I’m still in Cincinnati, Ohio, and boy have I got a lot to tell.
After meeting Kenny, Jeni’s dad, Missy, Jeni’s sister, Paul, Missy’s boyfriend, and one of Jeni’s grandmothers on Wednesday night, I went to bed.
Kenny is really funny and neat. I like him and he seems to like me. Missy is around 23 I think. She lives at home and commutes to a university nearby. Her boyfriend Paul was visiting and he seemed like a great guy as well.
Oh Thursday morning I met one of the neighbors. She is an old lady named Skip and her husband is Gill. She is so sweet. She told us about her grandsons Chip and Joey. Chip is diabetic and Joey is, well, he wasn’t formed completely when he was born. Chip wrote a paper about his brother for school. Skip showed it to us and Jeni and I read it together. I have so much to be thankful for and yet I still sometimes complain. It really hurts me knowing that I do that.
A little later Jeni and I went for a walk to her church. It’s a Presbyterian Church. It looks very modern. I met her youth pastor, Craig. He’s really cool and you can see Jesus in his face. I can see now why Jeni always talks about him. Tonight, Saturday, we are going to go visit them at their house. We spent about two hours talking to Craig, he’s only 23 and yet it seems like he’s been everywhere. He plays the guitar and writes songs. He was in a band, but not anymore.
I met the pastor of her church as well. I also met Jeni’s old dance teacher Candice. She is really tiny and she has played about three different cats in the musical CATS over in Germany. She was so wonderful and easy to get along with. But she is not a Christian and it hurts Jeni very much because she can’t imagine heaven without her. She was crying about it on our way home. I held her hand.
Last night we rented Last of the Mohicans and Searching for Bobby Fisher. They were both great!
Each night Jeni would come into my room (the guest room) and we would cuddle for a while. Last night she was in here until about 3 or 4 in the morning. She was in her pajamas and she was cold so I let her get under the covers and I stayed on top of the covers next to her. We just held each other, kissed each other, and complemented each other.
Last night however I also met three of her guy friends: Joe, John, and Shawn. We went out to downtown Cincinnati.
I have never been so amazed about anything in my life. I have been so isolated. This city is so huge. There are so many people here. There are around 100 high schools just in the Cincinnati area. And there were only three in the county I grew up in. They took me to rich parts of town and bad parts as well. I saw homeless people and 4-year-olds walking around by themselves. I thought I had seen so much in life. But last night as we were on top of a lookout, I could see so far. I saw city lights go forever and it seemed as though I was looking down upon the stars. The moon was full and the color of blood. As I stood there next to Jeni, it all hit me:
Throughout my life I will go many new places and different people and different things will take me there.
Jeni is one of those persons. As we held each other last night for so long, a few words poured helplessly out of my mouth, “I’m falling in love with you Jeni.”
And she simply said, “Thank you.”