Adore Magazine

Hello my dragonfly. I wanted to take a moment before you started reading to say Happy Anniversary. I love you forever my sweet boy.

I don’t know where all the time has gone, it feels like just yesterday we spent a summer in our home town falling in love. I can’t explain how endlessly grateful I am for you, but I figured a homemade magazine was at least a good start. You recently asked me how much I remember about our relationship, so here is more or less everything. Enjoy.

Important to note before you start: We both know enjoy the edgier things in life, but I find it hard to translate that into my design work a lot of the time. So this magazine I am going to try my hardest to let my creativity take control. I want to give you something that is undeniably me.

It’s definitely no grocery store run in or our fingers accidentally touching as we browse the same books in a library, but this is where we have to start. Tinder. Naturally, is there anywhere else for 20 somethings to find one another? Well if there is, we surely didn’t know about it. I joined Tinder just about two months prior. I came back to Mount Pleasant for the summer, my junior year of college had just ended. You came back home for the summer as well, in between your sophomore and junior year. I hadn’t met anyone that caught my eye on Tinder, until June 8th 2022. You had one whole picture of yourself but I knew I recognized you, so off to Internet stalking I went. Turns out, we went to high school together for 4 entire years. I didn’t remember seeing you in person, but I figured out that you had been following my Instagram page since 2018.

Once I actually saw your face, and knew that we went to school together, I knew I had to swipe right. Now unfortunately, I do not have any real screenshots of our first interaction. It definitely was something to the affect of you calling me pretty and then telling me to make fun of you. Funny enough, after about a year of dating we actually figured out that we were in photography club together our sophomore year of high school. I never saw you in that club, but I know that if I had, I definitely would’ve had a crush on you even back then. But of course, I am getting ahead of myself. It is funny to think that the entire time you were right in front of me and we ended up meeting on Tinder of all places. After we matched we talked for a few days. One night in particular we stayed up until 4 a.m. talking about anything and everything. I remember feeling nervous but excited every time we talked.

I agreed to a date, my first Tinder date ever. We settled on Mexican food and tequila, I would later learn that its your favorite. I wasn’t 21 at the time so you agreed to slide me over some sips of your margarita, which was greatly appreciated. You picked me up at 6:30 even though it was supposed to be 6, because you didn’t realize I lived on the other side of town. I got in the car and your Mancala set was sitting in the passenger seat. I remember thinking I liked your black nail polish that I saw as you gripped the steering wheel. The restaurant we went to was called Ruru’s. I don’t remember what we ate or what we had to drink, but what I do remember is that it was extremely loud. I could barely hear anything you were saying. I was so nervous that all I could do was sort of talk at you, not like that part has changed very much.

By the time I finally relaxed, our meal was already over. You paid like a gentleman and we went on a walk so you could show me a nearby graveyard that was overrun with plants. I let you lead us, but we never made it to the graveyard. You got us impressively lost, but I didn’t complain. I was having too much fun getting to know you to worry about where we were going. We finally called it quits, and you drove me home. I remember thinking in the car that I didn’t want to leave you yet.

The second time we hung out was a few days later. I came over after dinner at around 9:30 p.m., my intention was not to stay very long because I had work the next morning. I couldn’t have been more wrong. I walked in through the back gate and went through your garage. I remember your very steep stairs leading up to a big Space Odyssey poster on the outside of the door. I walked in and realized you had more than a few posters. I could tell this room was well loved. A Flower Boy poster and multiple Star Wars ones were plastered across the walls.

The posters were nothing compared to what I saw when I glanced at the giant table in the middle of your room. The largest Lego collection I have ever seen to this day sat on top of it. I found it odd because Legos were not something you had mentioned to me before, but taking into consideration that we had only been talking for around a week at this point I thought that was normal. I thought it was charming though nonetheless and let you give me a tour of the Lego City. I loved getting to see the excitement on your face while you showed me the true extent of your collection.

