Gringa and Groom: Part of Your World

When Mr. Lion and I first started dating, we were both in college. I was at UF in Gainesville, and Mr. Lion was at UCF in Orlando. We were only about 100 miles from each other, but a mini long distance relationship is a long distance relation nonetheless. We saw each other once or twice a month...which I was incredibly grateful for. I've had friends who had to go much longer than that, and I just don't know if I could stand it! Whenever we left our two separate worlds to see each other, it was always magical.

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Every time we visited one another, it was 2-3 days of pure bliss. We'd snuggle up in front of the TV, we'd cook dinner together, we'd go out on fun dates, and sometimes we'd just sit around and do nothing. It was like a weekend getaway!

When we moved to Atlanta for grad school and law school, we went straight from long distance to living together under one roof. I've had some friends who were in the same situation, and now I can say that I've met some Bees who experienced the same thing too! I recently discussed the moving-in adjustment with some of these people. I found it interesting that those of us who went from long distance to living together seemed to have easier adjustments than my friends who moved in with their local boyfriends. I think that doing the long distance thing better prepared us for cohabitation because we were used to seeing each other for several days at a time. We had to eat several meals together, clean together, and (gasp) even share a bathroom. We got used to each others' habits, so I think that prevented too many surprises from popping up.

There were some adjustments, however. As I mentioned, our weekends together were like little vacations. When Mr. Lion and I first moved in together, it felt no different. Well, it did initially. Then we remembered this little thing called the real world. We were in for a rude awakening when we realized how much studying sucked when all we wanted to do was be lazy together, but eventually we got used to it.

What do you mean I can't be lazy today?

And speaking of laziness, this brings me to our other big adjustment. Our lovely lazy days that we once cherished became the norm. It became really easy to say "let's just order in and watch some Netflix." Don't get me wrong, that's wonderful sometimes...but this little Lioness needs some romance sometimes too! Thus, we initiated date night.

This was kind of tricky with our horrible grad school budgets, but we found a way to make it work monthly. One time each month, we got dressed up and went out on a nice date. We made a conscious effort not to worry about how much we spent that night; we decided it was better to forget about money once a month, as opposed to having several stress-filled date nights every month. Date night has definitely kept the spark alive, and now it's become a tradition that we'll carry on into our marriage.