A movie-induced blog entry

I kind of fell off the face of the blogging world for a few days there. Sucks, because I fully intended on participating in National Blog Posting Month -- on November 2nd, when I remembered about it. Sucks, but there's always next year, right?

I've been rather preoccupied with television lately. I'm usually not a TV person. I'll set our DVR to record shows or the occasional movie that catches my interest, but I won't get around to watching anything until weeks or months (yes, months) later. Case and point: this morning I finally got around to watching The Notebook. The DVR recorded it in August.
I really liked the movie, even though it was poignantly sweet and sad. I started tearing up towards the end, when Allie and Noah were having dinner together. When they were dancing and she suddenly forgot who she was and subsequently who Noah was, and was screaming and nurses came and Noah started crying, I seriously bawled. Dan was in the living room then and he was teary-eyed too. I can't imagine what it would be like to know that the love of your life doesn't know you, doesn't have any recollection of who you are, the memories you created, the things you did together. It must be so heartbreaking. Alzheimer's scares me. It's a disease I hope to never get, and I hope to God Daniel doesn't either. It's one thing to break down physically as you get older. But to lose your mental faculties, your memory? No thank you.

But if that were to happen to Dan, or to me, we swore we'd be there for one another, as heartbreaking as it would be. That's what love is about. It isn't the novelty and infatuation that initially brings couples together. I remember and wax nostalgia over the initial thrill I felt when Dan and I were first together. Our first flirt, first date, first touch (ask Dan about the first time we rode the log flume together...), first kiss, etc. That initial "spark" is gone, but, and excuse the mushiness, that spark set the fire ablaze, and nine years and a handful of months later it still burns strong. We know each other so well. Daniel is my best friend, my lover, my soul mate. I go to him for everything. He has my back and I have his. No matter what may be going on between us, petty squabbles or stupid arguments over stuff that means nothing at the end of the day, I love him, he loves me, and we have each other and would fight to the death for one another -- and for our children.
I love our relationship, how far we've come, what we've accomplished, and what we mean to one another. I love that we're still so in love with one another. The passion is there, but our relationship is about so much more than sex. We're intimate with one another in so many ways, far beyond sexual. We crave each other's company, and just enjoy being in the same room with one another. Going shopping for groceries, running errands, laying in bed together, cuddled under the sheets watching Hell's Kitchen or CSI (two other current obsessions of mine), running out for medicine or comfort food when the other is sick, just being with each other but not necessarily doing anything "exciting", like the kinds of "exciting" things couples in the dating and early relationship stages do.

I love our love. ♥