East Texas

So I did end up going to visit Kymberli. Turns out it was only a five hour drive each way, and it was totally worth it. It wasn't even a bad drive. Once I got outside of Waco it was all new territory for me so it was actually kind of interesting. Plus it was country roads pretty much the whole way so it was nice and scenic. And there's a little town between here and Longview called Tool, so twice I got to see police cruisers labeled "Tool Police" and just seeing that made driving worthwhile. (It originally made me smile because I thought about the band, but then I started imagining a little hammer and a screwdriver in police hats cruising around in the cop cars and that made it even funnier)
Cohen got to meet Kymberli's family dog, Mox. Mox is a fluffy white Maltese, and have I mentioned here before that one of Cohen's favorite things in the world is white fluffy dogs? Well, it is. So Cohen and Mox had a great time running around the house and the yard and trying to sneak into the long grass and between the barbed wire fence and down into the open fields when we weren't paying attention. (Oh, and about those open fields, did I mention that Kymberli comes from a tiny little town so we were out in the country? Well, we were, and it's really pretty and forest-y.) Kymbo's mom took a bunch of pictures so hopefully she'll send them to me eventually once she gets Kymberli all settled up in NYC and then I'll be able to post pictures of how cute the dogs were together. Cohen also met his first tiny toddler. Tessa, the daughter of one of Kymberli's family friends, is only 11 months old and has only been walking for three weeks and at first I was afraid to let Cohen near her for fear he'd get excited and leap on her and knock her to the ground, but he ended up being so gentle with her! It's like he just knew he had to be careful and he spent a good half hour following her patiently around the patio as she toddled around, slobbering lovingly all over her face every time she fell down and then standing perfectly still and letting her grab onto his back to hoist herself back up to standing. My basset is so awesome. I really hope he's still around when I hopefully have a kid of my own one of these days...
So, enough about the dog. Kymberli is awesome. It was so good to see her. She's incredibly excited about moving to New York and for a while her enthusiasm was contagious. I found myself thinking, "I want to move! I want to decorate a new place! I want a convenient chance to reorganize everything and streamline my life! And I want to discover a new city!" And then I reminded myself that packing is a huge hassle and I hate not knowing where the post office and the bank and the cheapest grocery store are and I hate that transitional period where you're sleeping on the floor and there's no internet access and you can't find the box with the towels and...yeah, it may be exciting, but I hate pretty much everything about it. That, and I'm pretty positive I'll be moving within ten months anyway so it'll be my turn for the frantic excited packing soon enough.
Anyway, Kymberli and I mostly just hung out around her house, although we did go into Longview (the nearest decent-sized town) on Tuesday. We had lunch and then went to Target where I got a skirt, a black long-sleeved sheer dress shirt that will be perfect for working in the box office on show nights, a cute halter top, and a new bathing suit, all for just $32 total! When did Target start carrying such cute clothes?! And when did those clothes start costing only $3.74 on the clearance rack?! At that price it doesn't even matter if they only last through once cycle in the washing machine. And if they actually last longer than that, wow, what a deal! (Incidentally, I don't want to know what terrible, bizarre sweat shop practices are allowing me to get such a deal, so please don't even tell me)
On Tuesday night there was a little going away party for Kymberli. It was her family, some of her parents' friends, some friends of hers from high school, and some of her extended family members, including her cousin Jacob who is one of those guys that's so East Texas he can make a word like "realization" have only one syllable. I think my favorite thing he said all night was, "Girlfriend whomalikeaheckoudda". (He likes the heck out of his girlfriend, in case you're having trouble parsing that. I sure did.)
I think my favorite moment of the trip was on Monday night as Kymberli and I were getting ready for bed. We were standing in the bathroom together and I was telling her about the weird, sorta sappy and serious text messages I've been getting from my ex-that's-not-Mike lately, when she interrupted me laughing and said, "Look at us!" and I realized that we were both simultaneously flossing our teeth with those little disposable floss picks as we talked. Who in the world even uses those things other than Kymberli and (very recently) me? And the fact that we were doing it at the exact same time was just too much. I'm pretty sure stuff like that is the reason Kymberli is like, totally my BFF.
Oh, and guess what! I was hanging out in the pool at Kymberli's going away party with her and her friends Luke and Owen and we were all laughing and having a good time and Kymberli said, "I'm so glad you guys are already friends, because now when you see each other in the future at my hypothetical wedding you'll already be friends!" So I laughed about that because I like that that's the reason she's glad we get along, and then Luke said, "I'm sure I'll be the first in this group to get married." I asked him why and said, "Do you even have a serious girlfriend right now?" and he said, "No, not at all, but I'm ready." And then Owen said that he was thinking a lot lately about settling down, too, and how just the other day he and Luke were camping out with their dogs wishing they had girlfriends to just hang out with and spend time with. You know, girls for sex AND companionship. What a novel idea! Then we started talking about how they don't want to get married until they're making a little more money (they both just graduated a year ago and are just starting out in the, uh "real world", too) but other than the money factor they'd want to get married right now if they found the right girl.
And you know, that was really refreshing. Nice, attractive, funny guys who are both starting out in promising careers and are handsome and charming enough that they could easily be total players, and yet they're actually looking forward to settling down and starting families one of these days. And just like me, they're not in any big rush for it to happen immediately, but they do want it to happen sometime in the next, oh, decade.
So hey! Marrying guys are out there! Maybe I won't need to resign myself to a life of celibacy and nothing but a stinky hound dog in my bed after all!