This February 14th I would be 2,000 miles away from my Valentine. Yes, my wife and son were back in Chicago, while I was working hard in Los Angeles. Not exactly the romantic Valentine’s Day of every woman’s dream, but…
How do folks make a long distance relationship work? For one weekend like this, it’s not ideal, sure it sucks, but it’s OK… I picked up her gift earlier in the week; it’s actually kind of my gift too, because I sit on the chair also, but… that’s not important. On the day of, before I got going at work, I made sure to get the flowers and balloon on their way before they got out and about for the day. That was successful. OK, now I can work…
At one point, the whole subject of long distance relationship was almost a reality for my wife and I. After breaking up way back when, she moved to LA. Sometime later, we reconnected; I actually saw her when she came back to Chicago for the holidays. We definitely still had something there, but… what the heck were we going to do about it? She hadn’t even been out there that long, and I was never leaving Chicago, so… Could we possibly make this work? I had my doubts about this long distance deal; I’m sure she did as well. It wasn’t realistic. Thankfully, fate helped work it all out.
Work hadn’t been great for me around that time. I got moved into a night shift support role at my job; I got screwed over basically. Plus, all the jobs I applied for, I got shot down. I was kind of at a dead end. How long could I keep doing this overnight job? More importantly, how long could I go to the bar and play cards with everybody on the previous shift, while monitoring my phone in case there was an issue at work? Haha… Don’t get me wrong; we had some fun times, but… this was going nowhere. Then… the site manager job in Los Angeles opened up; whoa… I applied for it of course. The nice thing was I had met the current site manager during a holiday party in Chicago; we got along really well. I knew he’d put the good word in for me. Still, I didn’t think I’d get the job, but… I guess they figured this was the best way to get rid of me… sending me 2,000 miles away to manage this small operation. I was surprised to say the least. So, this is really happening???
Yes, no need for a long distance relationship, but instead, it was me driving out to California to live and work in LA… living close to my ex-girlfriend, who would become my girlfriend again, then my fiancee, then my wife, then the mother of my kid; she is my life. Funny how things work out. There is always a bigger plan at work; things happen for a reason and all that. Is that romantic enough for you on 2/14?
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