I'm a mess physically: fatter, moodier, and hormonal. However, nothing but the extra fat is due to the trip! :D It's my TOM, which I knew it would be but it wasn't supposed to hit until we got back... since we stayed an extra day and a half it hit right as we were leaving WI. Eek! At the moment my state is: Annoyed that I had a stupid commitment tonight to go to instead of being able to call my favorite people in the world. I miss them all intensely, my Anne, my Francis, my seester-soul Cami. Grrr.
Ok ok, back to the trip follow-up:
In the relationship department I would say the trip was quite the success. SP was attentive, communicative, solicitous, reassuring, understanding, and much more skintimate (my mental word for touchy-feely) than before. Wisconsin managed to be almost romantic in a lot of strange ways. We weathered the 16-17 hour car rides that bookended the trip together very well. Even when I unwittingly sent us 40 minutes out of our way for gas (I messed up using the GPS) and almost made us run out of gas before we made it to the station at 3 am in the mountains of TN, we laughed it off. WOW. Not normal for when these types of things would happen during grad school. In fact tonight when we were out (we got home at 5:30 am this morning and had a prior commitment this evening that we then saw one another at after going to our separate beds this morning) he even laughed and said to me: "How is it we can handle an extended trip and almost 17 hours straight in the car together just fine and now it seems like you're annoyed by me?" I wasn't, I was just annoyed in general. Again though, a GOOD use of words on his part, instead of just not saying how I was making him feel. All in all, some good stuff. I'll do some detailed excerpts of different things at some point. Especially the funny awkward stuff, and with me around, there's definitely some goodies in there.
The sex was good and fairly plentiful. It reminded me why I could never be a sex blogger.... not because I can't and don't want to write about it.... that would be fun and I wish I could... BUT I get very involved when it's actually good - which is all about mentally hitting the OFF switch on my overactive brain - and I can't think to remember things for later. All I remember is the heat, the haze, the pleasure. Unless it's not as great, then I remember way too much. OH we actually did it for a short time post-wedding reception in the shower without a condom... and I didn't mentally freak until later of course. I KNEW that would freak me out after his over-insistence on condoms due to his terror over getting someone pregnant. I know this time it was just intoxication and lust though... not the mental idea I have now that with him sex without a condom means he wants kids. *insert an image of me running away screaming from that idea*
SP's immediate family was VERY interesting. I don't even know if I can get into it all here... hmmm. A quick synopsis: His parents are still together, they had him when his father was 19. He grew up poor almost into high school, then the farm started doing much better. His parents were never around due to work, and are both to this day extremely hard workers. They're strong willed, dynamic, hard working people. However, they communicate love through teasing and bickering, they also fight loudly enough that cops get called (they didn't in front of me though). His mother does a lot of little things for his father, but not so much the other way around. His dad just provides and calls it a day. His mother is often described as flaky, and her needs don't seem to be all that important to anyone. I didn't see her as flaky, but I know I didn't see her how she always is either. She complained a lot, about many many things, including SP, his father, her body, her face, the farm, her life, etc. She was positive about some things, and complimentary and quite nice to me. I couldn't decide if it was nerves making her this way... I just don't know about her. His father is VERY self centered... and SP has alluded before to being beaten as a child.... I can see that. I don't think he did it his entire life.... SP has no issues disagreeing with them and seems like he never did, which is very very nice, and they are used to just not fighting him on his life choices because it's futile. Neither of his parents are very affectionate, or emotional either. They tend to express anger and annoyance and a fierce sort of humor rather than anything else. His father treats his son and daughter entirely differently now, but I think he was callous to them both growing up. SP's sister is entirely neurotic and full of a myriad of fears associated with things that happened or were done to her in her childhood, some by her father (nothing sexual or textbook abusive but not very caring father who looks after his little girl). His sister is entirely sweet, a wonderful caring teacher who loves kids, is a Catholic with the requisite should's and guilty conscience, and is clearly a giver and caretaker. She is affectionate with her husband, and seems like she would like more of that in her family as well. All in all, very interesting gold mine of information about SP to be had there. And that was just the immediate family!!! His family is massive. The wedding had 250+ invitees and many of them were family.
In the things that bothered me department: I NEED time and space to myself. It was VERY hard to find. Impossible almost, I stole minutes here and there whenever I could. That is probably a major contribution to the 'Amalthea is annoyed at the entire world' attitude today. I found some random time once or twice in 13 days to fit in two short convos with my lodestones (aka my best friends). However, I never could find a good time to talk to my sister, and my mom called when I couldn't speak freely. Yech. I hated that. I also missed my darling kittles, though less than usual thanks to the 17 kittens and 17 cats on the farm! NO EXAGGERATION!! Every morning I would go to the barn to pet and play with some, and every afternoon, and I would feed them whenever SP did the farm chores. It's awesome to get mewed at and purred at and rubbed on and climbed by 17 adorable kittens in a rainbow of colors, shapes, and sizes. I'll post a photo at some point. All of them eating at once is too cute not to share!! The photo has arrived:
Overall: I like farms, but would never want to be a farmer. I love to visit the country, but wouldn't want to live there unless I was raising children. Even then, I wouldn't want to live in a place as rural as this was. Cows are still stupid, though they can be funny too. Kitties are still awesome, and I think farms are just about the coolest place for a dog to live. Driving farm equipment is fun, so is playing in a corn field, scaring geese, having your own stocked fish pond, and wearing an old bone cow pelvis as pretend armor. I wanted to take home both the pelvis and the most adorable calico kitten I have ever seen. I need time alone, and the anonymity of not knowing everyone in a 50 mile radius. I'm sort of glad and sort of sad my family is so ridiculously small. I really like the person that my boyfriend is 90% of the time (though of course I remain unsure how I feel about US), and the people he truly enjoys always amuse and interest me too.
I'll do some detailed excerpts of different things at some point. Especially the funny awkward stuff, and with me around, there's definitely some goodies in there.
