My husband and I met 4 years ago on-line.
And not on an on-line dating site.
For at least 10 years now I have played 0n-line games. MMORPGs to be exact. My first was Ultima Online (UO), where I quickly became a part of a guild and made friends. After knowing one another online we decided to meet in person and thus began our annual trips to Vegas.
Which is a whole other story. Or stories, actually.
When UO began to bore us we moved on to Star Wars Galaxies and there delved even further into the geekery that was our true natures. We again formed a guild, and then spent most waking hours there together. We even used a voice chat system so we could talk there as well as on the phone when not playing.
Star Wars soon became something we were bored with, and lucky for us the time for World of Warcraft was here.
Now, I have to be honest: Warcraft was something that a couple of the group decided to try, and there was resistance by the majority over starting over again in a new game. I secretly bought my copy, had it at home for a few weeks, and then finally installed it. I wanted to try it, it looked so pretty to play, and my best friend was already immersed in it. I would pretty much follow D anywhere with games, and once I installed it we begane to play on a server without telling anyone.
That lasted almost 2 weeks.
The main group had caught on, some others were now going to try it as well, and so we all agreed to make new charachters on 1 server to play together. There were 6 or 7 of us now playing, and it was going to be us doing what we love together.
I think it was our 2nd or 3rd night out when the idea to form a guild came about. We were all on, someone had the money, and we just needed 10 signatures to complete the charter and be able to be our little family. Since we were short people, people began to "shout" for others to add their names to the list to help.
And along came 3 strangers.
We created our guild, and 2 of them stayed for a little bit. One eventually logged out, but the last one found the town we were in and came to meet us. He quickly caught on to our teasing of wanting a pirate man and joined in. It was so seamless, as if he'd been a part of the group all along. If he could have seen the private messages going on between us girls I think we may have made him blush. We had no clue who he was, but I think that's what added to the excitement.
Now, again, I have to be honest. I have never been one to flirt like that with a stranger. Ever. Even my "nerf herder" on Start Wars was a friend I met first in real life before we began to play there. So this was new to me. One of the girls we nicknamed "Samantha" from Sex and the City because of her outgoing nature. It was easier to go along with her than to try and stand out.
But something was different this time.
After some chatting the discussion of a lap dance came up. The charachters in the game could dance, and we were in this little town dancing. When he offered a gold piece for one I didn't hesitate. We were all having fun, and it made me laugh.
Before logging out that night we made sure he had the link to our guild's site and message board. The guild leader was planning on removing the extra names from the guild as they were only there to help us get started, but asked me first if she should remove him. I asked her not to and to just wait and see what happened.
He visited our board the next day, registered, posted, and sent me a private message. We exchanged AOL IDs, quickly began chatting, and spent the next 4 weeks either on messenger or in game. He sent me his favorite music to listen to, wrote me about his life, asked me about mine. It was 4 weeks before we heard each other's voices, and this was still over a voice chat program he downloaded just for us. Another week or 2 and we were finally on the phone.
The phone calls were the best. See, he lived in VA and I live in CA. With a 3 hour time difference we were able to basically talk every free minute we had because of our different work schedules. It would start at 5:30 am here and then continue off and on until almost 11 my time each night when we both went to bed. There was more than 1 night where I was sleeping with the phone next to my ear and he would listen to me breathe.
After a couple of months of this he made the trip out to meet me. We spent 10 days together, and I cried when he left. Not too long after he was back home I installed a web cam, and I remember when he first could see in to the apartment and told me he wanted to come back home to me.
That summer was a long one, and the phone calls almost didn't seem to be enough anymore. We were already talking about being together, and one night he asked me if when the time came I would take his name.
That August, just a little over 6 months after that lap dance, he came back for another visit. His flight home was "missed" and he never left after that.
This last August, just shy of living together for 3 years, I did take his last name.
4 years have passed since that night online. I can't believe it's only been that long since I don't remember him not being a part of my life.
And I look forward to the rest of our lives together. (Originally posted 2/10/2009)
No comments:
Post a Comment