A couple weeks after my last post, Josh's agent called and offered him a job in California for the summer. I had freaked out previously about him going out there so he wasn't even going to mention it to me, but somehow it came up in conversation and after talking about it, we decided to spend the summer in California. It ended up being really great.

We hit the road as soon as his school year ended and took a leisurely approach to getting there. We went down to my grandparents' house in Tennessee and then drove across route 40. It was a really great trip.

I was surprised by how much I enjoyed spending the summer in California. We rented a small condo in Santa Monica so I was able to spend time at the beach during the day when Josh was at work. I was also able to hang out with Molly, which ended up being really good for getting our friendship back on track. Mostly though, it was just good to relax and not be so worried about the two businesses.

Josh and I talked a lot about it and we agreed that I should let John run my dad's company until he retires and then I'll hire someone new. I'm just not interested in being the president of the company. That world would not suite me and I'd have a hard time balancing that job with a family, which is something we hope to have in a few years. I have a lot of help and flexibility with the dance studio so I'm going to refocus my efforts there.

I was worried about going to California and being by myself a lot because Josh's schedule can be crazy when he's working on a project, but it wasn't too bad. I took some dance classes while we were there and I found all of the farmer's markets. I did a ton of cooking and I spent as much time as possible sitting on the beach.

One night we were both sitting on the beach, just relaxing and talking and I mentioned that I should have moved out there to be with him many years ago when I had the chance. Somehow we ended up talking about what it would have been like if we had tried the long distance relationship thing and I mentioned that I had always fantasized that we'd meet halfway in Chicago for romantic weekends.

A couple days before we were to start our drive back to Pennsylvania, John called and said he thought I should fly back to New Jersey for a company meeting. I had told him that I didn't want to be president/CEO and we decided that it would be a good idea to create a board of directors that I would be the chair of. That way I'd have oversight without being involved in the day-to-day. He felt it was important for me to be at the meeting, and I agreed with him. I was feeling pretty bad about leaving Josh to drive across country by himself, so I drove with him to Denver and then hopped a flight to Newark.

The meeting went well and it was good that I was there, but I felt bad about Josh driving home by himself. I got home that night after the meeting and found an envelop at the front door. I opened it and found a ticket to Chicago inside. With it was a note that said, "Let's have our romantic weekend in Chicago."

Two days later I was on my way to Chicago. We had an amazing time. I don't know how he did it, but Josh planned it as if we were meeting halfway for a romantic weekend. It really felt like I had imagined it would be, except that it was a million times better because when the weekend ended, we both got in the car together and drove home. No going separate ways.