Our First Flight!

Our amazing New Years Eve celebration was the first time I ever flew with Dan, but the first commercial flight we ever took together was this recent trip to Boston. Its pretty crazy we've been dating for over 6 years and haven't flown together yet, but since all of our flights have been to visit each other or meet someplace there just hasn't been the opportunity. I like to think of our trip to Boston as our first vacation together, although that's not totally accurate. We met in Minneapolis over labor day in 2011, but I think of it as more a meeting point/middle ground than a vacation per say. We also spent a weekend in DC when Dan came to visit me once, but that seemed different too.

Dan's best friend from high school aka the reason we're dating (thanks Logan!) moved to Boston after graduating college and they haven't seen in each other in probably 3 or 4 years now. Its been awhile. I've been trying to think of a way for them to see each other for awhile, and unbelievably no one wants to go on spring break to Boston so it was a really cheap trip! Only cost about $600 for 2 flights and a hotel room for 3 nights!

This was also the first new state we've ever visited together, and there probably aren't too many more of them-besides the rest of the northeast. Dan's family tended to take outdoorsy vacations to places out west mainly whereas my family is definitely full of city/historical/internet-accessible dwellers so we stuck to the east coast where my dad's family is from or anything within driving distance of Chicago (read: Galena, Wisconsin Dells, or Door County almost every summer). In short story, we didn't overlap very much. After visiting Boston though, I can't believe it took me 24 years to get there-I fell in love. If only it were about 1000 miles southwest I would move there in a heartbeat.

Boston had everything I could dream of in someplace I'd want to live. It was walkable, had a train that went seemingly everywhere, lots of historical sights, a bustling downtown, and cute surrounding neighborhoods. Nothing I didn't like-except for maybe all the hills. Can't imagine I'd do a lot of running there after growing up in the midwest!

After an hour flight delay (which I was pretty annoyed with but by the time we were coming home seemed like no big deal) we met up Logan's sister-Steph-at the airport and then Logan came to get us. Saturday was spent pretty much aimlessly wandering the city before meeting Logan's friends for dinner. And his friends were so much fun! Yet another reason why I wish Boston were closer to Chicago-great people! 

On Sunday after church Logan took us over to meet the religious brothers he lives with which was a whole different side to this Chreaster kid I knew in high school, but we only shared a few embarrassing stories. We drove up the coast to Rockport, a small town that was definitely geared towards summer tourists but still had lots of cute shops for us to wander around and delicious New England clam chowder. We headed back to the city to tour Harvard Yard courtesy of my trip advisor travel guide app and then met up with another high school friend, Ellen, for dinner. Mini OPRF reunion! Too bad Ellen lives only 2.5 hours away from me in Madison but we had to go all the way to Boston (she happened to be there visiting her sister) in order to see each other for the first time in 9 months!

Monday was our big super tourist day since Logan went back to work. Freedom Trail aka hours of walking!! Maybe not the ideal thing to do when its 30 degrees and windy but whatever, we've from Chicago so we're pretty tough! Only major downside was that some of the attractions (Paul Revere's house, the USS Constitution) were closed on Mondays during the off season. We also stopped for lunch in the North End at this awesome little hole-in-the-wall pizza place recommended by my trip adviser app. It was delicious and cheap-what could be better? Logan met us over at the Prudential center after work and drove past Fenway which Dan majorly failed to take any pictures of. Pizza  (yes, more pizza) and beer/wine in the hotel room was the perfect ending to our second (and last) full day in the city.

Tuesday brought more adventures. There was a huge snow storm expected in Chicago, so I was on my phone almost the entire day refreshing our flight, making Dan look at airport weather, trying to figure out what to do. We went to the aquarium in the morning by Steph's request. I wasn't feeling to well and was stressed out about this flight thing so I'm sure I didn't exhibit the expected amount of enthusiasm (I also don't really like animals....) but I found some great gifts at the giftshop! I replaced a shark toy that Danny lost awhile ago. I called him to see what he wanted and shockingly enough he answered! I also bought this amazing Harry Otter shirt for Kelly which was pretty much the best thing ever since it combined her 2 favorite things. And I got a new key chain for myself. Its a penguin, which is kind of mine and Dan's animal mascot you could say after we saw them courting a few years ago at the Shedd aquarium and later discovered that they're one of the only animals who mates for life.

