By the Numbers, Part II

From December 6 to December 31, 2007, we chatted 37 times, totaling 126,558 words and over 645,000 characters. When pasted into a Word document, that's 379 pages of horniness. Let's get to the word cloud:

  

Okay, so this one isn't really scandalous compared to the last one, as I said it would be. Although, "sex" does show up 139 times in our conversations, "love" 164 times, and "naked" 22 times. "Haha" shows up 552 times. Clearly we crack each other up.

To make up for the fact that it wasn't as scandalous as you might've been hoping for (I know I was), here are some photos:

By the Numbers, Part I

From December 6 to December 31, 2007, we sent 51 emails, totaling 48,220 words and over 260,000 characters. When pasted into a Word document, that's 83 pages of puppy love. My new thing at work is data visualization, so let's get our data visualization on, shall we?

Now, keep in mind, this doesn't cover any of the chat conversations--email only. Which would be why it's not nearly as scandalous as it should be :). That little comparison will be Part II...

Around the World in 4.5 Years

When we started dating you had visited 31 US states to my 24. I had you beat in countries though. Since then, we've been to Mexico, Spain, and Portugal together, and have each added 7 states to our list. Not too bad! Perhaps more impressive was our ability to survive an epic road trip having only been dating for 3 months.

I don't have any quotes for you today--too many things going on around here--but the trip to BV today brought me back to our many, many, many adventures around the world and close to home. We just travel really well together. We would definitely win Amazing Race.

   

Romance

We're definitely in the top quartile (that was for you, data geek) for sentimentality and romance I would think, even if sometimes we're a bit nontraditional about it:

We consider gifts and surprises to be the best way to express romance:

• you: What is the most romantic thing you have ever done for someone?
  me: Oh wow.  Good question.  I think usually it manifests itself in my gift-giving.
  you: Just as your romanticism typically manifests itself in gifts, mine typically manifests itself in travel/romantic getaways.

We think small things are more romantic than big things:

• you: I do feel, at least idealistically, that being romantic is more of a theme or a feeling that results from "all the small things"

Our first kiss was romantic without being romantic:

• you: It's funny, because it wasn't necessarily the most romantic setting, but there's just something about that moment after we hugged when we kind of paused for a second before we kissed that was really, really nice. By the way, I NEVER kiss on the second date (not by policy or anything, it just doesn't happen) and I usually decide "Ok, I want to kiss this girl" and then wait for a couple of dates until the moment arises. I had no intentions of kissing you, even while we were hugging. Guess I just had a feeling. Also, I'm not saying that I kissed you or you kissed me or whatever...I'm just using it in general terms.

In our conversations, you bring up romance far more than I do (which is adorable, btw):

• you: I had a "first date" idea. I hope you're not looking for anything crazy romantic. Or really romantic at all. 
• you: Fish guts are behind like 90% of my romantic stories
• you: Yes, I believe in mushy stuff.

Jackson

I may have fallen in love with your dog before I fell in love with you. But I'm sure that doesn't surprise you--Jackson's pretty easy to love. In fact he's camped out on the floor next to me right now, dreaming away. In our early conversations, he (and my future puppy dreams) definitely played a starring role...

you: my dog is CRAZY!!
me: is jackson excited to see your bro's dog?
you: she's in his room so he went apeshit running all over sniffing until he found her
me: love the puppy antics
you: and they've both already eaten a bowl of the other's food

you: When it was time to pick him out, I spent hours playing with all of the different puppies testing them for a variety of characteristics. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that Jackson was at the top of the class in every category. I like to tell people that he picked me, not the other way around.

me: I've always had dogs, and it's tough being without them. I can't wait until the day my life is stable enough that I can get one for myself. A big, furry, loveable one. Like a Newfoundland maybe. Mmmm....puppies...
you: I think Newfoundlands are AWESOME dogs. I like Bernese Mountain Dogs a lot. Big old lovers. I considered a Greater Swiss Mountain Dog as one of the breeds when I was deciding what kind of dog to get--basically a short-haired Bernese.

you: I'd rather pay someone to express Jackson's anal glands than do it myself.

you: Jackson's a pretty good speller, he's just not very good at communication. He says "woof."

you: there's room for you here right now. jackson on one side of my lap, you on the other...
me: not sure i'd want to share
you: he might have something to say about that...

you: Jackson has more nicknames than any person I've met.

me: Adrienne likes both Jackson the dog and Jackson the name. I'm not sure why, actually, she's not even much of a dog person, so it's kind of confusing to me. I guess I'll understand if she one day names her child Jackson.

