Time flies...

...and never has that been so true than in the realization that I'm coming up close to having been dating my BM for a month. It seems like such a long time, but it really hasn't been. I have been abroad for a chunk of it, and he's going to be on/under the ocean in the near future. I guess it's just that we live in the same town and can spend random chunks of time together.

I feel like I'm a walking mess a lot of the time. I am still trailing off in conversation often before I've reached my point, and I think it's because I've spent so much time with my inner monologue that I forget everyone else isn't in there, too. I'm still coming to grips with the intimacies of relationships, feeling very juxtaposed between my experiences and lack thereof. It's still novel to be dating someone in the same city (maybe because I haven't done that successfully in almost 3 years - and no, the last stint with the boy in College Station doesn't count because we were only living in the same city for about a week). It's crazy to be dating someone that wants to meet my friends and take me out with his. And to have our already mutual friends that cheer us on.

Maybe this is the key to not feeling cut off from the rest of the world? It's the first time I've ever had a situation like this where I don't have to choose between going away to visit my boyfriend and going somewhere else to hang out with a friend. I can - and frequently have with BM - done both. Unlike the last major relationship where I had to plan going to visit my other friends in the gaps before, after, or between visits with the ex-boy. Even when we were all in the same city, I played a delicate game of time-sharing because I knew the ex-boy wouldn't be interested in drinks with someone or dinner with someone else. Damn, he was bad for me.

Then there's also the silver lining that I'm only going to have to work at most one Saturday a month for the forseeable future. We've got a new girl (with 6 years prior experience) that joins our ranks in a week, leaving us with 5 people (4 techs+1 intake) on a night shift. It was barely even 6 months ago that M. and I were running the lab all by ourselves (with her doing most of the work because I was still new and slow). It's definitely going to be easier to get around and be social. It'll also probably be better for the sanity of my housemates if there's some kind of routine to my work schedule, which is also gradually happening. I'm in and out all the time as it is, so some semblance of normal is always preferred, I'm sure. (What would really be beneficial for their sanity? Me getting my house from "crap in boxes and piles" to "home" within the month.)

We'll see. I'm trying to get the chaos under control, but it's hard to manage when I keep getting distracted by that bright shiny boyfriend over there...