Event XVIII is in the bag

It's over! And as has been for some years now, everything went great. It was a weekend of gratitude, fun, and reunions. I love that after eighteen years the event has taken on a life of its own and people feel a lot of affection for and ownership of it. 

Delegating and letting go has meant for a lot less stress for me during the event. It takes a lot to not want to micromanage everyone and to trust that people can do their jobs. I think I'm finally grasping this concept.

Leaving the kids with a nanny from Friday-Tuesday went just fine; we were all recovered from the stomach bug by then and thankfully the nanny never caught it. Did I enjoy five days of no wiping of butts and tantrums? Yes, yes I did. In fact when I was all done unloading and returning the Uhaul yesterday I jumped in the car and went to In N Out and then drove around aimlessly because I just couldn't deal with jumping right into mom mode yet. I still have very ambivalent feelings about that. I'm happy to see the kids, of course, but taking on full time mom duties again...meh. I need a vacation even though technically I kind of just had one.

Our one big glitch of the weekend (there has to be one) was the scoring system for our contests which apparently was not happy with the Windows 10 upgrade and was very glitchy, erasing entire contests and causing my tabulator to stay up until 4 AM re-entering hundreds of contestants, so he was a live wire all weekend who at one point kicked a table over when someone teased him too much. Men and their tempers! Ugh. It all worked out but our prelim day Saturday was hairy. Hopefully next year he'll either use a new system or install this one on an old computer with an older version of Windows (it worked perfectly last year). Well, at least the floors weren't sticky this year!

The Boyfriend came to visit Saturday and Sunday night and for our pool party Monday afternoon. The plan was for him to meet the kids Monday and we were both pretty nervous about it even though I know the kids wouldn't notice him as any different from any of the other people there (they didn't). He had told me he didn't want us to be official until he met the kids which I agreed with. 

So Monday I'm hanging by the hotel pool waiting for him, and he strolls up and says he needs to talk to me. People keep coming over interrupting so we try to find a private spot. My heart is pounding because he looks very serious. I don't think he's going to dump me or anything; but I do think he might tell me he can't stay, isn't ready to meet the kids, etc etc. So he puts his hand on my shoulder, looks me square in the eye and says, "I don't need to meet the kids to know that I love you."

Wow.

I felt a little shock run through my body, I won't lie. This is the first time a man has ever told me he loved me like that - square in the face, unblinking, with intention. Then he said he wanted us to be official so we both fished out our phones and changed our relationship statuses (stati?) and added a "life event" to our Facebook pages. 

So there it is. He loves me and I love him and we're in a relationship for all the world to see. All right then.