Smitten Kitten

A little bit of background…

I originally met my honey (Les) online on www.okcupid.com.  I signed up on the site years and years ago, when it was still sparkmatch.  The web site’s original attraction was the free SparkNotes (like cliff notes) and the wide variety of quizzes. (Yes, I am a quiz whore)

Eventually, Sparkmatch morphed into okcupid and internet dating was clearly the focus of the site.  I continued to use the site as I had (w/o sparknotes, of course), but didn’t really take advantage of the dating part of the site.  When other users “stalked” (viewed) my profile or left me a message, I usually replied or stalked them in kind.  I went on a few dates, but that provided me with some very interesting date stories, and no special people.

Fast forward to early April 2008. I sign into okc and check out my stalker list. It’s mostly people from my area, but there is one that stands out - a slightly older man from South Africa. (I’m from Cleveland, OH btw.) Immediately, I check out his profile and love it.  It’s intelligent, witty and fairly silly - a very winning profile.  I’m quite taken with it.  So taken that I send a message inviting further communication AND my private e-mail address. (I feel that this is a very bold online dating move, plus I hardly ever made the first move online.(Stalking counts as 1/4-1/2 a move, maybe less.))

 Anyway, I heard back from him within a few days, and not just a return “hello”, but a good, solid letter.  He told me about himself and asked about me, I returned his e-mail and we just kept going.  It started out as back-and-forth emails. (About one a day, with alternating senders, averaging 3-5 pages.) It took a little while to figure out the time difference, but once we did, we were chatting all the time on gmail. Exactly two weeks after first contact, we’d moved on to the phone.

That’s when it started getting expensive. Calls to/from South Africa are not cheap and we were talking for hours and hours a day. We couldn’t get enough of each other, never wanted to stop talking. The first few weeks we averaged about 10 hours a day, in some form of communication or another.  We’ve gotten it down to 4-5 hours daily at this point, but it’s more on some days.

Towards the end of April, I invited him to a wedding. My two best friends were getting married at the end of May and I was the maid-of-honor.  I really wanted him to be there with me and he wanted to be there too.  We bought a ticket and we finally met for the first time on May 22, 2008.

We were both confident that the chemistry we felt online would stand up to reality.  Happily correct, He stayed with me for four wonderful days before he had to fly back home. Those days were jam-packed with shopping, wedding preparations, the ceremony and the reception and surprise family memorial day event.

To be continued…