A Familiar Place... (Part 2) in Life as I know it...

I'm ready to write the next part of this story now, so I'll continue where I left off, after J had just left my house after our first night together.

So of course, after a night/morning like that, I was grinning from ear to ear all day long. I knew I wanted to be with her and best of all, I knew she wanted to be with me too. Now I just had to go about how to ask her. It's such an awkward thing to do, asking a woman to be you partner or your girlfriend or whatever. So I put some thought into it and made some arrangements. We spent a few more days together before I decided to execute my plans. We would go for walks in the park with my dogs, I met her parents and her younger siblings. Two adorable little twin girls who I absolutely fell in love with, L + K (L was my favorite :) She was way too intelligent for her age and after a while she would come snuggle up next to occasionally), and a little brother just a couple of years away from hitting puberty, who I'll name D. J really liked it that I spent time with D, because she really felt he needed a younger guy to be a sort of role model or something. I wasn't sure if I was the right fit for the job, but I enjoyed playing games with him and helping him out whenever he got stuck. We took him to the arcade a few times as well. She also had a beautiful Border Collie named Lady who I would scratch and massage while her leg went crazy. I think she started to fall in love with me after a while. Whenever I would arrive at her home, Lady would start jumping up and down and crying. When I would go sit down she would force her head on my lap and say hello. Anyway, back to my plans.

I decided to make a day of it. I wanted to do something special, so I did a bit of research regarding different ideas and I found a really good one. It was a sushi-making class at a small cafe that took place just after sunset. It was pretty much designed for couples, so I decided to book. You would bring your own drinks and stuff and have you own table. We were shown how to make 4 different types of sushi, after which we got the chance to make it and then we would go sit down at our tables to eat. We all had to wear these cheesy Japanese headbands with a silly little saying on them related to sushi or Japanese food. Mine said "Maki Saki", which was a play on the Afrikaans "Maak nie Saak nie" (often shortened to "Makie Sakie"), which meant "Doesn't Matter". Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself now, I have to start at the beginning of the day.

That morning, I bought a couple of things and made a few things that I put in a picnic basket so that we could go have a picnic at the park along with my little doggies, whom she loved. I got them each a little treat as well so that they didn't feel left out. I She came over to my place and we headed off to the park. It was a sunny day and we laid on the blanket, drinking and eating, after which we just chatted and kissed while she had her head on my lap. Poor little Dobby had his treat stolen by a big dog who just came running out of nowhere, scooped it up and ran away. He looked so upset! He looked at me as if to say "What the fuck was that!? That's mine!". Shame, the poor guy would never have made it out in the wild. I hadn't quite figured out when I was going to ask her if she wanted to be with me or how I was even going to approach it. I was quite nervous, even though I was quite confident that she would say yes. I decided not to wait another minute and just ask her so that I can be more comfortable for the rest of the day. I put my hand on her hair, pulled her in for a kiss, looked her in the eyes and asked "J, would you be my lady?" (How cheesy is that?!). She started to smile, giggled and said yes. Woooohooooo!!!! I was SO happy! We kissed and pretty much just smiled and giggled as we looked at each other as if to say "How the hell did this happen?" and pretty much "Where the hell have you been??". We were a perfect match, in every way.

After our picnic at the park, we walked hand in hand back to my car, went back to my home and watched a movie or some series before getting ready to head off to the little cafe. When we arrived, we were shown to our candle-lit table and told that we would begin shortly. The night went perfectly and everybody interacted with one another, laughing at each others' mistakes and comparing what they made to what you made. It was so much fun. It was the best date I have ever had, still to this day. Afterwards, we headed back to my home as she was going to stay the night. That night we made love for the first time and stayed up late. She had her head and her hand on my chest while I had my arms around her. Just holding one another and appreciating the moment and how happy we were. We both knew that this was something special. We started talking about the feelings we had when we met one another and when we first saw one another. I was so happy to find out that she had the same, strong "love at first sight" feeling. That night, while I had her in my arms, I knew that this was THE girl. This was the person I wanted to be with. Anybody else, would be a step down from her. It wasn't that she was extremely hot or anything. She was very pretty. To me she was (and I actually might have to admit, still sort of is) the most beautiful girl I have ever seen.

The months went by and our love just grew. We told each other how much we loved one another and shared all our feelings. The relationship was perfect, but we still had our own issues. We were fresh out of a psychiatric clinic for God's sake. She was a great source of support for me and vice versa, without being dependent on one another. She had to go back to her studies in a month or two's time and she was incredibly nervous and would often phone me up in quite a state, telling me how anxious she was to go back and that she wanted to drop out, but I told her to stay strong, that she would regret it and that I would be there for her every step of the way, that she could phone me anytime no matter when or where and I will be there. Eventually she went back to uni and she slowly settled back in and was able to cope.

Things were a bit different on my side. I had decided prior to entering the clinic that I definitely did NOT want to be a personal trainer anymore, but I still had no idea what I wanted to do. From a very young age, I wanted to be a chef. I sort of forgot about that along the way. I used to make all kinds of concoctions and try to make dishes and desserts when I was a little boy. I even bought myself a blender for my 7th birthday... Yes, you read that correctly. It was one of those hand-cranked dealies they sold on tv. It was called the "Twister" or something like that. I had so much fun with that thing. These thoughts started to come back in my mind. I had always watched cooking shows and documentaries and was very interested in them. What made me hesitant to pursue this dream, was what I saw on tv and the general perception and rumors about working in the culinary/restaurant field. The verbal abuse, the shouting, the swearing, the pressure, the stress. Pretty much everything that I was incredibly sensitive to. My thoughts went racing back to the high school initiation (see previous entries) and how that whole process destroyed me and I was so torn as to what I should do. My anxiety was really high and I was starting to feel a bit depressed about the state of my life. I had to find what it was that I wanted to do, but how?

J was really good to me, she was always kind, caring and supportive during this process. I had helped her out when she was freaking out about going back to uni and she saw it as now it was her turn to help me out, and she did. She was always there for me, whether I was frustrated, confused or upset. I started looking around for culinary schools and seeing what qualifications they offered and was really trying to work up the courage to do this and J was a big help.

Okay I think that's it for now. Emotions creeping up again. Looks like this will have to be a 3 Part-er :/

Have a lovely day Adriaan