so... the bamboo bike studio was not the end of anything. it was the beginning.

justin and i spent the morning of monday the 12th together, and collectively decided that i should not go back to DC that evening - as i had planned - but instead stay with him a few more days. and so i did. we went on bike rides. we hung out at the studio - he worked while i messed around on my computer and did some editing (i was still doing work for a civil engineering doctoral candidate). we hung out on his rooftop, overlooking manhattan and the statue of liberty. we met up in manhattan, after biking through a big rainstorm, for lunch at a coffeeshop and cuddling on a bench in a park. we did laundry. we played with jenga blocks with one of justin's friend's sons at a bar in the middle of the day. we explored each other. and then i left. i had to go back to DC on wednesday the 14th, in part so that i could finish up the last two days of my internship, and in part so that i could pack all my things up and prepare to leave DC. my chest ached. we both felt like we had vacuums in our chests. the missing was terrible. i spent thursday and friday at work, and on friday night, i biked down along the capitol crescent trail to meet up with my friend michael at the rosslyn film festival, where we watched "what's eating gilbert grape" and talked all about this new, wonderful thing that was happening in my life. on saturday, i biked downtown and went up the washington monument to look around (it was kind of a letdown), and then biked around a little more before the chestache was too much to take and i went home. i packed. on sunday, fortunately, i had a little bit more of a distraction: my friend bryson met me at my place at 4:30, and i took him through rock creek park (which he had never been through) on our bikes. we finished our ride earlier than i had anticipated, so we went to sweetgreen on M street for frozen yogurt, and then i took him to the old aqueduct bridge, so we could enjoy some nice scenery before our next activity. at about 7:00, we walked down to jack's boathouse, and we started our twilight tour of the potomac at 7:30. he was a very good listener as i rambled on and on about how wonderful justin is. after canoeing, i suggested he bike with me up to adam's morgan, because i usually stop in at amsterdam falafelshop there any time i am riding home from downtown DC, and he had never been there before. he loved it! and for good reason. it's delish. i biked home, and without any distractions, i ached some more for justin. ugh, i know that makes me sound pathetic. oh well.

you'd ache for this boy too if you knew him. (thanks to max breslow for letting me use this photo of justin!) anyway, i packed some more, and justin gave me a call later in the evening. he and some of his friends had been in philadelphia for the weekend, biking around with some other people. it was really great to talk, but we had a little bit of an unnerving conversation about how maybe we should keep this an open relationship, largely because it all seemed too good and too simple and too quick to be true and that therefore, we should maybe test things out and see if other people would be better for us. we talked things through until we both felt good about it all - our best feature is our communication! - and agreed that we didn't have to force ourselves to be skeptical about us. the next morning, as i was back on the bus to new york, i found the whole conversation laughable. i told justin later that after really thinking about the issue, if either of us really thought we needed to see if other people could be better partners for us than each other is, then... good luck! good luck with that search! i'm just so confident that we are a perfect match for each other, that i am not threatened whatsoever by other girls. of course, there will always be girls who are prettier, or smarter, or better at biking, or more sociable than i am. but i am 100% convinced that there aren't any girls who will be a better or more satisfying communicative, physical, emotional, and mental match for justin, and he is the best match for me. it's actually pretty amazing to feel so peaceful about it. anyway, i should just finish by saying that my pal bryson generously offered to help me bring all my bags from my place in DC to the bus stop, which was hugely helpful, so i bought him a smoothie at union station (where the bus stop was) to say thank you. it was also really nice to have someone send me off from DC. it's a little thing, but it's nice.

okay. the next post will be about my time in NY.