Now I know where song lyrics come from....

I wasn't with my love on New Year's Eve.

He was in Denver with his sons, and I was in Santa Monica with my Mom and sons.  We spoke on the phone, and rang in the New Year together, exchanging hopes and dreams of what we want to create in each others lives in 2012 and beyond.  However, I feel like my real New Year's happened on this past Wednesday, when I picked him up at LAX, and kissed him, and felt his arms around me....it truly was one of those moments that songs are written about - the rest of the room slipped away, there seemed to be no one else around, and there wasn't a sound I could hear other than the blood rushing through my ears and the pounding of my heart.

And the next three days passed in a whirlwind, a rush of meeting my sons, looking at condos, meeting my friends, and visiting my office.  But the most precious moment to me of the entire three days was when he looked at me after we got into the car at the airport, and said, "I love you".  I had felt it in his actions and his words - although he had not said it exactly before that moment.  I had seen it in his eyes, and felt it in his touch, in his kiss.  But to hear it come out of his mouth was a moment that is etched on my mental database forever.

And yes, I told him that I loved him too.

A very close second would be on Friday, when we went out in the afternoon with the boys for shakes and cupcakes at Swinger's Diner, and he looked at my sons and said, "I want you both to know that I love your mother very much."  And the two of them smiled back at him as he uttered the words.

A very close third would be while we were at "Wicked" with the boys, and we were holding hands during "As Long As You're Mine" and giving each other a small kiss and a knowing glance.

I can hardly believe that I have found the person that I have been looking for since I first felt that flicker of desire - desire to have a partner, a lover, and a soul mate to go through life with together.

It only took about 24 years.  Thank God I kept on looking!

Better now than never, right?  <3 <3 <3