After the tour was over I sat in a white chair across the room and you sat on your bed. We stayed like this for awhile talking from afar. You went on to tell me about your great love of blueberries for about 15 minutes straight. I got to see that excitement in your eyes again that I enjoyed so much. I know you’re embarrassed about this, but it is my favorite memory from that night. As the night wore on, I asked you if you would paint my nails for me and you very kindly obliged. When you started painting my nails, your little brother Adonis came into the room. This was my first time meeting any of your family. Adonis proceeded to ask me 101 different questions about myself. Where I went to school, how old I was, where I lived, etc. I found it pretty endearing that your little brother cared enough about the situation to be interested. I will say though, his line of questioning freaked me out. He told me that I was crazy for letting you paint my nails, and come to find out he was right because they turned out to be kind of a mess. But I didn’t regret it still, I liked watching you concentrate on my hands and seeing you so close up. Adonis eventually left and it was just the two of us again. I remember you came over to the white chair I was sitting in and leaned down to give me a kiss on the cheek. Except, this was our first kiss and I thought that you were leaning in for a real one.

Please note: Grocery store sushi is obviously not this fancy, but let’s pretend is was

The shitty student apartment I was living in at the time was having problems with the AC unit. It was mid-June and my apartment was at a whopping 90 degrees, which if you weren’t aware, is a safety violation. I tried to fix it from Charleston but the evil overlords at The Station told me it could only be fixed if I was there in person. You just so happened to have the weekend off from your part time job, so I suggested that we make the trip up together. This was only the third time we had hung out, but for some reason you decided to join me. Obviously you were apprehensive at first, I remember you asking me if my apartment was in the middle of the woods or something. No doubt assuming that I was a deranged serial killer and you were my next victim. To quell your suspicions we agreed to hang out another time between our first date and this weekend get away. I think I convinced you I was sane. When the weekend came I knew exactly where in Columbia I wanted to take you. I had recently visited the Saluda Riverwalk and couldn’t believe I had never seen something so beautiful in a town I had lived in for three years by then. So we set out on our two hour long road trip. Admittedly, I only played music

I thought would impress you. When we matched on Tinder I caved and made fun of you a little bit, and said you looked like you only listened to male manipulator music. So I put on my male-ist most manipulator-ist music I could find. Not that it mattered though, because you passed out halfway through. Once I thought I was in the clear, I turned on my normal music. You woke up and caught me and I let go of the rouse. We listened to music the entire way up. When we got to my place the maintenance men had already installed a window unit for me, so we had the entire day to ourselves afterwards. We decided to pick up Sushi and snacks from Publix and take them to the river. We settled on a rock next to the stream and ate while we listened to more music. It was still insanely hot, probably 95 degrees, but we pretended it was relaxing. You rested your head in my lap and I remember feeling like I had known you forever. You took a small nap again while I admired you and tried to ignore how much I was sweating. Once the heat got to be too much, we went back to my place and took a shower. We had dinner from our favorite place at the time, Taco Bell, and returned back to Charleston the following morning.

Saluda Riverwalk, Columbia,

youforever. I love you forever . Iloveyouforever .

Now its important to mention that we were absolutely not planning on being together exclusively after this summer. We agreed to have fun and when the time came for you to go back to NYU and me to the University of South Carolina we would go our separate ways. This was the plan for awhile, but the more time we spent together the more complicated that became. It hurt me to pretend that I did not want to be more than this. What I once thought was a great way to get close to you without getting my feelings hurt soon became exactly what was hurting me. I spent many nights wishing that things could be different, and that there could be a world where you and I ended up together. I would bait you to see if there was any possible way that we could be more. But your answer was more or less the same every time. We couldn’t do long distance. It wasn’t practical and we would only end up hurting each other more. We talked about how we would always be in each others hearts regardless of where we were in the world or what we were to each other. I remember you saying you would probably end up dating some terrible girl in New York while you were away. I told you that you couldn’t and the only good reason for you to end up with someone else even if it was temporary was if she treated you in a way that you deserved. I think there came a point where we couldn’t lie about what we were feeling anymore. One night I came home and brought you some of my leftovers from dinner while your parents were out of town. You went down to the kitchen to grab a fork and you looked at Adonis and said “Just sit and talk to my girlfriend while I go get a fork” You completely froze. Scared of what you just said and what it meant for us. I left that night feeling really confused and a little scared. This whole time we agreed not to put a label on what we were doing. But we both knew we were much closer to being a couple than either of us cared to admit. We talked and agreed that we could call each other anything weather that was a friend or a partner. That was on June 27th 2022.

