I guess it’s time to address the elephant in the room. Two blog posts down and I haven’t mentioned his name, but let’s face it, if you read the archives, you’ll see this blog has been about my life as it pertains to Joshua Anderson.

Josh and I are not a couple, nor have we been a couple in a very long time. I feel like I need to put that out there since so much of this blog has been about my life and the role he's played in it. He is still a part of my life - a dear friend that I cherish - but we are not in a romantic relationship.

After my post about wishing for snow storms, we had no more snow storms. It seemed like the Universe was sending me a clear message: it ain’t gonna happen, honey. So I got on with it.

Last fall Natalie told me that she found an engagement ring in Josh’s drawer (leave it to Nat to “find” something in someone’s drawer, right?). I was surprised me how upset that made me, even though we haven’t been together in years, and the fact that Josh didn’t have a girlfriend.

I think that is why I felt so free and relaxed in Florida. I didn’t want to be around if he was getting engaged. We’re friends but I’m not sure I can muster that kind of grace to handle that well.

He never did get engaged though. Nat and I have no idea why he has a ring, but after avoiding him for several months, I realized I would be a really crappy friend if I didn’t call him on his birthday. I called and got his voicemail and then it was phone tag for a few hours before he called me late that night. We ended up chatting for a few hours. I was a good conversation, but I didn’t get up the nerve to ask him about the ring!

After that I found myself in constant text conversations with him. He went out to California for the summer but we were in constant contact. I got a picture of everything place he went, and anything he found remotely interesting. It was cute and I found myself snapping pictures constantly and sending them to him.

In July, he asked me to fly out to California, but things were crazy at my dad’s company and I didn’t want to leave. I also was scared. I wasn’t really sure what his intentions were. We had a good long-distance friendship, but I was scared what a face-to-face visit would be like.

In early August, Natalie, Jason and Josh all came down to Florida for a visit. We had a really great time. Natalie was putting the pressure on me to return to Pennsylvania. I was struggling with it because life felt very safe in Florida, but I know that hiding isn’t the answer

Josh was the one that finally convinced me by talking me in to dancing with him again. I have been asked year after year for several years now to do an All Star Competition at the dance studio with the former contestants of our dance competition. I kept making excuses and putting it off because I knew that Josh and I would be expected to dance together and the timing never seemed right, but it finally feels right. We have a solid friendship, we get along great and neither of us are dating anyone so we don’t have to worry about anyone feeling worried or insecure about us dancing together.

The competition begins in early October and we’ll dance until we win...we are so going to win! Rehearsal begins after Labor Day weekend but Josh and I went dancing on my birthday and got a feel for dancing together again.