#exporer

I clearly dropped off the face of the world for a bit....a lot has happened since March 2014. Haha like...A LOT. I’ll do a few posts about how I went from single as a pringle in NC to married and living back in Iowa. As for now, let’s keep this in chronological order.

I lived in North Carolina for about 2 years. I had a love hate relationship with it. I loved the beautiful mountains, the town I lived in, my friends! I hated missing things back home, losing touch with a ton of my friends back home, and had a general sense of loneliness from not finding many friends my age. Honestly, if I gave myself one piece of advice at that age, it would be to move somewhere nearby someone you already know. Even if it’s an hour or so away. I was too socially awkward at that age to network well with people my age. Haha

Don’t get me wrong, I loved the friends I did make! We went out every weekend, I got to see the mountains, shoot guns, go swimming in the lake all of the time, it was great. I met so many unique interesting people and did things outside of my comfort zone that helped me gain confidence and become more fearless! I now have new fears like, messing up when installing kitchen cabinet handles, and snoring when I fall asleep during a movie, because these are adulting fears.

The crowd I hung out with were all 15-40 years older than me. I hung out a lot at The Elks Lodge which I didn’t even know was a thing. And I eventually started dating a guy that was 15 years older than me. I know what you’re thinking, bad idea...I know it’s fine, that’s not where the story ends!

After ignoring advice from my North Carolina friends, my bosses at the time, and my family, I moved to Louisiana with him. Honestly, the weather was amazing and the food was phenomenal. I lived there over the winter so I never had to experience the humidity thank goodness. We lived a little south of New Orleans so we did end up going there quite a bit. It’s super dirty and dangerous. If I went back it would be with a group with lots of dudes or couples. I would for sure go back to Louisiana for the food and culture though.

I won’t go into details, but it wasn’t a great relationship. It caused a lot of strain between my family and I, and I felt even more isolated being in Louisiana. If we got into a fight he would storm out...I don’t know where or when he’d be back, or if that meant we had broken up. Each time we made up though. Except the last time….but this is actually pretty funny.

I was on my way home from work and I called him and said I didn’t feel like making dinner. I asked if he was going to or if I should pick something up. He said he’d make something. Welp. I got home and he didn’t feel like cooking anymore. So I made mac and cheese, I got myself a bowl and added buffalo sauce. He was pissed. He said he didn’t want buffalo mac and cheese, he couldn’t believe I ruined the whole pot ( I legit ONLY added it to my bowl) and stormed out. I called my mom, started packing and left within 3 days.  It was a rocky ending (obviously, I had to live with him for 3 more days hahah) and we didn’t officially “end” things until a few weeks after I moved back to Iowa. I was young and naive and didn’t see how terrible that relationship was at the time so it was hard to move on.

Will Feral (my cat) was an outdoor cat when we moved to Louisiana. He would come in every once in a while and want to leave after a few snuggles. Iowa doesn’t have as forgiving weather so I left him with my ex. I wish I would have taken him with me, I miss Willy so much, but he wouldn’t have loved being indoors so much in Iowa.

When I moved back I lived in a friend’s basement and eventually signed up for online dating after a few months. I really didn’t want another serious relationship, I just wanted to go on dates. I used Plenty of Fish back in like 2011(ish?) and have a handful of funny date stories from it now. I thought I would go on some more and get some more funny date stories.

My first date was hilarious and awkward, and it’s the story of how I met my husband Cam. So my first date was also my freaking last one. I’ll leave it at that for now because the story of how we met is hilarious and totally worthy of being its own post.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnpTcrtsN3U