Missing

It's my first night in New York, and I'm inexplicably homesick all out of proportion. I've been gone less than 12 hours and all I can think about is how much I want to be at home, on the couch with CameraMan, our legs casually entangled under the softest blanket in the world, the cat purring and stretching in the chair next to us, freshly made cocktails and cut cheese with crackers on the coffee table.

After some transitional hiccups that accompanied my return to Houston, we've fallen into an easy rhythm: morning muffin runs and carpools to work and happy hours and low-key gatherings of friends and TiVo marathons. It's a good life we've carved out for ourselves during the times we're together. And, as always, it's hard to say goodbye, even though this time it's only for a few days, since CM is coming for a visit on Friday.

We've been together for over 2 years now (WHAT?!? It's true), and we've never had a Valentine's Day together in one geographic location…until THIS YEAR. We're always pretty casual about it, because who wants to be all sappy with a million "I miss yous" and a lot of feeling sorry for ourselves? (Well, apparently I do—see the preceding paragraphs, hmmm...). But it's a whole different story if we're together. I say let's take advantage of the permission the world is giving us to get all sappy and romantic and maybe even indulge in a little PDA, am I right, people? Except that CM nonchalantly mentioned the other day that he just "wasn't really a Valentine's Day kind of person" as if that was some sort of personality trait, and even though he backtracked quite a bit from that first statement, it's all very up in the air as to what we will do. It is entirely too late to get a dinner reservation at any NYC foodie hotspots, we've already done the Central Park carriage ride thing, it's not a blind date so there's no reason to get the Empire State Building involved, so I think we're going to have to move beyond the clichéd and do something creative.

Help me out here, dear readers. Give me something to look forward to during the 3 looooong days until he arrives.