Five Year Plan

I will admit, in a moment of unabashed girly-ness, that I have a five year plan for my relationship. Of course it's utterly personal. It isn't even something I've shared in any official way with my boyfriend, so I hope he isn't frightened to read this (Hi babe! Hey...wait. Come back! Why are you running?) I mean, we've certainly talked about, "the future," in a theoretical, we'll-cross-that-bridge-when-we-come-to-it kinda way but we've never sat down and decided together where we'll be in five years. So if I come back and edit this post, it's because one point or another has been reevaluated (after I go home and talk to him about this.) Anyway, here it is.

In Five Years, I Anticipate:

• Us owning our own home. We currently rent but as we get more and more invested in our living space and our relationship, it only makes sense that soon we'll think about buying. It's a good investment and it's something that we'll have to tackle together.
  
• Hearing the pitter patter of little feet. Those feet will be furry and padded, if I have anything to say about it. I've been feeling a little dog-crazy these days. Want.
• Opening a joint savings account. I'm not a big advocate for combining finances, in general, but I think it's a great idea to have one joint savings account. You can both toss $20 per pay period in there and, after a bit, take a nice vacation. Which leads us to my last point.
• Taking a major vacation. We go here and there on short trips, but have never gone all out. Last week we were watching a program featuring the Italian countryside and I expressed the desire to go someday. My boyfriend's response was, "Oh, we're going. Soon."

I hope so :)

SSSSecretsssss...

...N-n-n-nooooo dress code. To the 10% of people who get that: you're awesome. The rest of you face the WATER CANNONS.

Right off the bat I'm going to make an inflammatory statement. I truly believe that having (some) secrets is a good thing in a relationship. No, really, I do. No. Really. I'm not talking about keeping mean-spirited secrets, or ones that may threaten your longevity as a couple but rather little, inconsequential things you omit, just for the sake of keeping the peace.

Both of you obviously have a history before one another and hopefully, when you got together you shared the ups and downs, the successes and failures of past loves. Your SO's romantic history is a road map of what brought him to you and ignoring it is like saying, "I'm happy to be American, and all...but who cares about the Civil War?" That's just silly.

BUT - and this is a big but -

The Powder Room: Intro

"Where Girlfriends-in-Progress go to freshen up."

Who doesn't need a relationship refresher every once in a while? It's so easy to fall into the rut of a comfortable routine when you've been together for a long time, and we all know that, "comfortable," is the arch nemesis of, "passionate." So every Friday - just in time for the weekend - I'll share a product, bright idea, or time-tested trick; something to get you out of that rut (and those ratty old sweatpants.)

Today's Powder Room feature is...

Read That Back, Louise.

Did you ever wish that you had your own personal stenographer to follow you around and take notes? God, that would be such an awesome relationship tool. All of the passionate fights that stalled at, "I didn't say that!" "Oh, YES YOU DID!" would be solved beyond dispute. No Marriage Ref required, just a quick-fingered, non-biased marm-type who would be there should you find yourself in a sticky situation. "Hmmm, what were we just talking about? Read that back, Louise."

My boyfriend suggests this all the time, but more in the, I-am-going-to-start-carrying-around-a-tape-recorder-to-capture-all-your-CRAZY-TALK kinda way. It is a suggestion I support, seeing as, in my opinion he's usually the one talking crazy. As much as I like the idea of him being proven wrong, the flip side of the coin is a little frightening. Just how often am I wrong? Not just wrong but super-hyper-mega wrong. Probably more often that I'd care to admit.

"Destroy those records, Louise."