inevitable

i realize that i haven't really talked a whole lot about how i met ben here... or about how exactly i ended up in missouri. so today, i put your burning curiosity to rest. that, and my friend mary is having a bloggy carnival about first dates. join along if you'd like!

it was 12 years ago this coming november. the year was 1997. i was a minnesota born and raised 15-year-old green bay packer fan and lover of brett favre. i had recently discovered chat rooms online, and one inparticular chat room that i occasionally visited was a football chat room. one afternoon i happened to start a discussion about the packers with an 18-year-old missouiran and rival minnesota vikings fan. at the end of our conversation, for some reason, he gave me his email address, benk1@thisisnolongerhisemailaddress.com.

so i emailed him.*

and he emailed me back.

and thus my friendship with ben started. we emailed back and forth and chatted online for 2 years. and then one lovely afternoon in august my friend jessica and i were watching a movie at my house when i got a call from john henry with the internal revenue service. (remember that jess?!) mr. henry informed me that he had 6 documents stating that i hadn't paid my taxes for the past 4 years and if i didn't cooperate that he would hand the case over to the authorities. my parents weren't home, so i was kind of freaking out. and then he said something like, "so this is what you sound like." yes, that mean mr. henry who wouldn't believe that i'd never had a job was actually ben calling me for the first time. (and yes, he had written out his whole speech prior to calling me...)

and that was the beginning of our endless phone calls and tons of money spent on phone cards. eleven months later, in july of 2000, ben came to minnesota to meet me in person for the first time. i was 18, ben was 21. and at the airport it was love at first sight! he stayed at our house for nine wonderful days. we toured the city, went bowling and mini golfing, went fishing, had a pizza picnic, soaked each other in a water fight, and played a ton of games! i don't remember exactly what our first date was, but i do remember that we kissed the second night he was there. i gave him a hug goodnight, and then it sort of awkwardly but wonderfully turned into a kiss.

it was inevitable and unavoidable. and incredible.

and thence our relationship set sail.

our first ever picture together. please excuse my big looking head and my extremely white face. and the quality of the picture—it's from our scrapbook.

it was also inevitable that ben had to leave after our nine-day venture. but i will save that for another post! after all, this was only supposed to be about our first date!

hop over to mary's blog to read some more first date stories, or write your own and play along!

*in no way do i condone 15-year-old girls meeting boys online. he did not know my first name for months and did not give him my address or phone number for years. and yes, we will be coming up with a different story to tell our daughter someday...!