It was out of necessity that I discovered the value of an AirBnB. The idea can seem strange at first, but with careful observation, planning, and selection it can be more amazing than your average hotel. When Q and I first met, I was living with a friend. Life was a bit chaotic and I didn’t have much privacy. She was in a similar situation. Granted we were together for a little bit of time before spending the night was ‘a thing.’ The first couple of times, we ended up staying in a hotel and exploring surrounding cities. And while the option to use a pool, hot tub, or gym is always appealing, it seems boring, now, in comparison. I enjoy it so much that I have even thought about hosting an AirBnB. I think it would be an interesting way to meet people, hear new stories as well as a small side income. The weird phase is all gone apparently and replaced by convenience, adventure, and discovery. Hah.
I was thinking about the importance of time together this past weekend. For our anniversary we had intended to do something. In the beginning, once we knew the relationship was serious, we set a goal of doing something for the one year mark. I desperately wanted to take a cruise, but the financial situation was just not going to allow something like that to happen. So we agreed to hold out for another chance, someday. Unfortunately, we cannot count on some…day… happening. Life tends to get busy and schedules seem to always change. Time is a scarcity when you need it for some reason. Or perhaps it’s the priority we should be focused on. Regardless, Q and I have started a set of mini-vacations with each other. It started, as I referenced earlier, but has been something that we continued as we continue growing our relationship.
There are a couple of things like that, for us. Right after we first started dating, I purchased a red journal from Walmart. Being extremely corny and cheesy I was going to start a diary for our relationship. Well, that was the intent at first. When I sat down to write in it for the first time, we were already several weeks into the relationship; a lot had happened in a short amount of time. Thinking about what we had already accomplished, a diary didn’t quite make sense now. The excitement and wonder of our first dates had already been recorded in our personal writings. Not to mention, we really were pretty upfront with each other and how we felt. There were not many things, if any, that would be in this “diary” that we would not have discussed via text, phone or in person. I also realized how many neat things we had done, together, in a relatively short amount of time. So we started a new thing. A relationship+ book, if you will… Something that we both could write in and reflect upon, and something that would tell a story. We named the book, The Red Book (original I know), and placed a picture of Dinah, the cat that prowls our local used book store, The Dusty Bookshelf. The book has become a journal of our “adventures.”
The journal goes with us everywhere we go together. We have over a year in the journal now. And it grew a bit more this weekend when we took a quick trip to a small city in the middle of KS. It ended up being a last-minute treat from Q, for us, to celebrate Valentine’s Day as well as our anniversary. While there, I journaled in The Red Book, and reflected on the last year. The trip there was full of colorful discussion about life – death – relationships – music and so on. And my realization over the weekend was this: The value of the time we spend together, on purpose, taking micro-adventures, has made our life together exciting, spontaneous at times, and full of joy for each other.
We had planned for a cruise once which we have not been able to see it through. Yet, not doing that did not stop us from doing something together. We have found value in the simple. And AirBnB’s have helped us with that. With the flexibility to find a place to stay for a significantly lower cost in just about any city that you can think of, we have opened our world for adventure. Some trips have been planned in advance and some have happened spontaneously. The magic is the discovery. By doing this, we explore new places and are not limited as to what we can do. Each place has a unique set of features as well as its own idiosyncrasies. And with the experience we now have, we have a developed knack for screening what would suit our tastes and what would just be plain weird. And we have done weird.
The weekend was great for so many reasons. Who would think a small house, in the middle of a simple, antique, downtown neighborhood in Junction City, KS would be the home of the 2nd best Valentine’s Day, in my opinion, for a couple of out-of-towners? The house was hard to find since the main house faced another street and had a different address. Somewhere along the way, this “apartment” was given its own address. Arriving at the house we climbed up a narrow staircase to the “mother-in-law” suite. The large incline, combined with the deep and shallow stairs made an interesting icy climb with overnight baggage in hand. The door, traditional, swung open to a studio living arrangement with a decent amount of floor space. We strolled in, sat down our bags, and scoped the place out. After checking the essential things (fridge, kitchen, bathroom, bed) we made our way to the bed and adjusted the mattress to a comfortable reclining position. We made our selves comfy and proceeded to listen to music while taking a small catnap.
We ended the evening by dining out at the local Italian restaurant, swinging by Aldi for some desserts, and watching two episodes of The Witcher. Our conversations carried us to the late-night hours and I finished with our Red Book entry before sipping the last of my tea from our nightly routine. The next morning we awoke to a sun-filled room, cool from the night’s temperatures, and coffee brewed in the machine pre-set the night before. We stirred around and got our bearings then sat on the bed with the promise of conversations to be had. We joked, the night before, that we should discuss religion, and we got that opportunity in the morning with an in-depth view of spirituality, life, and death. We sipped on water and coffee, and shortly before check out, we packed up our bags. Near noon, we got back into the car and drove the 90 mins back home. Stepping out of the car we concluded our trip and another adventure in the book.
These micro-adventures are a great chance to do something small and seemingly insignificant, but enduring, I feel. It’s a chance to bond as well as explore in a small way. The trip was planned only a couple weekends before and all together, we spent about $100 for the room, the dinner, the dessert plus the gas to drive. There is something special about being somewhere else, with someone, looking around the room and not seeing dishes needing to be done. The trash is not begging to be taken out, nor is vacuuming our responsibility. Being just far enough away that we cannot drop back in, in a moment’s notice, adds to the getaway feeling.
Consider this today… There are 52 weekends in a year. You could have even more potential time off if you count holidays and vacation time. (Or sick time *wink wink* you sly dogs.) Consider being spontaneous (or controlled spontaneity if you need to plan a week or two in advance). Sit down with the person that you care about – and plan a day or two to getaway. It’s an investment, even if small. Explore a new place and have conversations that you would not sit down to have No, things are not always rosy. We are human. I would be lying if I didn’t admit that and that would be pretending, leading to what I call, the Facebook Life. But the thing different for me, for us, is that we take time for one another. We make time. The budget doesn’t stop us. The schedules of two business professionals don’t stop us. And the return on investment has led to more than an amazing year.
Here is to your journey. Your adventure. And as always, warm wishes. – joe.
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