging feeling I should stay home (unfortunately I found out why 3 years later). I also love my job. Off he went, and I moved back to my parents house (again! Hi dad!) and transferred my job to a closer location. The day after we were getting him settled in the Soo he received a phone call that he had been accepted into our hometown college. He was on the waitlist and they had availability. Are we there yet? We had to pause for a moment. We said a lot of really nasty words. We had released our dream apartment, released our lives together, and moved him 8 hours away. We couldn't turn back. I often wonder what would have happened if we had; we're living in this reality though. Turns out the aviation program when you're nearing 30 isn't an easy feat. Evan had been out of college for awhile and the program was a bit different than what his pre-tech course had led him to believe. Evan continued to work his way through his program, when he was presented with a job prospect in Kingston. A job at a flying club, where he could learn and work. The only thing? It was another 8 hours away from the Soo. 16 hours away from our hometown. Again, we packed our bags. Said a lot of nasty words. Said goodbye to some new dear friends that we made in the Soo. Moved him to Kingston. I remained home with the cats. Again, this was going to be temporary for him to be away. Here we are now. Together for nearly 9 years, 4 of those years spent living apart.16 hours sitting between us. I usually visit once a month but the pandemic has us now sitting at near 7 months that we've been apart. Another month to go until our wedding. So many people say to us "How do you do it?". We're really grateful for technology, that's for sure. Another thing that helps is we're gamers, so we're able to dedicate some time to playing games across the world wide web. Pandemic aside, we're also grateful for relatively affordable travel options. Sometimes we have to do uncomfortable things. We know this isn't a permanent solution. While we do have some other choices, we find this fits us best for right now, even though it isn't easy. The wedding adds in another level. Planning a wedding when you're not living together is difficult. Planning a wedding when you're not living together AND not able to visit each other is something I feel we deserve a gold star for. (My friend Cort does too, and anyone else in this position!) So, there you have it! Curious to know more about our journey together? We do periodically blog together - you can give us a read over here. Are we there yet? Where even IS there? We continue to live in the moment. - Cousin Laura