Deep down, I was scared to death to move to Durango. I have lived in Oregon my whole life. Heck, I had never even been to Colorado! But the one thing that kept me going was my love for Tony. A love so true, I felt it could have the power to get us through anything.
When I first arrived, his family was very welcoming and appreciative. They were so happy that Tony had found someone he truly cherished. I was told a number of times that Tony was different, a GOOD different, since he found me. I remember feeling very honored that I was the girl that did that for him. Tony and I moved into his grandparent's old house because they had just bought a brand new house and we needed a place to live. It was a nice house but way too big for just 2 people. My brother, Travis, was actually flying in the next week because he needed a job and Tony's family offered him one if he wanted it. He decided to take a chance with me. So Tony and I basically lived upstairs and Travis lived downstairs. It was plenty of room for all of us. I started working at the Ramada (Tony's family owns a number of hotels, stores, property, etc) as a front desk clerk. After a short while, they transferred me over to the Travelodge because they were short there. I proceeded to work there for a while. Tony and I were having a great time. We were buying furniture and items for the household, I was meeting all of his friends and getting to know them more, I was planning my wedding, and I had a fun job that I liked where I met some pretty cool people. In October 2008, we adopted our first black and white kitty and we named her Ainslee. She was 2 years old when we got her.
Something else that was very exciting also happened in October: I finally got my own car!! And to top it off, it was the EXACT car that I had wanted for a while! It was nice to see a bright red Corolla S sitting in our driveway! I felt so proud.
In November, I got to go on my very first cruise. The Hermesman's had invited me to go during the summer and I was ecstatic to attend. It was a Caribbean cruise where we took off from Miami and visited Grand Turk, Half Moon Cay, and Nassau in the Bahamas. I got pretty seasick my first day but after that, I had a lot of fun! I'm so glad I got to do some traveling!
When we got back from our vacation, I was told that they needed someone to work over at one of the local hotels, the Alpine Inn. So Tony and I decided to move into the apartment attached to the hotel and run the business. I started working there on December 1st and I'm still currently employed here. Occasionally I have been called to cover at our sister hotel, the Abbey Inn. Well, with the stress of having to work 8o hours a week, each with different jobs and helping each other out sometimes, moving in to a new place, planning a wedding from a different state (we had planned to have it in Oregon), and everything else going on, we cracked. It just wasn't working anymore. We were too stressed. We had to go through so much more in the first few months of our relationship than a lot of couples do. It wasn't anything either of us did, WE just weren't meshing.
So we broke up.
Tony moved out and I continued to work and run the Alpine Inn. Don't get me wrong, it was incredibly hard to recover at first. Here I was, living in a different state, away from my family and close friends, working for my now ex-boyfriend's family. It was tough. Certainly. But I picked myself up and stayed strong. I started doing a lot of things for myself, like picking back up running, taking a yoga class, hanging out with friends I had made here, and working. I worked a lot - it was very exhausting. Sometimes it drove me insane being at the hotel all day and I craved those moments when I could go out with my friends.
Then Shaun came into my life. I met Shaun when I first worked at the Ramada. He was the one who trained me. We clicked immediately. It was nothing more than a friendship - I was totally in love with Tony - but we got along great. We had always kept in touch but one night after Tony and I had been broken up for a while, Shaun asked if I wanted to go see a movie. I picked "He's Just Not That Into You," a choice that I thought was quite appropriate for what I was feeling and going through at the time. We ended up talking more and more and seeing each other more and more. And one day it just happened - we were a couple. It felt right, like something fit. We had a lot of fun together and we had so many things in common. And he was spontaneous, which I loved. Whew - what an amazing guy. We spent a lot of time together and I fit in really well with his family. In May, Shaun and I decided to take a weekend trip to Phoenix to look at some job opportunities and to have some fun. Well, fun turned into tragedy when Shaun happened to pass away on the last day we were there. Absolutely devastating to me. I was stuck in Phoenix by myself - my boyfriend had just died, all I had was his car and all of our belongings. I didn't know the Phoenix area at all. So after having the shock and trauma of being there for everything, I had to drive 8 hours back and work the next day. It was rough. Really rough. I'm so thankful I had everyone at home praying for me and supporting me in any way they could. I'm extremely grateful for my dad coming out to Durango for Shaun's funeral. That meant a lot to me. After everything was done, I tried to get back to some sort of normal semblance. I worked too much to really have time for anything else. I tried to take time off on my birthday, but that plan went down the drain after my bosses turned the tables on me. I did not have the 21st birthday that I always wanted to remember. It hurt even more because Shaun was planning to take me to Vegas so I could see Criss Angel (whom I adore) and ride the rides to celebrate a big birthday. But I put it our of my mind and continued to work.
Then someone came back into my life unexpectedly: Tony. It's not that he wasn't there, but even though Durango is a small town, we hardly ever saw each other. But he was there for me. He helped me a lot after Shaun. All of a sudden, it started going in a familiar direction - and on October 1, 2009 he asked if I would be his girlfriend again. He wrote me this amazing letter describing his feelings and so I talked with him - for a VERY long time, before making a decision. After talking and seeing how he had changed and his thoughts on things, I could see that he was very sincere in what he was asking. So I said yes. Something inside me screamed that we were meant to be together. I always felt like Tony was my missing piece in my puzzle of life. I feel like what happened with Shaun was supposed to happen. His mom constantly tells me how happy she was that he had someone with him and that he was so happy when he died. She couldn't ask for anything more. And even though it did a number on me, I'm glad that he felt that way and that I could give him that.
Tony and I have been back together for 5 months now. We had an 8 month break and we still ended up together. Our relationship is VERY strong. Stronger than ever now. We have seen what happened in our past relationship and we are making it a point to do things differently now. In the time we were apart, we both grew in lots of ways. We both went and did our own thing and gained back our sense of independence. We both experienced and grieved the death of loved ones (his mom and and my boyfriend). And yet - we were always in the backs of each others minds.
He IS my Prince Charming.
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