July 3rd 2022 was the day you finally asked me to be your girlfriend. Technically anyway. I slept over on the night of July 2nd and we stayed up late talking. These are some of my favorite moments of our first summer together. The late hours of the night that blended into the early hours of the morning. We would talk about everything. There was nothing I couldn’t say to you. You were my safe place before I even realized that I was lacking one. It was probably around 3 or 4 a.m. and we were laying in your bed looking at the ceiling while we held each other. It wasn’t the most eloquent thing you’ve ever said, but its what I was waiting to hear from you. “Do you just want to be my girlfriend already?”. Of course I said yes and I asked if you were sure that you wanted to do this. You said yes and we agreed to see where things with us went. We went to sleep that night and I remember being so excited as I drifted off. The next day was the Fourth of July, you had work and I had plans that night to go to a party with Alaina and her boyfriend at the time. I remember standing outside of the party and Alaina’s boyfriend asked me how my “novio de verano” was doing. I until that point had been affectionately referring to you as my summer boyfriend. I paused and realized I could no longer call you that. I looked at him and replied “No es mi novio de verano, pero mi novio todos los dias ahora.”. I think that not taking our relationship too seriously in the beginning really allowed us to get to know one another with reckless abandon. I understand why we fell so hard for one another.

Romance is in the Air... or is it Pot

Not much changed from that day on honestly. We pretty much continued what we were already doing. We spent the rest of the summer together as an official couple. Doing what couples do no doubt.

I met your friends and you met mine, and we continued spending our summer falling deeper in love. I don’t have pictures of these memories, but they are important enough that I still wanted to include them.

I was over at your house, as per usual. You wanted to smoke but your parents were still awake so we couldn’t sit in the backyard like we normally did. Instead you took me to the back of your neighborhood down a little path that sat in between a pond to the right and the marsh to the left. There was a little bit of woods between the marsh and the trail so we walked into it and took a seat on some of the branches. The sun was setting, I remember it being orange and pink but who’s to say that isn’t my imagination. We sat on the tree stumps and talked while you smoked and I watched the sun set. I don’t remember exactly what we talked about, but I don’t think it matters. I was happy. I remember we returned to this spot again later in the summer. It was late at night, the sun was long gone. It was weird to see the neighborhood so still. We had been drinking that really shitty margarita mix that we got from the gas station. Our drink of the summer, if you will. You wanted to smoke so we giggled and walked to the trail again. This time though, we sat on

the bench. I still don’t remember what we were talking about but I do remember jokingly pleading with you to go back to the house because I had too much to drink and I had to pee very badly. You finished up pretty quickly and we sped walked back home so I could relieve myself. This is the memory of our summer together that I always come back to. It was pouring rain, and when I say pouring, I mean torrential downpour. Which is pretty common for Charleston. But that night we decided to go out on the balcony and watch the storm together. You were probably smoking, because that is usually what we used to patio for, but I didn’t mind. You smoked while I watched the rain hit the

palm trees. We sat out there for a long time watching the lighting dance in the sky. We knew the end of summer was coming, and we were both dreading it. It wasn’t uncommon for us to talk about what things would be like when we were apart. I remember you telling me how badly you didn’t want to go back. But of course, I told you it would only be two short years. You told me you were scared to do long distance, and of course I was too. But we comforted one another. I was sure we didn’t have anything to worry about. And it turns out I was right, but hey what’s new? ;)

Ok ok, so maybe it this isn’t the same one. But you get the vibes.

This one is pretty similar tho!

a. Lucy and the Tease by Allan Raymond was the first song that you ever sent me. I love listening to music so naturally one of the first things I asked you was what your all time favorite song is. You told me that this maybe wasn’t your all time favroite, but was your favorite for a very long time. It makes me think about who you were before we met, and how lucky I am to have finally met you.

b. On our first road trip to my apartment I played Photosynthesis by Saba. You said you hadn’t heard it in forever. You proceeded to add it to a playlist that you made for me. This playlist was origionally just named “ari”, but eventually you changed it to “I love you ari”. I still look at that playlist from time to time and remember how excited I was that you made me my very own playlist.

c. I heard Stop Calling The Police On Me by Dreamer Insomnia right after we met. I showed it to you as soon as I heard it and you liked it too. We played it many times over that summer, and now it reminds me of how it felt to fall in love.

d. You showed me Blood Orange and although I enjoy their music, You’re Not Enough has to be my favorite song of theirs. Which is sort of funny because it is not how I feel about you even remotely. It just makes me want to dance.

e. During long distance, I started listening to a lot of new music in my spare time. I found The Idea of Growing Old by The Features. It made me think of what our life together could be like together once we were both done with school, and that made the distance between us much easier.

f. SPIT IN MY FACE by ThxSoMch was stuck in both of our heads for literal months. I don’t know even remember who showed it to who or where it came from, all I know is we literally could not get enough of it. So so strange.

g. Definitely the only stone cold classic on the list. Killer Queen by Queen frequently gets stuck in my head for days on end. I really like all of Queen’s music, but recently you told me it was playing in a pizza shop and it made you think of me. I really like that you associate me with that song.

h. Somethin' Stupid Acoustic by Callum J Wright is the newest song in the mix. We don’t listen to it together but it makes me think about how stupidly in love I was with you when we first met. And how I still am two years later.

