Ok, that was pretty hard

We spent a quiet day together yesterday. Filled mostly with comments of "I don't want to go" and "I don't want you to go". Inamongst that running dialogue, we did manage to get a few things done.

We spent the morning lounging and having breakfast, as the evil clock decided to go at double-speed. Then we headed uptown for a special treat for John. He got his head shaved with a straight razor - something that he can't get at home. He was quite pleased with it and I think will be looking forward to getting another when he comes back at Christmas. We then headed to the Market and Brunswick Square, and picked up a couple of things for him to take back home. A quick stop at my office to take my phone off call forward and then we were off to church. Unfortunately the furnace is still in the middle of installation, so it was still a tad cold, but should be complete this week. Coming out of church my former pastor stopped me to chat, as he was in town for a funeral. It was nice to see him again.

On our way home from church we stopped and got some Chinese food for supper. We sat and ate that while watching an episode of Coupling. Go leftovers :)

After supper we made the wise decision of packing him up before getting too comfortable during the rest of the evening. Knowing how my couches like to swallow people, and that we had planned on watching a movie, this was indeed a wise choice. So we reluctantly packed everything up in his suitcases to be ready for the early morning flight.

Earlier in the day, he had gotten water in his ear and it had been affecting him ever since. We tried to get it to drain, also used olive oil, but to no avail. He couldn't hear out of his right ear. Either the plane flight home was going to make it better or worse. I hope he made out ok.

We watched Sideways last night, as he had never seen it before. I think he liked it, maybe not loved it, but liked it. I kept asking if anything looked familiar and where things were in relation to Irvine. A little like the geography aspect of watching Sideways :)

Last night we also sat down to book his flights at Christmas. It's a lot easier trying to work things out with different options while we were both looking at the same screen. He wanted to fly back through the airport closest to him, but again the times and options out of LAX were cheaper and better, so it looks like that is the route he will be taking. Another red-eye here, and a great flight home that has him leaving here late morning and arriving there around 4:30pm.

We got a bit of sleep last night but not a great amount. I was either upset, or unconscious and having some crazy dream about everyone in Toronto who was on a highway just dropped dead in their cars. Very weird.

Goodbyes are painful, and this was no exception. Although being fully capable of living on my own, and - more recently than before - enjoying it a lot of the time, I had very quickly gotten used to having someone else around. A friend of mine said to me that our time together is condensed. That is very true. It seems in some ways like he was here for a lot longer than a week, and in other ways he was barely here any time at all. Technically speaking, this week was our second date, but certainly not in the typical sense. We had to cram a lot more into one week than the typical relationship. You don't often take someone to meet your family on your second date. Everything went so well this week. Again there was that sense of things being easy. We have an understanding with each other that I can't explain, but I've come to value it greatly.

His flight was at 6:40am this morning, so we headed off to the airport around 5:30am. Checked him in, listened to the agent describe what he had to do in Montreal so if he didn't hear with his ear, I could repeat it. We sat down and just stared each other down for the next 10 minutes until he finally had to go to the gate. We said goodbye. I walked out of the airport crying. I got in the car and tried to keep it together, because it was dark out and I needed to drive home safely. I wasn't doing such a good job at that until a thought popped into my head, that I won't share here, but I felt instantly more calm, drove home safely and went back to bed until around 10am.

He's flying over the middle of the US right now, hopefully not in too much pain because of his ear. He lands around 3:30 and then has to get luggage and be driven home. Hope to hear from him between 5-6.

Then the fun begins. Where I become Benguiat Frisky and he Calisto. Where we calculate 4h time zone differences again. Where we're apart. It sucks, but it's better than not having him in my life at all. So I take what I can get, post his Christmas itinerary on the fridge, and look forward to seeing him again.