Further explanation

As so often happens with my missives late at night, I'm not sure I tied my subject matter in to my title in yesterday's entry. Yes, the weekend did go better than I could have anticipated, but why?? Did I think we would have a good time together (MWrigley and I)? Obviously. Did I think we'd enjoy the outdoors together? Sure. Did snuggling by a roaring fire sound appealing? What, am I suddenly gay? Of course it did. So why was it better than expected?

Well, for starters, I'm kind of a low expectation guy. If you keep your expectations low, then you're less likely to be disappointed. My expectations were easily exceeded.

Second, the trip up there itself was really enjoyable. We didn't even turn on the radio for the 3+ hour trip. We just chatted away and commented on various things we saw and generally just enjoyed each other's company. It didn't hurt that we both had somewhat eventful things going on at work and in our personal lives that were comment worthy. I didn't expect the ride to be that much fun, but it really was!

The highlights of MY weekend were the little moments and when she did nice things for me. For instance, she had prepared all of the ingredients (or almost all of them) for three dinners from food she just had in her house. That's pretty amazing to me, being a fairly typical guy in the amount of food I have that can be turned into a meal that's not chili. Another example is when she would wake up in the morning and I had a roaring fire going in the living room and she would wander out in a daze with her pj's on and just curl up in a ball either on me or next to me. That's just nice!

The highlights of HER weekend were when I did little things for her like preparing breakfast when she got up and having the firing going. Leading the way on our hikes, nearly tragic as they were, was also something she found appealing. And preparing the cheese, sausage, crackers and wine for our pre-dinner snack.

It was all just so nice and Currier and Ives-like. Though we did have a disagreement or two (dejesus freak will be happy to learn that she finds my anti-chair-in-the-snow policy very unappealing as well), but we worked them out rather quickly and nothing lingered. That was refreshing. When we were at the bottom of an icy ravine with no sure way out and her claustrophobia setting in despite being outside, not so much as one derogatory word was uttered. Similarly, while looking at piece after piece of a puzzle over hours and days, nary a mean spirited word came from my mouth. Neither case was as much about self restraint as it was about caring for the other person I think.

So THAT's why the weekend exceeded my expectations.