Today Anastasia and I have been together for four years, which is one heck of an achievement, particularly given that it has been long distance from Florida to New Zealand more or less from day one. Today itself wasn’t especially full of romantic stuff as I had a long day at work, Anastasia had classes, etc.

This weekend we celebrated rather well, though. On Friday night, we went out for dinner to Tapas 12 West. This was lovely, the food was good and it was just a lovely experience for the both of us. I even got to try some cinnamon ice cream, which was pretty nice! A quiet evening in for the two of us after that. On Saturday we drove out to a lovely bed and breakfast a little out of Gainesville. Our hosts were great people, the whole place had a really great, relaxed atmosphere to it. The place is sitting literally on the lakeside with a stunning view out over the water. There’s a hot tub to relax in and the room we were staying in was really spacious and comfortable. The bed in particular was super-comfortable and I had some of the best sleep I’ve ever had on it… I woke up feeling like I’d had a good night’s sleep even with less sleep than I would usually attribute to that. It was weird waking up so early and feeling so refreshed after so little sleep, actually. I reckon I should try and get one of those beds….

Anyway, we’d had dinner that night at one of the local restaurants called Cowboys, which was nice enough but nothing stellar. Breakfast at this B&B is whenever you happen to feel like it (which adds to the whole “relax” factor), so you don’t have to be up between the hours of first light and second light in order to “enjoy” your food. The food in the morning (after a great night’s rest) was really tasty, and we had a lively discussion with our hosts over breakfast as well, which was really neat. We spent some more time chilling out in our room, sampled the hot tub again and just generally enjoyed relaxing together, talking about everything and nothing.

After enjoying ourselves thoroughly at the bed and breakfast, we came back into Gainesville and had a leisurely lunch at the Bento Cafe before walking down to see American Gangster at the movie theater a couple of buildings over. That movie is superb by the way, and I would thoroughly recommend it. After all of that it was home for the evening for me, Anastasia had a brief sorority meeting to go to, but other than that we just did some more relaxing with each other and enjoying the feeling of accomplishment at having come as far as we have. In some ways it seems like a much shorter period of time, like it has flown by… certainly I know being able to be with her here in Gainesville has made my life far more enjoyable and makes time fleeting. Other times, when we have been apart for so long, time has seemed to drag on… and while in some ways that is the traditional lovers’ lament of time dragging on without each other, for me it is certainly true. Sure I have other things going on in my life, but it’s never as complete, never as whole without Anastasia being there to share in it with me. I love her dearly and can not imagine my life without her in it.