Hello there, Penny Darlings!

Today, there’s another Preston story!

Oh, wait! Life updates: Second weekend of Sweeney went well. We’re going into the third week. Audiences and reviews have been really positive. I think we’re going to attempt to build a desk soon.

Yesterday was mine and Preston’s three year anniversary!

We usually do a two-fold anniversary celebration. We usually do something on Oct. 29th and we usually go see the Wednesday night performance of the October show at EPAC, the theatre we first met in. He’s in Sweeney this year, so I’ll be in the audience and he’ll be on stage same as it was three years ago. Super sweet!

But today, I wanted to share the

‘how we met’ story.

And blah, blah, blah, – check me out on Instagram here! I also started a Twitter account! Find that here! Follow Preston’s brand new fashion Instagram here! I also have a selling Instagram page where I sell some of my old clothes/styles so that I don’t drown in my own wardrobe.

So, I swear to tell the whole truth, most of the truth (to keep it PG), so help me Blog.

Preston and I met on OkCupid in June of 2014. We normally don’t say that. We normally just say we met at EPAC (which is technically true!).

I was working at a local theatre in the business office during the day and he was an actor there in the evenings. I had had the OkCupid app for about a year, even though I had been dating someone else. (the first boy knew – we would laugh about all the weird messages on there. I got a lot of foot fetish people.)

But the other boyfriend and I had broken up and I had all but given up on dating for awhile. I was cool to be single and do nothing for a bit. You know, just rolling with the homies. (Clueless? Anybody?) We were not a particularly serious couple. We had dated on and off for a few months and have fun, frothy, whirlwind romance that we both knew had an expiration date.

So just to keep up on the timeline – June 2014.

A few weeks go by. We chat through the app. I suggest we become Facebook friends. We chat through their messenger service.

I ask other people at the theatre if “they know of Preston. Is he cute? Is he nice? Is he talented?”. I do some cyber stalking (obviously).

It’s now the beginning of July. I give him my phone number….

And here’s where the story almost gets tragic.

 

HE DIDN’T CALL. Or text. Or do anything. He just sat around having my phone number.

So I sent him another message or two on Facebook in the following days while he was sitting around and not texting me or calling me…or asking me on a date.

Our communication fizzled.

Three weeks later (end of July 2014 now) and I’m on vacation with some friends and I have no cell service. We leave the cabin, get to town, and I get a text from some number I don’t know that says ‘Hey, it’s Preston. Blah blah blah.”

I made a face, ask my friends if they can believe this guy, put my phone away and was like – “Yeah right, buddy. I give you my number and you don’t call for nearly a month. F*ck off.” I never answered him, but I never deleted his number.

I did what Preston now calls “ghosting him”. I took his shyness and awkwardness with the ladies as a personal snub so I stopped answering.

At the same time – a mutual friend of ours (again, completely at random) posted a video of him singing….and I SWOONED. Actually –here’s a link to that video of Preston singing.. (He’s the one in brown with the hat that sings first)….

But like….dayum son. He was so good and SO TALENTED. I had to meet him. Like honestly, watch this video and tell me you wouldn’t have been like ‘yeah, I’ll date the shit out of that guy.”

 

Beginning of October 2014 –

We text every day. But we can’t see each other because we are close to the opening date and have rehearsal every day and every night. (Being an actor is strenuous on your social life sometimes.).

We can’t meet in person yet because we have rehearsal. But I’m in the building in the mornings and he’s there in the evenings.

 

So we start writing little post it note messages to each other. I would hide them in his costume pockets with little snacks or treats. He would leave notes and RedBull (my favorite) on my desk.

We wrote miniature love letters to each other every night on 3×3 squares. My heart would skip a beat when I would find another one. I still have every single post it note he left for me.

Cabaret (his show) and Carrie (my show) open on the same night. We wish each other break a leg. However, his show runs one week longer than mine. I decide that I will come to his show when mine ends. Carrie ends its run and Cabaret goes into its next week of performances.

So October 29th, 2014. I go see Cabaret. I’m restless at work all day. Pacing. Munching on my pearls. Reapplying my lipstick. I get hardly any work done. I annoy the shit out of my co-worker.

The show comes around. I go up and sit in the audience. The show begins…and there he was. I made my best friend Joe, who is one of the best looking dudes I know, with me. I’m clutching Joe’s arm to calm myself down. My leg is jiggling. But there he is…30 feet in front of me and we can’t say hello yet.