This is def our most chaotic birthday to date.

Thanks for always doing dumb shit with me.

We started long distance in September 2022. We were more in love than ever.

You came down for my birthday which I could not have been more excited about. We hadn’t seen each other in six weeks. I picked you up from the Columbia airport bright and early and imminently brought you back to my apartment. I was so excited to be reunited with you, it was the best birthday gift I could have asked for. We had many things planned for that weekend, but first we walked to brunch together at a French cafe that was attached to a small grocery store, where I had my first ever legal Bloody Mary. After brunch we walked back home and spent some much needed time together.

Shh, don’t tell anyone that wasn’t my first ever bloody mary

My friend Bri came over and we had a small photo shoot for her end of college portfolio. I love looking back on these pictures. I like them because you can really see how happy we make each other. The pictures of ourselves that we take just don’t reflect that as well as these photos do. After the sun set on our photo shoot, the guy Bri was seeing at the time came over. We all talked and drank and got to know one another in my apartment for a bit and eventually made the journey to the bar.

To this day I’m not sure why I was having such a hard time getting drunk that night, but it just wasn’t happening for me. I had a lot to drink and still nothing. Bri was having the same issue. So naturally, because it was my 21st, she and I decided to nibble on some of the edible you brought my from New York.

While it still wasn’t working for me, Bri had never taken an edible before. Next thing I know everyone around me is plastered and I am still extremely sober. Bri was feeling sick and headed to the bathroom, and Sebastian followed behind her to help.

“You want a shot, baby?”

It was just you and me. Which at that point I was grateful for. We took a shot together at the bar and left soon after Bri and Sebastian emerged from the restroom. We walked back to my apartment so we could all sleep it off.

I remember watching you all stumble your way back into my apartment, and I was jealous I wasn’t doing the same

I will admit I was mildly annoyed because I was not planning on letting them spend the night. Admittedly I was being selfish and wanted you all to myself during those 48 hours we were together. But of course I let them stay, and even made an entire box of spaghetti for everyone at Sebastian’s request.

By the time I was done fixing four bowls of pasta, I turned around and everyone had fallen asleep. Except you.

We drunkenly giggled and ate our pasta together. Not what I imagined my 21st, but it makes a damn good story.

Which admittedly is much less cute than your dragonfly. For dinner on your birthday we went to Burrito Bar and Kitche. We returned here many times over the years. One visit to this restaurant resulted in you throwing up in their bathroom mid-dinner. I know I know, another embarrassing story you hate. But I love thinking about us stumbling our way back to the subway and laughing with each other. My second trip I came up a few months later and we spent most days eating and relaxing in your dorm. We found a delicious little boa food truck at an outdoor market and visited too many good restaurants to recall. This is the trip that we took our photo booth strip together. I love those so much I made it the cover!

Let’s Speedrun almost every trip I’ve taken to NYC:

I have been to New York City to visit you three times at this point. I will be there on February 17th 2024 for your 23rd birthday, and again around May 15-17th 2024 for your graduation. Don’t worry, those will get their own separate pages later. There are too many memories to go over from these three trips, but here are some of my personal favorites. My first time visiting you was for your 22nd birthday. We went to the MoMa and we saw a young child trying to redraw the Starry Night on piece of paper while he glanced back and forth. We got your first tattoo a dragonfly. I also got my sixth, a skull.

My 3rd visit I came up for my 22nd birthday. We Went to the Museum of Sex where we got fake married from an Auto-Wed machine and played a lot of crude games where we won even cruder prizes. I got my first Sonny Angel this trip and we went to Ruby’s for breakfast. For my birthday dinner we went to Mono Mono, where I had the best cherry mojito of all time. My favorite part of this trip was definitely getting married. I still wear my vending machine wedding ring every single day, and you keep the receipt in your wallet.

