Yesterday we officially closed the distance! In our case that means my SO being back in the Philippines for good. While it's going to be a long time till we can tie the knot (we're not moving in together till marriage), having him back in the same metropolis/timezone changes a lot of things.

Now nearly two years ago, before my SO left for his stint overseas, we met up for breakfast after one of my night shifts. We decided to pretty much pick up where we left off, and go to an all day breakfast place we both hadn't been to yet. All that time apart really didn't adversely affect the volume or quality of our conversation; we were just as effusive and talkative as we had been before, but this time with a more intimate edge. In a way it was surprising for both of us.

After lunch we stopped by an artisan cookie shop for dessert, and decided to head to a local museum. But knowing our luck, the museum was closed so we decided to roam a nearby park and catch a few Pokemon before shopping a bit for some necessities/inquiring about pocket wifi gadgets for use at his new apartment. Then we found out that two of our old friends were also hanging out in the mall, so we decided to surprise them. Neither of them knew my SO was home till yesterday afternoon!

Now by this time traffic and weather were so bad that we got stuck in the mall, thus forcing us to change dinner plans. I had my heart set on bringing him to a favorite ramen restaurant to get some tsukumen (dipping ramen) but we had to settle for another ramen restaurant closer by. My SO's siblings and his nephew joined us for dinner (we'd planned this). I;'ve met them before on various occasions and it was good to hang out with them.

As far as his nephew is concerned, I'm going to end up as his aunt someday.

At the end of the night my SO had to do a nerve wracking thing...meeting my parents. Now at the very least my SO and my dad have talked before, online. My mother is more traditional about this sort of thing, but at least she was cordial. My SO and my sister have met before, so they got around to talking a bit too while we were hanging out at my house. Unfortunately my brother was also out on a date, so he hasn't met my SO yet.

On the whole the date went very well, in fact better than we had expected. I guess the only actual snafu was my mother disapproving at how I hugged my SO at the end of the night---I got a bit of stick for that in the morning.

I'm giving my SO a few days to get his apartment together, and for me to study for mock board exams, before we plan our next meet up. I'm happy we now have the opportunity to do this, in person. I think this might be an even bigger challenge than the LDR phase since this involves dealing with our respective families, my pursuing a residency, his starting law school next year....and all that while prepping to hopefully marry or at least be engaged before we're 30. Sounds like a lot on our plate, but well we've never been fazed by the odds before.