Six’s Perspective
About a year after I took a chat sabbatical, I came back into Chat to visit with some old friends. It was not long before I met some new ones, who had become regulars in my years absence. One of these new friends was Tiger. Everyone already seemed to know him and were quite fond of him. I mainly just spoke to him in passing, because everyone else was, but that was the extent of our conversations.
Until one night someone asked if I had a cam and I answered saying “Yes I have a cam, but the view is so scary that Yahoo makes me call it Scare-O-Vision, and you have to read and sign a disclaimer before you can view!” It wasn’t long before a few of the regs, who had never seen my cam before, asked to view. Tiger was one of them. Of course, I was joking about me being too scary for for yahoo, and it was only a matter of minutes before those who were viewing were saying so in the room. A few minutes later, Tiger asked to PM me, he seemed harmless enough, so I obliged. Not much of anything special in that conversation except that he assured me I was not scary, but rather, I was beautiful.I thanked him and told him he was blind!
Over the next few days, we chatted privately about this and that, mostly just small talk, sharing sound wavs and photos. We hit it off and I realized, almost instantly from the 1st conversation we had, Tiger was a good person and would be a true friend. We found ourselves spending more and more time talkin in PM, than in the open room. In less than a weeks time he boldly asked me for my number, and I gave it to him without hesitation, something that was indeed strange for both of us. Even after he had my number in hand, we chatted in PM for hours more, until he asked shyly if he could call.
It was at that point that I gave him the standard speech about the depth and drawl of my southern voice, and he laughed and assured me that it wouldn’t frieghten him in the least, so I logged off and he called. From that day on, we only missed one day of talking via phone. I would be waiting for him when he got home from work and we would chat online until the wee hours of my morning, then he would call me and we would chat some more! Many mornings, he would still be on the phone when it was time to wake my boys for school. The 3 hour time difference was unimportant. I can’t really remember when it was that I fell in love with Tiger. But somewhere, during endless conversations about life, hopes and dreams, he had scaled the high walls that surrounded my heart without even knowing he’d done it and I knew I loved him.
One night before he logged off to call me he sent me a wav of Chicagos “You’re the Inspiration” and as I listened to the words of that song, I knew he felt the same way I did. Later that night, on the phone, I sensed him struggling for the words he was too afraid to say aloud, and I said “It’s ok you can say it” and with that he drew in a deep breath and said “I love you” I quickly responded with “I love you too,”
We cried together, tears of great happiness, with heavy sighs of great relief that the feelings were mutual and unconditional. In the weeks that followed we made plans to meet. We talked and talked for hours every day, learning anything and everything about one another. Asking and answering questions, growing together. Finally he called and told me that he had his ticket. From that point until his arrival the days crawled by and seemed endless. We were both excited but neither of us was a afraid. We already knew we belonged together.
The day of his flight Tiger woke up and called me, we talked until just about the time he needed to leave for the airport. He called me again from the airport. but I was so exhausted from the excitement that we didn’t talk long. In the hours Tiger was travelling I was making sure everything I had planned was right. I’d made a sign for the airport and packed a picnic lunch with my best china, crystal and table cloth.
In the morning when I woke up my coffee pot was dead and I NEED my coffee so I had to run to Wal Mart to get another one before leaving for the 3 hr trip to the airport. The 1st two hours of the drive were uneventful. It wasn’t until I’d gotten 30 miles from the airport that I saw a huge white puff of smoke come from under my hood. The smoke caused the cars behind me to have a chain reaction pile up. No one was seriosly injured, but the accident had to be cleared and the injured taken to the hospital. I was stranded on the Turnpike, Tiger was at the airport already and I had no idea how I was going to get there. Someone let me borrow their cell phone but Tiger couldn’t get a signal at the airport and had it turned off. I got his voice mail 3 times! At this point I was crying uncontollably. Half an hour later a State trooper came and called a tow truck that took me to where there was a cab waiting for me.
Ya know how in chat you usually ignore obnoxious people? Well let me tell you, that is almost impossible to do when you are stuck in a cab with one for 40 minutes!! I couldn’t find that ignore button ANYWHERE and that guy would not shut up! At this point I was over 2 hours late for the airport, and that’s all I wanted to do…GET TO THAT AIRPORT!
Meanwhile Tiger arrived and was wondering what happened to me, searching high and low in that massive airport with no luck finding me. I only survived the cab ride to the airport by knowing that Tiger was there waiting for me. I paid the guy, jumped out of the cab and ran to the terminal. I looked and looked and he was nowhere to be found. 20 minutes later I was still looking with no success, when I happened to turn around and saw him walking towards me with the biggest grin I’d ever seen.
Three steps later I was where I’d belonged my whole life, wrapped in his arms. It was just like the movies everything around us just stopped, time stood still and there was only us. We kissed for a long time that 1st time, then locked fingers and slowly backed up to see if this was real. we knew by the dancing eyes and wide grins that it was indeed real! Soon after, the reality of not having a car and no way to get home, sprang to the forefront of my mind. Tiger saw the worried tears come to my eyes and took my face into his hands and said “Baby don’t worry one second about that, we are finally TOGETHER and nothing else matters.”
Ya know something? He was right. We were together and everything else was un-important. They were only minor details. Oh, that picnic lunch I’d so meticulously packed? It had to be left in the car on the Turnpike as there was only room for me in the tow truck. This is only the 1st in a long line of adventures that we’ve encountered together. The rest are just as exciting and wonderful as this one, but we have strength to face them boldly because we are together and nothing else matters!
Bloggers Note: Nine years later Tiger and Six are still together, married and living in Washington, Tiger’s home state. You see if people can meet and fall in love online from completely opposite sides of the Country (Six was in Florida) how much easier is it to meet someone more local from an Online Dating site? It’s a lot more difficult for people like this to make it happen than it is to meet someone within 100 miles or so of your home. Don’t be leery of using modern methods to find love! And don’t be afraid to expand your search criteria for a wider selection. Sometimes a little bit of distance can create the perfect conditions for getting to know each other more thoroughly by long phone conversations, texts and messaging.