After Strawberry Fest we went back home to my apartment in Columbia, I was due to move out in July so we spent the next month give or take living together at my place. Things were slow, but in a sort of peaceful and fun way.

forest Cafe, where Eliana proceeded to feed me peanuts and Nicky got so trashed he spent the entire meal throwing up in the bathroom. When the day of the rave came we sat in an hours worth of traffic to go 20 minutes down the road. Then of course it was raining and one of the set pieces fell down and they had

to evacuate everyone from the event grounds. We stood in the parking lot for an hour or two waiting to get the all clear to reenter. Once we finally did enter, Nicky forgot his ID. Which you need to get in. Duh. Anthony and Nicky left to go back for the ID, and they were hoping to get there and back all before the acid that Anthony took hit. The five of us remaining went into the rave and enjoyed the music in the meantime.

Alaina though, worried about her brother, spent the entire rave looking over her shoulder. I don’t know if you know this, but at raves, there is 9 times out of 10 no cell service. So we looked around and waved our BDSM kermit the frog totem pole high. An hour before the last set of the night ended, we were all finally reunited. We got to enjoy the end of the rave all together, which would have been great. Except I got too excited and hit the blunt too many times. I was so paranoid and stressed, all I wanted to do was go home. But luckily you were there, and you took care of me and got us home safely. On the bright side though, we did get to take you to the Lego store in Disney Springs hehe.

Now I know this isn’t in particularly chronological order, but you’ll have to bear with me here. After my trip to NYC for my 22nd birthday, I came home and almost immediately started a new job. Before I found this job I had been working at East Bay Deli for a few months. It was miserable, but I knew it would be. I spent 5 years at that job until I found my first real job post-college. I was interviewing for a different job, but one of the staff I met with was the marketing director at pretty much the only mall in town, Towne Centre. Yes that is how is spelled. Granted I was just an administrative assistant, but it was still better than East Bay Deli. I worked as the secretary in the management office for the Mount Pleasant Towne Centre shopping plaza. One of if not my favorite part about this new job was my new fur niece, Ethel. Ethel was my boss’s cat but he brought her to work everyday. I sewnt you as many pictures of Ethel as I could, we talked about how cute she was. My new job also came with a lot of marketing events, which meant working the occasional weekend here and there. It sucked to have to be apart over the weekends because that was typically when we got to spend the most time together while we were long distance. But every now and then when you would come home and help me with the events when you could. I remember you came home for Thanksgiving and were kind enough to help me with two of my events. For our annual tree lighting event, you and I went up onto the stage and picked winners for our raffle. There are pictures of this, but I will not be inserting them because they are extremely unflattering. I remember drinking chardonnay out of a skull thermos

Holidays & The Daily Grind:

with you while we attempted to control the mass of people signing up for the raffle. I also remember how seriously you were taking the drawing, it was very cute. You also helped me with our Black Friday Giveaway event, although I got a good amount of push back from you on that. We had Thanksgiving together that year, one at your house one at mine for the second year. Just like the year previous, when we went around the table to say what we were thankful for you glanced at me and said you were grateful for me. I am grateful for you everyday Jonah. You went back to New York for the week or two that was between your fall and winter break. This year I spent Christmas in Mount Pleasant for the first time in two years. My Lola was going through chemo and wasn’t strong enough to be around people yet, and my dad had recently had a seizure the previous month. His incident and recovery (or lack thereof) were hard on everyone in my family. I was going through a lot and I couldn’t tell if I would’ve been happier not spending Christmas with them or trying to make it work. But it ended up being easier on everyone if we didn’t celebrate together this year. You and your family welcomed me with open arms which made me extremely happy. I have spent holidays with other families before, but it never felt right. But you all made me feel so welcome and involved. We spent Christmas Eve together at your place and then I came over late on Christmas day. I got you diamond earrings, a stripped sweater, and of course the Lego TIE Bomber. You got me a beautiful custom locket with our picture in it, a Wreck This Journal, a Hallow Knight poster, and some make up. I wear the locket you got me every single day, and although I am the one that found it technically, you are the one who made it really special with your favorite photo of us and a personalized message from you.

