Needless to say, before November 2017, I was a total mess. I wouldn't even add the word "hot" to it. I was BAD. I had pretty much decided that I was going to pull myself out of the dating scene because, honestly, who would date a 32 year old that still lives with his parents? Even before that point, my relationship history had been all over the map. Literally. I may have lived on my own and had a fairly decent job, but I didn't know who I was or what the hell I wanted out of life. By Spring/Summer 2017, I had decided that I should probably just focus on me for a bit. Then I got this random message out of nowhere on a dating app that I rarely checked anymore... and wound up striking up a conversation with this pseudo-country (what I would've considered strike 1) Catholic (another red flag at the time) girl from Norman (the last girl from Norman that I dated wasn't exactly a winner either). I gave it a shot and we wound up surprisingly hitting it off and making a fairly decent connection.
I would say that our relationship was anything but normal, but neither of us were exactly the poster children of normal ourselves. We were both a little on the older side, we had both been through the relationship wringer and I think we were both just tired. We were tired of being someone's #2, when we should've been a #1. We were tired of being hurt, lied to and taken advantage of all the time. We were tired of the "dating" scene, the courtship process and that loooong journey it sometimes takes to convince someone that "hey, I want this person to be my GF/BF." We were both content with just being with each other. We didn't REQUIRE (not to say that they aren't nice) fancy dates. While we enjoyed nights out at a nice restaurant, we were just as content with picking up some burgers from Braum's and watching "Nailed It" on Netflix.
We had a few bumps in the road earlier on, most of them were brought on by me. A lot of it came from two people who were just used to being by themselves or being in bad relationships. Learning how to communicate. Learning how to compromise. Learning how to be comfortable enough to share the things that make people uncomfortable... that was a big one. We had plenty of uncomfortable conversations about our pasts. The most uncomfortable was when she came across the fact that I had been hiding my struggles with alcoholism. She had her suspicions, but she was nowhere near how bad it really was.
When the bottom dropped out and I decided I was going to go into treatment, I gave her the option of going our separate ways. She didn't sign up for this. She didn't deserve this... but she stayed anyway. She was easily one of my main pillars of support during those six months and the long months after I completed treatment. Life has gotten so infinitely better since I got sober, and I'm so incredibly blessed that she has stuck by my side through it all. I don't think I would've gotten sober without her.
A little over a year ago, we decided to move in together. We found that cute little house in Moore. The year has been FAR from easy. We've survived a pandemic together. We've survived storms together. We've survived some of the coldest weather in Oklahoma history together. We've also had plenty of incredibly moments. We love our nights watching wrestling or the Walking Dead together. We love having people over for dinner, games and hilarious conversations.
A couple of weeks ago (months ago? I don't know, time flies) I FINALLY popped the question, and (of course) she said yes lol. Now we have the fun (is it fun???) process of planning the wedding...
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