How we met...
Apr. 26th, 2009 09:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
prosodicLance doesn't believe in celebrating dating anniversaries now that we're married.
But 8 years ago, we met in person. I believe it was actually Friday, April 27th, 2001, although my memory might be off by a day or so. It sticks in my mind that it was the 26th when we actually met, but unless I took Friday the 27th off work, that wouldn't have been the case. Although it is quite possible that I did do just that.
I don't know if I ever posted the story of how this meeting came to be, but I'll post it now.
My friend Wendy (a real life friend, not an online friend) knew Lance. They had been chatting online for years, and when Lance took leave once and drove through Ohio, he met her for lunch. She thought he was charming, funny and handsome.
So she told me about him. She sent me a picture of him and said that if I see "Scarecrow" online, I should say hi. But I didn't have to do that, because she had apparently already told him about me. One day I no sooner logged in, and Scarecrow was saying hi to me.
Honestly though, she spoke so gushingly of him that I thought she was interested in him for herself (she wasn't - she had him in mind for me all along). And besides, he had a girlfriend at the time (even though their relationship was quickly going south). So Lance and I merely made small talk online. And we sent the occasional email to one another.
Then Lance went to Okinawa for a time. This was pretty much right at the end of his relationship with his girlfriend. I was having troubles with an ex-boyfriend that was on again/off again. My heart was being repeatedly broken. The time difference allowed Lance to be on Yahoo Messenger at the same time I was, and we spent hours chatting. He was trying to convince me that I needed to give the ex the heave-ho for good...that he was slime and would continue to hurt me for as long as I would let him.
Then the ex had a conference to attend in Seattle. He wanted me to come with him, as a friend, because it would be a fun vacation for me and it would cost me very little to go. The hotel room was paid for and we would sleep in separate beds...totally platonic and all. Lance spent a lot of time trying to convince me that this was a horrible idea. I had already booked my plane ticket. He at least convinced me to book another place to stay. Not being able to afford the expensive hotel that the ex was staying in, I booked a room at a hostel.
By this time, Lance was back from Okinawa. He asked me for my travel dates, and he asked for leave during the time I would be in Seattle. His plan was to fly out there and rescue me from myself. He knew where I was planning to stay and everything. He was getting ready to book his own tickets and accommodations.
But that trip never happened. The night before we were supposed to leave, my ex got a terrible case of food poisoning and had to go to the hospital. He paid me back for my plane ticket, since I really wasn't enthusiastic about flying off to Seattle by myself (of course, now, I wouldn't think twice about such a thing, but I wasn't so well-traveled then).
So Lance and I didn't meet at that point in time (which was early April 2001). But our online chats escalated to phone calls within those few weeks at the beginning of April. And we would spend hours on the phone...finishing each other's sentences. Lance would make me laugh so much. He finally decided that we had to meet, and since my lease was up on April 30th and I had to move out of my apartment, he set our meeting for the last weekend in April. He would drive up from Georgia and help me move my stuff back into my parents' house (I would be leaving for grad school in a few months, and so I was living with them temporarily until I moved to Oxford).
I was at work that day while he made the drive up from Georgia. He called me periodically to update me on where he was. When I got home, I was frantically trying to tidy up the house and freshen up. But I think I was barely home 10 minutes when he arrived.
And that was that. He walked into my apartment and gave me the longest hug ever. And we've been together ever since.
But 8 years ago, we met in person. I believe it was actually Friday, April 27th, 2001, although my memory might be off by a day or so. It sticks in my mind that it was the 26th when we actually met, but unless I took Friday the 27th off work, that wouldn't have been the case. Although it is quite possible that I did do just that.
I don't know if I ever posted the story of how this meeting came to be, but I'll post it now.
My friend Wendy (a real life friend, not an online friend) knew Lance. They had been chatting online for years, and when Lance took leave once and drove through Ohio, he met her for lunch. She thought he was charming, funny and handsome.
So she told me about him. She sent me a picture of him and said that if I see "Scarecrow" online, I should say hi. But I didn't have to do that, because she had apparently already told him about me. One day I no sooner logged in, and Scarecrow was saying hi to me.
Honestly though, she spoke so gushingly of him that I thought she was interested in him for herself (she wasn't - she had him in mind for me all along). And besides, he had a girlfriend at the time (even though their relationship was quickly going south). So Lance and I merely made small talk online. And we sent the occasional email to one another.
Then Lance went to Okinawa for a time. This was pretty much right at the end of his relationship with his girlfriend. I was having troubles with an ex-boyfriend that was on again/off again. My heart was being repeatedly broken. The time difference allowed Lance to be on Yahoo Messenger at the same time I was, and we spent hours chatting. He was trying to convince me that I needed to give the ex the heave-ho for good...that he was slime and would continue to hurt me for as long as I would let him.
Then the ex had a conference to attend in Seattle. He wanted me to come with him, as a friend, because it would be a fun vacation for me and it would cost me very little to go. The hotel room was paid for and we would sleep in separate beds...totally platonic and all. Lance spent a lot of time trying to convince me that this was a horrible idea. I had already booked my plane ticket. He at least convinced me to book another place to stay. Not being able to afford the expensive hotel that the ex was staying in, I booked a room at a hostel.
By this time, Lance was back from Okinawa. He asked me for my travel dates, and he asked for leave during the time I would be in Seattle. His plan was to fly out there and rescue me from myself. He knew where I was planning to stay and everything. He was getting ready to book his own tickets and accommodations.
But that trip never happened. The night before we were supposed to leave, my ex got a terrible case of food poisoning and had to go to the hospital. He paid me back for my plane ticket, since I really wasn't enthusiastic about flying off to Seattle by myself (of course, now, I wouldn't think twice about such a thing, but I wasn't so well-traveled then).
So Lance and I didn't meet at that point in time (which was early April 2001). But our online chats escalated to phone calls within those few weeks at the beginning of April. And we would spend hours on the phone...finishing each other's sentences. Lance would make me laugh so much. He finally decided that we had to meet, and since my lease was up on April 30th and I had to move out of my apartment, he set our meeting for the last weekend in April. He would drive up from Georgia and help me move my stuff back into my parents' house (I would be leaving for grad school in a few months, and so I was living with them temporarily until I moved to Oxford).
I was at work that day while he made the drive up from Georgia. He called me periodically to update me on where he was. When I got home, I was frantically trying to tidy up the house and freshen up. But I think I was barely home 10 minutes when he arrived.
And that was that. He walked into my apartment and gave me the longest hug ever. And we've been together ever since.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-04-26 05:32 pm (UTC)