Around noon I started getting even more concerned about this flight situation. It still hadn't been cancelled which I couldn't believe so I tried calling American Airlines but my wait time was 30 minutes which just wasn't going to cut it. We decided to just head to the airport with Steph who had like a 5pm flight to our 8pm. I figured once we got to the airport we could probably hop on an earlier flight. When I asked the ticket person if we could change the flight he said it would cost $80 each because apparently they hadn't given the go-ahead to change flights due to weather yet. It was online so that was BS but whatever. Once we went through security I called AA and got through right away and was able to change to the 530pm flight home. We were only delayed about 15 minutes which astonished me given how many flights to O'Hare were cancelled. Boarded the plane, closed the door, and then an announcement saying O'Hare closed all but 1 runway and we're delayed for take-off until 9 or something. Everyone gets off the plane, they keep us updated with announcements every hour or so. We're able to board a little after 8, takeoff around 845 and land around 1030. Dan's mom was supposed to pick us up from the airport but I just told him that we'd take a cab and to let her know since our landing time was unpredictable at best. I'm sure that was the right move although spending the extra money after that horrible day didn't make things any better. I was beyond grateful to be sleeping in my own bed that night though, that's for sure.

So, our first real vacation together was overall a great experience. It was good to know that we could spend 4 days together without being apart longer than the time it took to shower. Dan also managed to keep me somewhat calmish all day Tuesday when I was caught between the stress of the flight situation and PMS. I'm sure that was one of his favorite days (sort of...) I also think I prefer the strategy of meeting Dan in our destination because he ALWAYS has bad luck with flights and I've only had a few instances despite flying (commercially) a lot more than he has. Pictures are on facebook!

Life is a game, play it.

Life has been one of my favorite games for a long time, and I'm just now remembering, its the game Dan and I played on our first date back on November 25th, 2006 (His one concession to forcing me to eat dinner with his family and watch USC crush Notre Dame that night).

The one thing I dislike about Life though, is that it frequently causes me to relive one of my fears-having children. Its not the idea of having kids of my own that scares me, I desperately want to have a family-a big one if possible. Its the reality of the actually having children that is more terrifying. I'm not talking about the being pregnant/giving birth thing (although after reading too many of my cousin's "things no one tells you about giving birth" pins on pinterest that whole ordeal is a lot scarier), its the actually being able to get pregnant and the aftermath that is more scary. It took my parents a long time to get pregnant with me, they were actually beginning to process of adoption when my mom found out she was pregnant-after about 3 years of trying. It was clearly easier with my brothers seeing as we're all the desired 2 years apart.  So the ability to get pregnant part is terrifying, but then I also start to think about the genes that I likely carry. Autism is undoubtedly genetically linked, but we don't know exactly how. One theory is that its through the father, but my dad and his sister both have autistic children so that's not necessarily true in our family. I definitely believe in the idea of a sliding scale of Autism, so its a matter of how severe whatever Autistic traits are in the genes I carry versus what Dan has (no history of Autism in his family so that's positive). Even scarier than Autism though is the history of mental illness that runs in both of our families. Honestly I think my parents will tell you its been harder to raise my non-Autistic brother over the last 15 years than it has my Autistic brother. There is a lot more uncertainty and lack of control I think with mental illness than with Autism, and uncertainty is number 2 on my things I'm afraid of list (number 1 being failure).

So back to our game. The first picture below is how I ended up retiring. I started off in college, became a salesperson earning 100K every payday, got married, was (un?)lucky enough to draw the mobile home card which was cheap, but I could have actually afforded something a little nicer this time. Just like in almost every game of life I play, I managed to skip over every single baby space save the first "baby girl" space. After my midlife crisis of becoming a teacher and taking an $80,000 pay cut (at least the mobile home made more sense), I retired at Millionaire Acres with $2.98 million after cashing in my life chips. Dan's life however, was pretty different. He graduated college and decided to become an accountant (ironic given my family's careers and the fact that I'm in charge of the bills here) who earns $60k, good starting salary-right Melissa?! Too bad promotions don't exist. He also got married and drew the very acceptable Log Cabin house card. And then the kids came....and kept coming....twin girls (his gender choice) followed by a girl and another girl and finally a boy (they just had to keep trying to get a boy!) He also retired at Millionaire Acres to try to give me a run for my money (haha), but only ended up with $1.905 million.

I won the game by a landslide...but did I really? If you ask me, I'd much rather have Dan's life.