And now we've got Jenny, who is special in her own way...

Geeking Out

Beyond the affinity for good grammar and spelling, we have a few other shamefully dorky tendencies. Okay, more than a few. Some might say a lot. A whole lot. But that just makes us more awesome, right?

me: I watch 27.439 hours [of tv] per week
you: Hey. Careful. You're talking to a data guy here. Start throwing numbers around like that and you might really sweep me off my feet :-)

me: I do not pick favorite colors or food, but I definitely pick favorite [software] programs

me: I still have my t-shirt from [the state spelling bee]. I wear it as a night shirt. I should wear it with my crossword underwear. Be ultra geek.

you: I call Jackson "Jacksonian Democracy" sometimes  you: PS This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated.

me: If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, how many pickled peppers did Peter Piper pick?
you: 7 according to my data, but two had Phytophthora Blight and had to be discarded, netting Peter Piper 5 pickled peppers picked

me: How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if he were to have gone to college like his dad told him to instead of taking that year off to "find himself" by backpacking through Europe only to return home and realize he still didn't know who he was and he was a lot poorer and couldn't get a scholarship anymore so he ended up working at the 7-11 down the street from his parents' house and living in their basement until he was 37 and then found a twice divorced crack whore with 3 children from 3 fathers to shack up with and teach him how to commit petty theft?
you: According to my research, a college degree is worth a steadily growing bundle.  According to new data from the Commerce Department's U.S. Census Bureau,  Americans age 18 and older with a bachelor's degree earned an average of $51,554, while those with a high school diploma earned $28,645.  Thus, a difference of $22,909 per year would translate into approximately 101.8 fewer cords of wood chucked.  Poor guy.

And that doesn't cover the number of conversations making fun of people's tech support issues or graphic design fails. Maybe those will be future posts...

Reason #7,403: You're a Grammar Nazi

I shouldn't be surprised, but I managed to get exactly what I asked for on Match: someone who knows how to use a semicolon correctly. I believe I also requested good spelling, punctuation, and grammar, and I'm glad to say I got all of that, and more. Countless times over the course of our courting emails we corrected each other and ourselves, falling head over heels with each typo fixed. Or something like that.

you: grammar corrections dont bother me. i find them endearing, in fact
me: well then you're gonna find me overwhelmingly endearing. not that you have bad grammar, i just like to make corrections
you: that last sentence didn't have a period.
me: grammar is not the same as punctuation
you: uh, yeah it is
me: i keep them distinct because i don't do punctuation in IM very often
me: but if you're going to nitpick, then your sentences aren't starting with capitals
you: lot's of times i dont in email either. capitals--don't need them
me: me either, except for EMPHASIS, when i need to YELL AT YOU

you: I want to make sure your worthy first.
me: You mean you're
you: oh god. what the fuck. i hate myself right now. 

you: basically told him that i should have no problem swooning you because that's what i'm up against...
me: swooning me? i don't think that's the proper usage of that word AT ALL

you: fyewf ;-)
me: you have the funniest ways of spelling your onomatopoeias

me: new mom's? moms. no apostrophe. bad, sarah, bad
you: i won't hold it against you. self correction
me: i hold it against myself

you: i don't spell a lot alot alot.
me: i do probably as probalby all the time
you: wow...a grammatically correct sentence with three a lot's in it
minus some punctuation

It must've been the puppy love that kept me from pointing out the additional errors I see now, but considering you were the only candidate with proper semicolon usage, I'll take what I can get! ;)

I haven't killed any of your plants yet.