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Scott says:
At the end of it all, so many things can be traced back to one simple
action,
one old and beat-up computer.
I think that I can blame it all on Jon, a good friend of mine. We've
been
friends since middle school, stuck by each other for years. We still
spend a
lot of time together, even though life has taken us on different paths.
I work
in education, he's a dispatcher working the midnight shift and running
his own
business.
We've always talked about stuff, movies, books, video games. We still meet up on a weekly basis.
Four years ago, Jon bought himself a game, but his computer, old and
beat-up,
couldn't run it satisfactorily. It was one of those MMO games. Scary
things, I
thought at the time. I didn’t want to pay every month to play. There
were
horror stories about addictions and such; but, since Jon couldn’t play
it
himself, he gave it to me.
Now, this game was called City of Heroes, and I'd read a bit about it.
I had come
up with the concept of a supergroup for it, before it was even
released. I
figured I could play if for that free month that was included, and then
just
let it go.
<>
I'd never had so much fun.
Fast forward a few months. I was helping a friend in the game pick out
her
avatar's wedding dress in-game, and she wanted to call me to consult. I
blinked, surprised, but said okay. As it
turned out, she didn't live too far from me, which I mentioned to her
during
that call.
Next thing I know, I'm invited out to meet with other local players,
for the
special guest of honor (another player) to have a birthday surprise
while he
was down from Northern California. I brought my chili, which was a hit.
(It was
rather interesting. Met the gentleman at the door, exchanged real
names, and we
both just kind of paused and stared at each other. Exchanged character
names,
and then it was time for man-hugs.)
At that little get-together, I met Julie and her husband, who both
played. They
became fast friends of mine.
A while later, Julie and Jeff invited me to join their tabletop gaming
group.
Also playing was a friend of theirs, someone who didn't do any online
gaming.
It was great fun.
The day came, of course, when that friend, Dori, didn't feel like
driving, and
so told everyone to come over to her place, and that her roommate would
cook
dinner for us.
Her roommate, needless to say, was somewhat upset that she would have
company,
and be expected to cook for them, on less than an hour's notice. That
first
evening, the roommate hid out in her room. But, apparently, after we'd
finished
our game and left, said "They can come over any time."
Over the next ten months, with regular games, the roommate who had
hidden out
gradually changed her attitude. She decided that, instead of hiding
out, first
she would watch us playing the game. Then she wanted to join the game.
Then she
picked up her own copy of City of Heroes.
Finally, ten months after I first met that roommate, I figured it out. I believe my words were something to the
effect of “Um, would you like to go out sometime?” <>
Her exact words were, “I’d love to!”
And, as of March 11th, she and I are now
engaged to be
married.
So, tracing it all back to the beginning, it's all Jon's fault. Had he
not
bought the game, had he not had an older computer incapable of running
it, Kate
and I might never have met.
So, here's to Jon, without whom, we wouldn't be stupidly happy today.
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Kate says:
When my ex-roommate, Dori, wanted to move to Southern
California in 2004,
we did so together. Who knew what a fateful choice that would be?
When she told me her role-playing group was going to be coming to the
apartment, I wasn't the happiest roommate on the block, but I said to
myself, “What
the heck? We don't get out enough.” So, I fixed them dinner, and
then
hung out on my computer while they played.
After they'd left, I made the suggestion to Dori that they come over
more
often. After all, I do enjoy cooking (with notice), Jeff and
Julie are
good people, and that new guy was kind of cute. *chuckles*
Insert several months of watching them play as I passed through
the living
room and conversations with Scott on the back porch during
breaks. I
eventually joined their game, and all of us would get together as
friends for
reasons other than the game. We
would
all meet up to go out for brunch, or to go out to see a movie, and
everyone
pitched in to help Dori and I when we moved.
Surprise, surprise: After 10 months of becoming friends (and me nursing
a wee
crush), Scott asked me out on a date.
The rest is history. *smile*
Exactly one year after our first date, on the pier at Huntington Beach,
at
sunset, Scott got down on one knee and made me the happiest woman in
the
world... and made some nearby teenagers squeal too. *grin*
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