Absence makes the heart grow fonder.

This has been one of those stretches when Steve and I don't get to see each other during the week. Usually, we manage at least one school night together, but between our respective work schedules, his class schedule, my busy slate of social and extracurricular activities, his dreaded upcoming Prelims, and the ever-annoying reality of my non-driver status, it just isn't happening this week.

Or last week, either, for that matter. By Friday night, when I got dropped off in Golden, we were both pretty damn happy to see one another. That warm fuzzy feeling lasted the whole weekend (and even survived my lift-line reference to Steve's "little pole," which I SWEAR was about his ski gear!!!!) and made this week's solo stint even tougher. At least we have another weekend escape ahead of us -- we leave tomorrow for two nights here with some friends.

When we're apart like this for a week at a stretch, we end up having lots of long, rambling, semi-coherent phone conversations in the late afternoons. These typically consist of one or both of us griping about our inability to accomplish whatever it is we should be trying to accomplish instead of talking on the phone, one or both of us (usually me) losing track of the conversational thread because we're simultaneously surfing the internet, answering e-mails, and paying bills, one or both of us (usually me) reminding the other about whatever it is we're supposed to be doing when we actually see one another again, one or both of us (usually Steve) ranting about our boss's/professor's/opponent's/colleague's/friend's latest offense, and one or both of us (depending on who's busier) whining about not having enough time to ski/climb/bike/work out/sleep. We usually manage to squeeze in a bit of heated political/intellectual discourse, and allocate at least five minutes to flirtation and silly banter.

This mid-week drought isn't really as tough as maintaining a long-distance relationship, since Steve can be at my door in half an hour in a pinch and we're pretty tuned in to one another's daily goings-on. But man, does it have me looking forward to the weekend! Thank goodness it's (almost) Friday.