WELCOME TO THE FUTURE.

For those just joining us,  hello, we are the Futures... also known as the Hortons. It has been a crazy year for us both, and by crazy I mean the best I've ever had.  After leaving Austin in a hurry to go live in the city I'd told everyone I'd move to for 10 years, things were not what I had imagined. I knew I had to go to Seattle the very moment I did, even though your average "thinking person" might say it was a bad idea to pack a U-haul and drive thousands of miles in the dead of a bad winter to follow an invisible pull in my heart. Thinking people live their lives wanting the tangible... the new job waiting for them, the amazing apartment they put a deposit on months in advance, friends waiting with open arms. Thinking people don't move that far away... with none of those things 2 weeks before Christmas.

I have an amazing pair of uncles in Seattle who took me under their wings and we spent our Sundays trying new recipes and bottles of wine. But after dinner I always drove home to my small rented room in a home that wasn't mine with green walls that somebody else thought were a good idea and tried to grasp what the "big picture" was, or if there even was one for me.

In an attempt at acquiring a friend in a world of "a friend of a friend of a friend of a friends", I sent a quick email to a boy I had never met, but knew lived in Seattle through such a connection. Through all these degrees there was no Kevin Bacon... but there was a Josh Horton.

I had no intention of dating him, or dare I say loving him. I thought if we knew the same people and lived in the same city, then he could show me the ropes... maybe even share the friends I knew he had. Well, just as I had no intention of dating Josh, he had no intention of dating me, yet somehow we found ourselves on an awkward date sort of really liking each other and sort of doing everything we could to write the other off. It became very obvious that we had no chance in the middle of the date when he dropped the little bomb of "I'm moving back to Memphis in 2 weeks". In case I didn't get it his follow up was "I don't do long distance relationships".

Later that week we went on another date... and we emailed, and called, and texted... but we weren't long distance people. No no... this time I was a "thinking person".

A few months later when we had told each other about half of what we knew of life, he told me he couldn't talk to me anymore. Apparently this was starting to look strangely like a relationship and since he was now in Memphis and I was back home in Santa Cruz for a month we had to call a spade a spade and end the agony. It was done... whatever "it" was.... it was dead. I couldn't talk to Josh again.

I think he made it till noon the next day before he texted me... then his FIRST call came around 3... the next at 9. Josh has many strengths... apparently "not dating me" isn't one of them.

A bunch of flights and an intricate system of multiple cell phones to get free "Josh minutes" later, he bought me a ring and I packed my boxes in Seattle.

Four months after that our friends and family clapped as we played for keeps and went off on our European honeymoon.

We moved into a house in midtown Memphis that is 105 years old and filled with character, charm, and loads of lead paint. I planted a vegetable garden I'm trying to keep alive and we got a puppy we named Wilkes that I hope meets a better end than the wilted plants. Our ridiculous love and pride in Wilkes has already sadly proven that we will be "those" parents.

Some things have come gradually and some have come quickly,but altogether life has gotten pretty amazing. A lot can change in a year.