Bowing to the pressure and demands, I finally scrape together 5 consecutive minutes to update this thing.

So, how are things, you ask? Lemme tell you.

I'm in the new apartment and I love it. Mostly because it's mine, all mine. I can leave food in the fridge and cupboards and it's magically still there when I go back. Sweet. The bedroom and bathroom are a bit small but I like the kitchen and the living room is frigging huge! My stuff only fills about half of it so I'm not sure what to do with the other half. It has a fireplace and I'm looking forward to sprawling in front of the fire with Teri. Mr romance, that's me.

Work...jeez. What can I say? I'm a retailer at Christmas time so a certain amount of stress is to be expected. However, I seem to always wind up short-staffed at the most inopportune times. Take today for example. I was supposed to be off but had to go in for about 4 hours and fill in for a cashier who hurt herself. While I was there, another cashier called in and quit with no notice. The frustration level rises and all the "serenity now"s I can muster don't seem to help. I am starting a new girl on Monday and I bumped up the hours of my part-timers but I still need to find two more people for the season.

Lots of really cool things happening on the relationship front. Teri and I are still getting along perfectly. I swear, it's freaky how connected we are in every way. I am forever pleasantly surprised when situations arise and we handle them together complementing each other instead of conflicting. It's awesome. We just went through a quite stressful experience which I won't get into detail here as it involves other people but the great thing is how Teri and I worked so very well together to give each other what we each needed to get through it and our relationship not only survived, it thrived.

We still are not "out" to her daughters yet but they have met me 4 times now. The first time was for about 5 minutes on Hallowe'en when the girls were trick-or-treating in the mall. The next time they were in, they actually approached me a little and talked to me and didn't play shy at all. Again, it was only about 3 minutes or so for the entire exchange. The next time, there was a lot more interaction between us and they even ran back to the store to say "thanks" completely on their own when they had left the store and were walking back to the car. Since then, Teri has had them in the mall twice and both times, the girls wanted to stop in and say hi to me. The first time, they told their grandmother that I was "their friend" and they wanted to see me. I wasn't there that time but the next time I was and they invited me for lunch (it was Jaala's idea) with them. They also told their uncle that I was their friend and I was the tallest man in the whole wide world. :-) Leisha wants to come over to my apartment to visit and when Teri (in a bid to downplay our relationship) told her that "we should know him better before we go to his house", Leisha said, "I already know him all the way". I am so blessed. This transition looks like it's going to be effortless.

I've only been to see Mom & Dad once in the last two weeks so I owe them a visit. It's just hard to find a time that I am free when they are home or awake. :-)

I'm off to do my dishes and prepare the house for Teri to come over later.

Peace & Love
Faron