A Fantastic Housewarming Gift

Once I get settled in my new place completely I am planning on having a huge housewarming party so that all my friends and co-workers will finally get to see all the work I have been complaining about discussing at length these past few weeks. Until then I still have a huge to-do list including getting ready to host a baby shower and attempting to do something with my yard to make it a little less scary (more on this later).

In the meantime I have received some really sweet gifts from my family and friends including Home Depot and Lowe's gift cards (which I am eternally grateful for as I have spent a small fortune at both places since moving in) and some nice checks to help out with initial repairs, supplies, etc.

While all of these gifts were unexpected and super thoughtful one of the most surprising and amazing gifts I received came from my boyfriend, Erik.

Before I tell you what he got me (the suspense is killing you, right?) I feel like I should give a little background as to how Erik and I met. I like to think that destiny had a hand in it but you can decide whatever you like.

Erik and I first met in high school when I was a Freshman and he was a Junior. We both were in theater and chorus and worked on several plays together as well as competing in the Georgia One Act Play Competition. Our relationship was always very flirty and I of course had a major crush on him. He was cute, talented, funny, athletic--I mean who could blame me? Naturally I was disappointed when our relationship never went beyond the friendship level and I heard varying rumors as to why this was so--I was too young, he had a girlfriend, etc. Of course I would never have told him outright that I liked him (this was high school remember) so I settled on just being friends. It wasn't until his Senior year that I found out he also had a crush on me via a very sweet message he wrote in my yearbook at the end of the year. It was a happy surprise but the timing was off--he left after graduation to begin training for the Marine Corp and I went about finishing high school, going to college, etc. It may sound silly and like I am trying to embellish this story but I thought about him often over the years and always wondered what happened to him after high school and the Marines.

Fast Forward to the week after Christmas last year--nearly 14 years later. Erik has a younger sister who is my age and graduated with me from high school. Like many people who graduated from high school together we are friends on Facebook. One day I happened to notice some Christmas photos of her family that she had posted and some of them included Erik. Of course I couldn't  fail to notice that he was tagged in them which could only mean one thing--he had a Facebook page. I clicked on the link which took me to his page and sent him a friend request. Not too long after I saw that he accepted my request, I got a message from him asking what I was up to, where I was living, etc. Turns out we were living only 10 minutes away from each other and both of us were single. After chatting a bit on IM and realizing the chemistry was still there (after all these years) we went on our first date on New Year's Eve. Maybe it goes without saying but it was pretty much all sparks and fireworks that day and we have been nearly inseparable since then (sounds a little like one of those couples from the movie When Harry Met Sally, right?). Of course it was a bit of a shock to me how quickly I found myself falling for someone after having just ended a very long relationship but I decided to just go with my gut which told me this felt right. Life's too short after all.

The Nikon D7000

Throughout the course of getting to know each other again I had told Erik about my love of photography and how I had always wanted an SLR camera but could never afford to buy one (they are quite expensive). Therefore you can imagine my utterly shocked and surprised face when, shortly after I moved into my house, Erik told me he was buying me the new Nikon D7000 SLR camera (the very latest and arguably most advanced Nikon out there--when it first came out, it was sold out for months). I was speechless. I told him I couldn't accept such a large gift but he insisted. He said I deserved it. He said he knew there was always the possibility we could break up 3 months from now but that he wanted me to have the camera and that he wouldn't regret giving it to me even if we did break up.

I really thought I must be dreaming. I couldn't help thinking "Do guys like this really exist??" How did I get so lucky?

In the end, I guess you could say I was powerless to his reasoning and charm. How could I say no to such a sincere and thoughtful gift?

 Anyways, I could go into all kinds of ways in which the D7000 rocks but you'll just have to take my word for it--or just take a look at some of these pics I snapped recently:

So crisp and clean!

It's a pretty fantastic piece of machinery and I can't wait to really get outside and give it a good test run now that the weather is warmer. Yay Spring!

So that is the story of one of my favorite housewarming gifts so far (sprinkled with a dash of romance). Thanks Erik! Im so lucky to have you in my life right now. XOXO


**If you want to learn more about the D7000, check out this link from kenrockwell.com: 

http://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/d7000.htm