So I'm sure that some of you (or less - Hell, it could be just one of you!) is wondering just how Jake and I got together. Anyone that pays attention knows that I was born and raised in Northwestern Pennsylvania while he was born in Georgia before spending most of his childhood in Tennessee - and, to the best of my knowledge, neither of us had paid a visit to anywhere remotely near where the other lived before we became involved. Since I haven't mastered the art of teleportation, this means that there was only one way that we could meet...

On the Internet.

Now, a few years ago, I still hung around on Esper.net (an IRC network, for those not in the know) and frequented a good many channels. One of them was a now-defunct room by the name of #geonysa. For about six months or so, I'd occasionally kibitz with a guy with the alias KajiFireson - nothing major, just small talk. One day, though, that innocent and admittedly meaningless chit-chat turned into a long conversation, one which left a really strong impression on the both of us... enough that I began to flirt rather heavily with him trying to respond in kind. While he was far from an unwilling party in it, I was definitely the one doing the pursuing - not that he minded.

The day came that I decided to go for it and ask him if, due to my flirting, I'd need to be looking over my shoulder to check for a vengeful girlfriend wanting blood. When he said no, I took the next step and asked him if he would be interested in trying a long-distance relationship; it took me about five minutes to get a straight answer out of him (even now, he'll give long, vague answers if he feels nervous) although it was definitely worth it when he finally told me yes outright. It took about eight months, give or take a couple week, to scrimp and save the money to buy him a ticket to Pittsburgh to meet me - money was tight, but I was bound and determined to make sure that I'd be able to show him a good time.

We decided on Easter weekend of 2006 - that gave us a couple of days together while allowing for travel time. As cheesy as it sounds, the moment I saw him walk through the door of the bus station with a massive red knapsack slung over his shoulder and a slightly nervous smile on his lips, I just knew. That weekend flew past far, far too fast for the both of us; when he got into that cab to head back to catch his bus, I cried my eyes out. It would be roughly a year before we saw one another again... largely due to how my job transferred me to Winnipeg, Manitoba soon after his departure. Those were the longest (and loneliest) months of my life, made even worse by a winter that seemingly lasted forever.

As odd as it sounds, I was more relieved than disappointed when my work visa renewal was denied. Faced with having to move back to the states, I had two choices; move back to Pittsburgh... or move to Evansville, finally putting me in the same city as Jake. After all of five seconds' thought, I made my decision to move to Indiana - and I haven't looked back since. Now I'm not going to lie - there have been times where I've wondered if maybe moving to a bigger city would've been a better idea... but then I realize that the longest that I have to be apart from the man I love is a handful of days and I know that I made the right decision.

As for the current? Well, we're happy together - not always flush with cash, but happy. For all that we tease one another, I wouldn't know what to do without the man that will someday call me his wife; in a lot of ways, we already function as a married couple. Something that Tyler Hollywood has complimented us on is just how honest we are with one another and how open our lines of communication are - I've got to say that it's vital to how well we're doing, much less to how we got to this point. It'll be three years August 6th, and here's hoping there's many more.

I love you, Jake.

((Oh, and while I'm on the topic of my relationship with Jake... I was the one that proposed, not him - and yes, I did it on the internet since I couldn't afford a plane ticket to surprise him for our anniversary as I had originally planned. He accepted in the same rambling way as he did when I asked him if he was interested in pursuing a relationship.))