The show ends and I’m ticking down the moments until he gets out of the dressing room and comes upstairs.

Then I have this big realization. Joe has to leave. Joe is 6’3 and has literally done modeling and is like the guy in our group of friends that everyone has had a crush on at one point. He’s SO handsome. I can’t bring this tall, gorgeous, straight dude on my first date. Like, who does that?

Ft. A picture of the bromance that would eventually grow between Joe & Preston.

He, being the best friend ever, agrees. He kisses me on the head, wishes me luck, says he’ll see me when I get home (because if you remember – Joe and I lived together) and leaves.

I wait upstairs for Preston. Eventually he comes up and we meet. Right there in the middle of the stage, on top of the trap door. He gives me a big hug. It’s a little awkward. He tells me he thought I’d be taller. I told him I felt the same way. We laughed a little awkwardly.

We chat for a few minutes and decide he’ll grab his stuff and we’ll go to a local bar to get to know each other better and have a few drinks. A few of our friends (not knowing that this is mine and Preston’s first date) tag along.

The bar closed. We weren’t done talking. So we went back to the theatre (it’s less than a mile from the bar.) It’s in this gorgeous and quiet park so we walked around under the street lamps with the mist and the fog and talked more. We kissed for the first time that night.

We’ve been dating ever since.

 

After a few dates I remember going home to Joe and saying “Yeah, I’m going to marry that guy. I just know it. It’s a weird gut feeling.”

A little while went by. We started using the B & G words, officially.

Well actually, that’s even a story. He wanted to take it slow. Really slow. I didn’t mind. But at the time, Preston lived 70 miles and more than an hour from me. After a month of seeing each other, I asked him if he saw it going anywhere. I said that I wasn’t in it for the sex and if that’s all he wanted, I could find that closer to home. He said he wasn’t in it for that.

So, I didn’t want to pressure him to slap a label on anything. I wanted him to feel comfortable. But in January….I planned this whole thing to sound SO casual and easy breezy and nonchalant and stuff.

So I came up with this plan of how I would brooch the subject but pretending to be very casual about it. We were getting dressed in the morning and getting ready for work and this is the EXACT interaction.

‘Can you just be my boyfriend now?’

‘That seems sensible.’

HE TOLD ME THAT IT SEEMED SENSIBLE.

What a dork.

We’ve been together since then! That was three years ago yesterday! We usually do a two-fold anniversary celebration. We usually do something on Oct. 29th and we usually go see the Wednesday night performance of the October show at EPAC, the theatre we first met in. He’s in Sweeney this year, so I’ll be in the audience and he’ll be on stage same as it was three years ago.

It’s comforting.

And now, we spend our weekends going to TJ Maxx and decorating our home. We love being in the car together. We live together. We get to have lunch together every day.

I could write a whole blog post about this, but Preston is very crucial in my blog. He helps with everything. He takes about 90% of my photos. He proofreads and brainstorms and is always a good sport when I drag him into a photoshoot.

And who knows what the future holds? I know that I’m dating my husband. One day, I will marry the absolute heck out of that guy.

I’m just waiting (very impatiently!) for him to pop the question.

I didn’t know I could love someone the way I love him. He’s wonderful and amazing.

Happy Anniversary, little peanut. These last three years have been extraordinary.

I can’t wait for the rest of our life.

 

*This post contains affiliate links but as always, all thoughts and opinions are my own.”

SO HERE’S THE “END OF BLOG” SPIEL!

The next few weeks have some awesome stuff planned! I have a Gwynnie Bee post planned! And Eloquii! And a soon will be Black Friday stuff! Literally can’t wait. So everyone stay tuned, please!

And I CANNOT wait to get into the holiday season. Brace your stockings for this one!

If you are at all interested in doing a collab or working with me – please feel free to check out my new Contact Me! page!

I definitely want to do more His & Her fashion. Do you guys like seeing Preston more?

Follow me on Instagram: @thepennydarling

If you want to follow my darling, Preston – you can click here!

Like my Facebook page here!

Follow me on Twitter here!

Subscribe for updates!

Check out my Gwynnie Bee affiliate page here! (Free month trial if you use my code!)

Check out my Society+ affiliate page here!

If you’d like to donate to help me keep Penny Darling going – click here!

Comment for topics you would like to see me cover! Like to help my self esteem! What do you think so far? More fashion? More lifestyle? Do you like the mix?

Thank you for all that you do. You are truly extraordinary.

Love all you wonderful ladies (and gents!) out there!

How Very,

Abby