Dating 7 years older

I, on the other hand, was just beginning to navigate my desire to communicate outside of school with new friends and boys I had crushes on.

I had only made my first few sweaty, six-digits-and-hang-up forays into the art of calling a crush when AIM came along and mercifully gave me an out.

I loved AIM; I liked that having to type everything meant I couldn’t blurt out something embarrassing, and I felt immense gratitude that it wasn’t obvious when I was scrambling for what to say next.

As I grew up, AIM was replaced by texting, but typed-out messages remained my preferred mode of communicating with people I liked and people I dated.

Every once in a while I still have to remind my early-rising boyfriend that a phone call is most welcome when the receiving party is already awake.

More often, he is morbidly impressed at how long a conversation can burble on, one-sided, after he has texted me “good night.” And sometimes, when the tone of a text conversation reaches a particular level of indignation, he gently tells me we should switch to a phone call so no one gets misunderstood. Our wildly contrasting sleep schedules, for example, are one point in favor of silent, respond-at-your-own-pace communication, while the long-distance relationship we share across two non-adjacent boroughs of New York City make phone calls indispensable when it comes to matters of logistics. I’m here but it’s crowded, let’s meet somewhere else” is a more efficient conversation when it doesn’t have to be punched in one letter at a time.

DO be lovey dovey, but DON' T nickname him something based on his age (Fancypants is cool, though).Maybe, in the end, this is all just a story of a miscommunication and two people too easily spooked.Identifying a problem, of course, is never the same as solving it.Or a 24-year-old girl from New Jersey who happens to blog about her relationship. DON' T use childhood/pop culture references that he will never get.During one scene, Nick (who else has a major crush on him??