in the winter, our writing flourished. the words flowed. the correspondence blossomed into a consistent and highly anticipated part of my life. i felt like it was necessary and significant. i was loving it. the letters grew longer and came more often. i was still in nebraska and he was still in california, but my interest in grant never wavered. he was still the most fascinating person on earth, and i still had one colossal crush. i bought the songs that he was listening to. i tried the foods that he said he liked. i watched the movies he mentioned. i liked him.

i remember waiting impatiently for the end of my 8 am class to come so that i could tear through the flow of backpacked-students and dash to the library where i would claim a computer and log on to facebook. i held my breath as the page came up and revealed whether or not i had a letter from grant. if i did, i was ecstatic; my day was saved. if it was a long one, i was euphoric. i had to read it right there, right then. my eyes would fly through the text, almost skimming, trying to get all of his words inside me so that i could carry them around in my head for the rest of the day. i read each letter 2 or 6 or 8 times. reveling in the knowledge that he had written these words to me.

in the spring, we one-upped facebook. enter, skype. sweet, wonderful skype. it gave life to our conversations. i would try to be "on" when i though he would be on, always conscious of the 2 hour time difference. my computer had become grand central station; it was my link to grant. nighttime meant sitting in my bed, pillow propped up, spiral notebooks displaying verb conjugations spilled out over my comforter, laptop perched on my knees. i would stay up into the wee hours "doing homework" and hoping to catch him. and many times, i did. also that spring, i found out that my prayers had been answered. i had a job waiting for me at camp shetek that summer. that little piece of information, plus the hope that grant might come home from california to work at camp too, kept me fired up and got me through second semester. it was always on my mind, assuring me that something grand was on the horizon.

in june, grant told me that if it weren't for hundreds of miles between us, he would like to ask me to dinner sometime. (actually, he called it supper) but since he was, in fact, still on the west coast, could he give me a call sometime? i was beside myself. bursting with the news, i ran to the bathroom where my sister was fixing her hair for our cousin's graduation party that night. i told her that grant had just asked for my phone number. she flipped out. i was over the moon. she blurted out, "summer, it's grant harms!" and finished with, "you are going to marry him."

and i did give him my number, and he did call me.

my hilary duff "beat of my heart" ringtone never sounded so sweet.

a week or so later, on june 11th, grant came home. he was going to work at camp shetek for the summer. on june 12th, i would be making the trip to minnesota too. we would meet. i would actually see him. i would be with him everyday for the entire summer. all my dreams were coming true.

and now you are ready for the next part of my story: when i was a kitchen girl.

coming in the future.