Everyone says you don’t really get to know someone until after you live with them.  You can take that two ways.  One, the person you’re dating will reveal her true self after living with her for a while.  Two, she’s going to find out about my true self too!  That’s kind of scary!  Only I know my true self and I’m my worst critic, so how can I let her see that guy?  You are always on your best behavior during the dating stage.  The gentleman opens the door for the lady, you call if you’re going to be late, you’re always in a good mood, and the most important rule is, NO belching or farting!

Alana and I spent a few dates in that “polite” stage, then we spent some time telling each other our deepest, darkest secrets.  I think she was telling me what she thought would scare me away.  This just caused me to tell her things I thought would scare her away.  I found out rather quickly that she accepted me flaws and all, and I accepted her without judging her.  We had this mutual, unspoken, agreement that we were getting and giving a new start to each other.  It was like getting a do-over!  The funny thing is, this acceptance of each other created a bond very quickly.  We entered the “impolite” stage soon thereafter.  That’s when I found out that you keep a woman who won’t fart in front of you, yet who laughs at my farts!  Her laughter is what has saved her from the dreaded Dutch Oven.

As soon as I moved in, she did everything she could to make me feel at home.  She helped set up the Man Cave in the finished basement.  Then I found out that she sends me to The Cave so she can watch TV alone!  This really is a good thing.  I’d rather watch the shows I like and not be forced to watch The Bachelor in order to compromise with her!  Every so often, I’ll go upstairs just to say hi.  She is genuinely happy to see me every time.  Forced togetherness causes resentments.  Being able to be home with her while doing what I like to do without her makes me want to be with her more!  This reminds me of one of my favorite sayings – “how can I miss you if you won’t go away?”  Our “alone” time makes our together time all the better.

There are many things I’ve learned about her since moving in.  Whenever I do something that makes her laugh, she makes me do it again.  She’s like a little kid saying “do it again, do it again!”  So I do it again and she laughs harder than she did the first time.  There are things I have repeated for months now just because it makes her laugh!  Because she is so competitive about everything, I’ve also learned to let her win most of the time!  She has found out that I sometimes need to vent about something that frustrated me.  She listens and understands my venting has nothing to do with her – I just need someone to care that I’m frustrated.  She makes these faces and says “you’re scaring me, Baby.”  I know she’s joking and that helps defuse the situation.  She realizes that once the venting is done, I’m happy again.

Life with me can’t be a bed of roses, but it’s been pretty spectacular so far!  We have so much respect for each other that when disagreements or misunderstandings occur, we work them out very quickly.  She figured out the trick to staying happy with me is to not take me too seriously.  I figured out the trick to staying happy with her is to just let Alana be Alana.  We fell in love with each other after we allowed each other to just be ourselves.  Neither of us wants to change anything about the other.  I guess that means no matter what else we learn about each other over the rest of our lives, that’s going to be okay too!