this quote has been following me around.

“I have a history of making decisions very quickly about men. I have always fallen in love fast and without measuring risks. I have a tendency not only to see the best in everyone, but to assume that everyone is emotionally capable of reaching his highest potential. I have fallen in love more times than I care to count with the highest potential of a man, rather than with the man himself, and I have hung on to the relationship for a long time (sometimes far too long) waiting for the man to ascend to his own greatness. Many times in romance I have been a victim of my own optimism.”

- Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

...and it's kinda weird, because I can recognize the same behavior in myself. Okaaaay everyone who keeps telling me to read Eat, Pray, Love...I give up. I'll read it. After I finish my sci-fi book. :)

Sometimes the Universe is so spot on that I don't know why I ever questioned it.

All the years and all the tears... boy, Crystal, aren't they gonna be
shocked when they realize that nothing was ever lost - not friendships, not opportunities, not love - nothing?

And that they already had all those things they went searching for?  

That never once were we disappointed in them?  

That nothing had to be proved, learned, or earned?  

That all along they were, in fact, the person they had always dreamed of becoming?

Glad we caught up with you when we did!!

Whoohoo!
   The Universe

Crystal, there are only happy endings... if you believe in endings.