So much work. budding relationship ^_^ !!! cleaning out the vestiges of old past relationship.

This must be short. I have so much to do. I was going to get a lot of it done Saturday morning and afternoon, but then something big and intense came up, and there went all that time.

Life is good. Having a healthy mutually supportive relationship is a huge cushion for stress. It's also crazy crazy busy though. It is one more big time commitment, and though I am extremely happy to make that commitment and give it that time, it's a new thing in my life and I've yet to figure out how to balance it properly. Like going to work in a new place and figuring out how long it takes to get there, or going to graduate school and figuring out how to balance my work load and get everything done. It's doable, I'll figure it out, but I'm still in process of doing that. I think ultimately it will make me more efficient, since most of the things that wasted my time happened because I was feeling not so hot, emotionally, and having someone to satisfy that deep need for human connection is way way better than watching anime. it satisfies the need much more fully, and for longer, and with less time, potentially.

There was some serious weirdness and discomfort with an ex-girlfriend, related to finding out I was dating someone seriously. It was profoundly uncomfortable for all involved, but I think, I hope, it's done with. Neither I nor (I think) the ex wants any more of that stress etc., so we're just going to leave each other alone. I know that's what I wanted, but I didn't know that's what they wanted, but at least now, it seems it is, so, good that's mutual, and it feels like a huge weight off my shoulders, and I hope it feels likewise for them. They are a fine person, obviously I thought so enough to date them, but for whatever complex reasons that I don't have time to speculate on, it was unhealthy and unhappy for both of us. It feels good to put that to bed once and for all.

I think I've since grown tremendously, I know it wasn't much, but even my strange fantasy long distance kinda-relationship was much healthier and overall very positive, and the current, very much reality, short-distance relationship feels much healthier and more grounded than anything previous.

So that is fantastic beyond my ability to describe quickly, but I'm sure I'll try in coming weeks. I expect things will settle down as the limerence phase switches over to the more settled second phase of intimate relationships, but I don't think they will become less nourishing. That's my prediction, anyways. In fact, as we get to know each other more deeply, I assume it will continue to get even more rich, as even the difficulties we've come across have ultimately only made the relationship more real, fleshed out, the intimacy and trust deeper.

OK, that's all, Next week I'll be back in Austin Texas for another observation. Different Airbnb this time.


Oh, P.S. one of my parents mentioned a typo in the last post, saying I couldn't recommend Gottman, whereas it should be obvious by my fanboy-ing that I can't recommend Gottman enough.