A Hot Date

Tonight I have a hot date! I plan on shaving, getting all dressed up and getting my hair cut. But this isn't an ordinary date... it's a Skype Date. All the pizzazz of a real date but without the holding hands and the kiss goodnight afterwards.
Mainly I've used Skype to talk with my guy friends while we're playing video games together. But recently, my girlfriend and I have been using it for conversations ourselves where I can actually see her beautiful face! Using our phones for texting and calling, we don't actually get to see each other a whole lot. That low percentage of the conversation that we get from our text and voice conversations isn't enough at all. We decided that if we were going to have a real conversation, we would have to see each other. We don't really do anything special (like sometimes in person). We just enjoy each others company, and I think that's what really matters

Like many computer engineering majors, I'm on the computer a heck of a lot. I use it for studying, homework, and socializing. Video chats aren't a new thing, but they are important to our relationship. We use these video chats as an additional way to show each other our smiles and show each other that we not only still love the other person, but we like them too.

Texting is a Double-edged Sword

My girlfriend and I text almost all the time. She's the first person I text in the morning and the last person I text before going to sleep. Both she and I keep each other entertained and updated on what exactly is going on in our respective lives. Having such separate lives after spending a whole semester of school and all of the summer together is NOT fun. At all.
In order to keep our lives intertwined at a similar level, we make every effort to keep each other "in the loop." We make every effort to make sure the other person feels included in our separate lives and doesn't become too lonely. If we get to a point where we are too lonely and miss each other a lot, then we go and visit each other, simple as that.

It's important to realize our phones aren't a replacement to the other person. A phone can't give me a hug when I'm sad and it definitely can't keep my girlfriend warm when she's cold. Phones are just a replacement for person to person communication that would happen if we lived closer together. But truthfully it doesn't compare to that communication at all.
Many people say a seemingly absurd statistic; 93% of what we actually mean when talking isn't the actual words at all! 7% is the actual words we speak. That means our texting is 7% turning into 100%... We are losing so much of the meaning of our words by texting!
If you've ever had them, you know that disagreements over text are the worst. And some of the time, they entirely spout out of nothing. We forget a comma somewhere, or we are joking around and things get out of hand when the opposite person thinks we are still being serious. It's so frustrating to see harmless words be turned into daggers without wanting them too.

In an effort to curb these misunderstandings, we have started to talk over the phone much more and our Skype conversations have increased greatly. Next post, I'll talk a little about our Skype experiences.

Long Distances

Let's start off with a little bit about me: I'm a freshman computer engineering major at A&M College Station, I enjoy running and sitting on the couch (I like both equally), I like cooking and eating (equally as well), and I'm in a long distance relationship.

My girlfriend of 10 months lives in my hometown and I miss her dearly. She's 3 months older than me, but is still in high school. She is a year behind because she went to Denmark as an exchange student for the 2010-2011 school year. We met in my senior year and subsequently fell in love in the following months. We made it official on December 13th and have been going strong ever since! At least that's what I tell most people.

It takes two and a half hours for her to drive up and see me, and two hours for me to go see her (I drive faster). While this may not seem like a long time, I promise it's not a small commitment. Visiting the other person in the relationship puts not only schoolwork on hold for a day, but probably a bit of sleep too. 

Along with sleep, it also is a bit stressing on our money situations. I'm a college student paying my own way. My expenses are already starting to stack up and I'm not even through with my first semester! I don't drive the most fuel efficient car, so a trip there and back costs me a pretty penny, along with wear and tear on the car.

So that's then beginning to our story and where we are right now. We're working to keep our relationship whole even though there's a physical boundary. People tell me all the time that long distance relationships are tough. Personally, I would agree. But our love for each other has never been stronger and our views of each other have never been fonder. In my next posts, I'll reveal more to our situation.

There's many good relationship blogs out there as well! Check out these that I found.
http://www.gottmanblog.com/
http://seriously-maybe.com/