I Miss You so Much

In true Jonah fashion, it says I adore you Ariana on the back of the locket. I have never had anyone use this word with me before. I know it is like second nature to you but when I hear the word “adore” and the phrase “I adore you”, you’re the only person that comes to mind. That’s why I named the magazine Adore. Unfortunately I don’t have many pictures from this time in our relationship or my life in general, so my apologizes that this page is pretty bare bones. I tried to still make it interesting though, I hope it was effective. After you went back to New York for the start of the spring semester I of my days in an office, learning how to be a part of the work force. Not that I was working very hard. But still. I would take my breaks in the car and sit on FaceTime with you while I tried not to fall asleep. When it was finally time to come home for the day we would sit on FaceTime some more and watch TV together. Which of course, is one of our favorite things to do together when we are doing long distance. I missed you though. More than anything. We knew that the spring semester ahead of us would be difficult, there weren’t many opportunities to see each other. The fall was easy because I came up for my birthday and you would come down for the holidays. But the spring semester has no holidays in it aside from spring break. We would see each other for your birthday, spring break, and then graduation. Which I know sounds like a lot, but we were used to seeing each other around every 3 weeks. Your school work was starting to ramp up and I could tell that you were getting really stressed. The only comfort I felt was knowing that this was our last semester. Only a few more weeks between us.

It’s Literally 20 Degrees Outside

1. You would have a birthday in the dead of winter, and then move to New York City of all places. It was that time of year again and I took off work to come up and celebrate your 23rd birthday. I remember the first thing we did together was go out and buy you The Ghost. You kept saying it was the most expensive Lego set anyone had gotten you. We came back home and spent the rest of the day doing I know not what. We ate at Momon’s Falafel and attempted to watch Lord of the Rings, but as one could expect, I fell asleep pretty quickly.

4. For dinner after the museum we went all the way to Brooklyn for a final visit at Burrito Bar & Kitchen. Unfortunately, they discontinued my favorite kiwi

2. The next day we went to the Natural Museum of History, even though it was a bit of a trek I convinced you to go with me. Funny enough, we ran into the same market we found the year prior on the way. We made sure to grab some boa from the market and then went across the street to eat at Shake Shack. Once we finished eating our meal surrounded by screaming children, we walked over to the museum and went straight for the butterfly vivarium.

3. We spent a long time in there looking at all of the beautiful butterflies, and once you got the footage you felt you needed for your film, we explored the rest of the museum. We did a lot of walking and I eventually got really crabby. You told me to save the map from the museum so I could remember our visit, and I did.

5. The following day we went to Soho and walked around a bit. You bought me a tiny strawberry jelly cat and a Keith Haring key chain from the Moma gift shop. We ate at Neat Burger! A delicious vegan restaurant that I crave to this day.

On our last night after dinner we went to Romeo’s a fancy cocktail bar that played movies at the bar. The cocktails were strong and weird, but you were there to keep me company. One of our drinks had a chocolate coin that I didn’t know was actually edible until you told me, I saved the wrapper to remember this strange little outing.

Spring Breakers (FamilyEdition)

There were only a few weeks between your birthday and Spring Break. Unfortunately, your house was under construction and had been for about two months by this point. Your parents were kind enough to rent a beach house for us to stay in while everyone was home. Only downside though of course, it was on Folly Beach. A 40 minute drive from Mount Pleasant. I came and picked you up from the airport and we took a pit-stop at my place. The next day we drove to West Ashley, where you parents were currently staying. We spent one night here, but turns out that was too long for me. The pet fur that was trapped in the Airbnb made me have an asthma attack that I wouldn’t fully recover from for a few days. We ran and got an emergency inhaler and continued about our day. By 4 o’clock it was time to go to Folly. This was probably one of the nicest homes I have ever been in to this day. Of course my favorite part was the saltwater pool in the front yard. I remember we spent all weekend swimming around and I watched you try and pick out every single leaf that blew into it from the massive tree that was to the left of it. Unfortunately the weekend couldn’t last forever and I spent the week traveling to and from Folly and Towne Centre. Which was admittedly kind of a pain, but I was always happy to come home to you. You helped me pack my breakfast in the morning before work, you even made me a bagel

and some fruit salad. I remember coming home from work early one day and your mom, Naomi, and all of their friends were already in the pool. I said I got off early and your mom looked at me and said “love that for you girl, there’s rose in the freezer”. So right into the pool I went. Another night I came back to the house and we were planning on going out on a date to a nearby restaurant. But surprise surprise of course, it was down pouring outside again. We attempted to go out anyways, and drove there in the rain. When we got there we had quite the struggle getting out of the car but we did it eventually. However, when we got to the restaurant we wanted to go to, there was a 45 minute wait to eat. I won’t lie I was annoyed. But we went back home and changed into pajamas and watched TV and had some pizza your family had left over. I know we wanted to go on a date, but I think I had more fun doing this. I know it didn’t seem like it in the moment, but looking back on it now I enjoyed it. It was time for you to go back to school soon. At the time I thought I would have to wait until May to see you again, but you caved and came home a few days early. Which I was thankful for.

