The Conclusion of who I came to be

Once Glenn and I got back to the apartment, we settled in and honestly, I think it took a few days for anything to actually sink in. We had a good time, but he was my room mate, how could this be happening? For about two weeks after the party, he would try relentlessly to get me to sleep in his room with him, but relentlessly I would always return to my own room once he was asleep. I was not comfortable with the idea of sharing a room with him at that time. With Christmas being a few days away, I was concerned about what I was going to tell my mom and the rest of my family. So rather than giving everyone heart aches, we chose to do separate things on Christmas. He went with his family and I went with mine. That day seemed endless and for whatever reason all I wanted to do was spend time with him, but at that point in time I didn’t know what was happening or going to happen, so I didn’t mention anything to anyone about him.
On Christmas Eve we met up at the apartment and hung out for a while. I had already made plans to go to midnight mass with April. Yes, that’s right April and I were friends again as well. We actually started talking again when we ran into each other at a gay club in Asbury. Not because either of us were gay, but we had gay friends in common. Of course, I was there with Mike and once again we put all of our troubles behind us. Glenn and I talked about our day and then tried once again to establish what was going on with us. I then finally figured out that I wanted to have a relationship with him. I told him I was willing to give it a shot, despite past mishaps. Glenn knew me too well, I think that was what the problem was. If I wanted to run from him, he knew why because we had been friends for so long, so there really wasn’t anything he didn’t already know about me. He knew who I dated, he knew all of the problems I had with my stepfather, he knew it all, so I could no longer build a wall around me because he happened to be standing on the same side. Most people would think it was easier to already know someone that they are dating, but to be honest it was hard because we almost knew too much about each other.
We spent Christmas with our own families as I said, but on New Years we had a party. At that point, I still hadn’t told anyone about our relationship because I was afraid. When I finally did tell my mom she was happier than I was I think. I mean, I was happy, but she said she had always known we would get together, I guess it’s what you’d call mother’s intuition.
Our relationship was moving faster than lightning. One night we were sitting in bed together writing stupid notes back and forth and just being silly. That’s when it dawned upon him to end one of the notes with the game hang man. All it said was - - - - - - - ? I knew what it was, but I had to guess just about every other letter besides the obvious. I was flipping out. I mean here I was about 3 weeks into a relationship, the first one in a long time I might add and he is asking me to marry him? I ended up saying yes because the last thing I wanted to do was break his heart. I didn’t know when I wanted to get married and I couldn’t even believe he had asked me, but I figured I would see where it went.
By Mother’s Day that same year I knew that I wanted to marry him, so we decided to announce it to our families. They were surprised. I think they were happy, but like me, I think they felt it was a little quick. From there we found out that my mom was going to be moving to Ohio at the end of the summer, so of course we wanted her there and my sisters too, so we decided to have the wedding on August 4th. I asked my mom to be my maid of honor because she was the only person in my life at that time who never did me wrong. Sure my mom and I fought a lot when I was a teenager, but out of all the friends I had she was the only one who I wanted to be there with me standing at the altar.
Now things were moving even faster, we had a wedding to plan and not much time to do it. Somehow things got done and we were married on that hot August day. During the planning of our wedding my stepfather was actually being civil and decided to ask us if we wanted to rent the house when they moved. We thought it was a great idea because we were getting married and could have a house too. So three weeks after the wedding we had a going away party for my family and we helped them move out to Ohio, while some of our friends moved our stuff into the house.
We were in the house about 2 weeks and then came 9/11. After 9/11 the prices of real estate were booming and my stepfather being the way he is chose to list his house for sale. This was all after he told us we could rent it for at least one full year, bu mid-March we had to be out, but that wasn’t before a vicious fight. If it wasn’t for Glenn and him butting heads, we probably would have had to be out sooner, but somehow they gave us a few weeks to find somewhere else to go. Since we had broken a lease at the previous apartment, our credit was not in good standing, so we had to get my grandparents to sign a lease for us, and thankfully they did. We moved into a one bedroom apartment in Point Pleasant. It was way too small and cost way too much, but I was content because it was in familiar territory.
Then it was coming time for our lease to be renewed, Glenn had thought about it and came to the conclusion he didn’t want to. He somehow convinced me to come out to Pennsylvania to look for places, but I was never willing. My mom always expressed what a mistake it had been to move to Ohio on such short notice and she suggested I really think about what we were doing. We came to PA a few weekends in a row and found a place we were interested in. Before you know it my mind was made up and we were packing to leave the state.
I couldn’t believe I would ever leave NJ, if you had asked me ten years ago where I saw myself in ten years from then, my answer would have been, Point Pleasant. Unfortunately, the prices were way over our heads, so had no choice but to leave and start over.
Once we got PA, I knew no one. I had no idea where anything was and I had no clue what to even do beyond my apartment. I was miserable for months. I missed my family. I missed my friends and I missed the familiarity of being at home. I decided I needed to move on with my life and go back to school. So I went online and found out what schools there were in the area and chose one to apply to. I am currently still attending that school. Our agreement had been that when we moved out here, we would stay at least one year to see if we liked it before he changed jobs and we decided to stay. One year turned into about a year and one half, and I thought it wasn’t such a bad place, we should stay.
That’s when we decided to start looking for houses. I never knew what a nightmare that could be, but it was. It seemed that homes here were much cheaper than Jersey, but the market moved fast and if you wanted something you had to be prepared to go and get it right then and there. We, after a lot of let downs finally found a house on almost 2 acres of property. We fell in love with it and couldn’t believe that they accepted our offer and that we would soon be homeowners. Come to find out, after 8 months of waiting to sign the deal there just wasn’t another buyer for the second lot these people owned, nor did they have enough money to pay it off and release the title. So we had to let it go. We got ourselves a good lawyer and continued to fight to get our money back. It took about two months, but we managed to get our money back.
At this point, we had already had to give up our two bedroom apartment because the lease ended and had to settle for a small one bedroom apartment. Most of our belongings had to be put into storage until that deal came to an end. Since it was a raw deal after all, and we were both miserable sharing a room with Glenn’s son for four months, we decided to keep looking.
Glenn, our realtor and I had a one day adventure to look at about 11 houses. We told our realtor that out of those 11 houses, we were going to find one and make a decision that same day. We were right. We did find one that we liked. We put in an offer that night and later that same night the offer was accepted. Now because we had been through such an ordeal with the other house, we were a little skeptical and continually made sure that the deal was good. Finally, closing day came and we were both so excited. We met our realtor at his office and sealed the deal.
We have now been living in our house for almost a month, and I still cannot believe that we did it. I can’t believe that we are the same two people who met on the boardwalk many years ago. It is strange where life takes you. We have been on a journey for quite sometime now. And it hasn’t been an easy one, and I don’t for see it getting any easier from here on out, but we did it. We were the ones who made it out of Point Pleasant, as wonderful of a town as it may be. We followed our better judgement and decided to take the experiences of life and put them to good use. I sometimes wonder how Glenn and I ended up together. Most of the friends I had in my past disappeared at one point or another, but he was one who kept coming back. He was someone who never did me wrong through out all the bull that you go through as a teenager. He never broke my heart, he never lied to me and most of all, he was always there when I needed him most. There are some points of my story that I haven’t completed yet, but the events that I mentioned are the ones that shaped me into who I am today.