L is for Love

I posted a few weeks ago about things I love.  The list still holds true and there is much more I could have added.

Today I'm thinking more along the lines of romantic love.  The love you read about in books or see in movies.  Does it exist?  Or is most of that lust combined with some fondness?  I've always thought that I wanted to be with someone who was a friend first.  Someone who I had gotten to know over time and who I loved and appreciated in their entirety.  I know there are different schools of thought regarding this. I have a very good friend who says she has enough female friends and doesn't need her lover to be her friend as well.

From all I've read about relationships, it seems that the passion people have at the beginning of a relationship doesn't last.  There are certain hormones that are rampant during the "falling in love" stage of a relationship that just don't stick around.  About 18 months into a new relationship people think they've fallen out of love, but what they've really fallen out of is that hormonal rush of feeling.  Are those falling in love feelings awesome? Absolutely, but they're also not sustainable. So I guess for me it makes sense to be with someone you really like because the rest of the stuff is so ephemeral.

What have been your personal experiences with new relationships and how they've evolved?