Ladies and gentelmen: The Sunshine House

This was our bedroom in the house. I know it’s hard to tell but squint. Or you can just take my word for it.

This is the yummy bagel breakfast you made me! I know, also pretty hard to see. But I promise that’s what it is.

My Favorite Graduate

After all this time, we finally made it to your graduation. Not that I didn’t expect us to of course. On May 14th I flew up to New York for the last time during your college career. We all (minus Naomi) met at La Guardia at 8:30.p.m. and made our way into the city. Our first meal of the trip was at one of our favorites, Veselka. We had perogies and reubens and so much more. We all went our separate ways for the night and you pre- pared for your graduation ceremony the next day. You left early, some- where around 8a.m. I unfortunately could not join you and your parents for this one, but I watched the live stream from bed and texted you in support all morning. You came back home mid afternoon and we took some photos together in your cap and gown. Its funny though because I immediately changed into jeans for the rest of our day. We went to Momon’s Falafel one last time with your parents and then headed straight to the Lego store on 5th Avenue. Adonis and I nearly missed the subway and it was pouring rain, but we got there. You both got pick-a-brick boxes and afterwards Adonis came back to the dorm with us. We all hung out while I built a Lego set and you guys debated the most powerful Marvel villain. By 10 p.m. Naomi made their way into the city and met us for dinner at Shake Shack, of course. After our meal your siblings went back to the hotel and you and I walked back to your dorm. The following day we had a late morning, which I know we were all thankful for. We met at MONO MONO for a celebratory family lunch. The food was delicious, no surprise there. Afterwards you and I went into Toy Tokyo where I got a Statue of Liberty Sonny Angel! How fitting. We were told to meet your family at the Apple Store to get you a brand new phone. We sat on a giant rock in Central Park and rested while we waited. After more than a few hours of waiting, your family was finally done at the Public library. You got a brand new phone and we headed over to Broadway to see Hadestown. It was a fun time, but it was obscenely expensive, probably should’ve known. We grabbed pizza from some place in Times Square afterwards and went back home for the night. The next day was the most exciting for me, I actually was able to go to your TISCH salute at Radio City Music Hall. I am a little sad they never said your name, but it was a very cool ceremony. We went to a nearby steakhouse and had the most delicious lunch full of sparkling wine and filet mignon. We spent the rest of the day just you and I. You packed up your dorm a little bit in preparation for the next day, and we went to our favorite Indian place for one last date in the city. Afterwards we stopped by a small bakery and grabbed two mini fruit tarts. We watched TV and ate them together sitting at your desk before heading too sleep. Saturday morning was spent mostly packing. You cleaned everything up and we went a small coffee shop and printed out the tracking label for your textbooks. We headed for the airport after we dropped off your return. After we were done checking in we split a small appetizer plate and had some cocktails. Also crazy expensive. Who knew? On our flight back home we watched a terrible romcom with shitty Delta earbuds and feasted on four bags of cheese-itz and two cokes. I am so beyond proud of you .

Where are They Now?

So I guess that takes us to right now, huh? Well, currently it is June 3rd at 1:30p.m. I am in the Management office of Towne Centre, writing this at my desk. You are only a few buildings away, at the Men’s Belk. There is one hour left until you can come over to my office and we can spend our breaks together. I know these are both just temporary jobs, but I gotta say, I love that you are only 250 ft away from me rather than 1,113 miles. Yes those are real numbers.

You have been staying at my house for the past two weeks because your house is still under construction. We are definitely in a weird transition phase, but I am so happy that I get to see you everyday. I wonder where we will be in a year from now, or two even. I am sure we will have everything that we’re working towards now. And even if we don’t, we will have each other. I will always feel lucky just to stand in your presence.

I love you more than anything. You have my heart forever, Jonah. I am so thankful we have spent so much time together. I know it was hard, but every day was worth it to be your partner. I am beyond lucky to have you. Happy 2 year Anniversary.

tba by . Ihop e y ou en joy e d .

t’sallI’vego

Tha