Interesting. Very interesting.

First of all, my vacation was fabulous. Excluding the day when my parents' rental care got broken into and two iPads, a Kindle, an iPhone, and a credit card were stolen. Not a good day. But the rest of the trip was wonderful and much needed. I loved spending time with my family, even though my nieces and nephews are crazy. Adorable, but crazy.

I was so happy to get home. And then, the night I got back to Provo, I dropped my phone in the toilet. Yes. That really happens, people, so watch out. I had to buy a new phone this morning, which sucked. A whole lot. But I will survive, and at least I now have another functioning phone. And most of my stuff was backed up, so I didn't even really lose anything. Hooray.

This post was not intended to be an update, however. I've just been thinking about some things lately. Ever since I started dating Andrew, I've been thinking about how interesting the whole situation is. I have been hanging out with Andrew since about January, when his apartment was put in my apartment's FHE group. Our apartments starting hanging out more and more, and we became good friends. I remember telling my roommates that I could see myself crushing on Andrew, but I never really let it develop.

So when Andrew suddenly started paying me more attention and asking me out the middle of May, it totally caught me off guard. I hadn't been looking in his direction at all at that point. There was none of the flirting and the wondering if he liked me and the agonizing over the minute details of our time together. And then he kept asking me out. And then he held my hand. And then he kissed me. He took everything out of my hands, which made things super easy for me. I didn't make any effort with him—I was simply myself. I didn't try to get him to make a move, I didn't play any games, I didn't spend my time wondering why he wasn't doing anything. When he first asked me out, I wasn't sure if I liked him. But then he swooped in with the full force of his gentlemanly charm and convinced me that he was worth it. And it worked.

It's such a stark contrast to everything with Der Junge. I did everything I could think of to get Der Junge to ask me out, barring simply telling him (because I'm chicken liver). I worked at that for months. And I would get so excited at the slightest sign of interest and so devastated at any sign of disinterest. I put so much effort into the possibility of a relationship, and it got me absolutely nowhere. It was incredibly frustrating.

So Andrew gets major kudos. He made the effort. He decided he wanted to be with me and he made it happen. In my mind, that is honest to goodness how things went down. And guess what? I am happy. I may have had my minor freak-outs because I wasn't sure if I was ready for a relationship, but I got over it. I'm having fun, and it's wonderful. This is how guys need to act in the dating world: Man up, ask a girl out, and convince her that you're worth her time. I'm not saying it will work every time, but hey, it worked for Andrew, so why couldn't it work for others too?