Friday morning arrived with the usual last-minute rushing around to make sure I had everything packed to go spend the weekend with Sunshine. You would think that after almost four years of this long-distance relationship that it’d be easier for me to pack up every two weeks, but alas I still tend to rush around in the minutes before I leave for my 9am work day.

The morning came and went…no problem.

Lunch arrived and departed…zero issues.

The afternoon was flying by because I was so busy when I received an email from Sunshine at 4:15pm:

 Call Denise at xxx-xxxx.

 Just as a thought, you should probably stop at home and grab some interview clothes to live at my house. Hopefully you’ll be able to get in touch with them and set up an interview on Monday. You should have some interview gear at my house regardless.

 Wheeeeeeee!!!!

This was a pretty awesome email to get. In fact, this job posting was one given to me by Sunshine earlier in the week. It looked like a cool company and a job that was right up my alley. So I went into a separate room and called them as soon as I could.

No answer…had to leave a message.

A little bit later I received another email from Sunshine at 5:15pm:

 Brian X from “Company Y”

I was pretty much getting slammed at this point. I mean, for whatever reason my workplace seems to buzz on a Friday afternoon with things to do. So my email was filling up, my phone was ringing, and my supervisor was over my shoulder discussing a project that needed completion. It was crazy that it was all happening at once.

I didn’t get to call the company until after work was over, thus left yet another message.

So on the surface, this seemed like an unbelievable afternoon. I mean, two interview requests? That’s gotta be a great thing…right?  Right???

Well…the problem was that I wasn’t able to contact either person before the weekend started. This meant that I wouldn’t be able to interview on Monday. This meant that I would have to drive back to Sunshine’s city for an interview once and possibly twice more the following week. This meant at least two trips back and forth…5+ hours of driving for each interview.

Suddenly…once work finished at 5:30pm and both Sunshine and I had a couple of minutes to think it all over…she sent me a message that made my heart sink a bit.

“Y’know…it would be smart if we saved some money and you didn’t come down this weekend.”

She wasn’t suggesting it, but my heart sunk because yes…it made PERFECT sense. I mean, it’s $60 for a tank of gas and that’s one trip there and back without any other changes to the itinerary. Times are tough right now, so when you calculate food and other unexpected expenses that crop up (and the fact I wouldn’t be paid again for another week)…it just seemed like a selfish decision to drive up to three separate times for two job interviews.

And what if I got called on Monday or Tuesday for another interview with somebody else?

I got into the car and called her as I made my way back home to do one of two things: pick up dress clothes or unpack my suitcase. I pretty much knew how the conversation was going to go, especially where I hadn’t heard back from either employer and it was after 5:30pm on a Friday afternoon.

We discussed the situation in depth and came to the difficult conclusion that it would be best if we called off our weekend together.

It totally sucked to come to that conclusion, but there wasn’t really a lot of other possibilities. Plus, if I was going to be driving down at least once over the upcoming week then she would still be seeing me. On top of all that, we are going to be living together within the next two months…so really, this wasn’t that big of a deal in the grand scale of things.

I wrote some stuff…I watched some movies and caught up on my reality television…I cleaned up my spare room in early preparations for my move…I did some laundry…I slept in (which is something I never do). I feel as though I had a VERY relaxing weekend, yet still got some stuff done around the house that I wanted to do.

It sucks, especially after doing this for so long. But knowing that we’ll be waking up next to each other on a regular basis for the rest of our lives really makes this one weekend not seem like such a big deal. In the end, all of the trials and difficult situations will be forgotten as we’re living in our home together.

So we missed a weekend together…but it was for a good reason. And in the end, it worked out quite nicely for the both of us.