Saturday Soliloquy #26: How I Met My Husband: The Online Story

Before I went to Japan, I tried out matchmaker.com and thought it was pretty fun.  I met a few guys that were nice and went on a few dates.  So, when I returned to the US it was only natural that I would use the same service.  I was hoping to find a fella with whom I could hang out and kiss.  Man, what a silly girl I was.  Still, that truly was my 'goal' for online dating.  I didn't understand then what I understand now about the spirit connections formed in any sort of sexual interaction.  Kissing, whether folks want to admit it or not, is most definitely a sexual interaction.

I'll share more about that later.  If you'd like to read what I have learned about that subject, make sure to let me know.  Requesting more on that topic will sure speed my sharing on it.  This post is meant to be about how I met Jessie.

I was stood up twice after I came back to the US.  Jessie was going to be my last try at hanging out before I went to Australia.  I'd decided that maybe my Host Family (in Japan) was right.  Maybe I was Christmas Cake and no guy (no one) would want me.  Man, you should see what I looked like back then.  For me to believe such a thing is absolutely ridiculous... but I did!  Which, really reveals SO much about how much I thought of myself.

Jessie found me through matchmaker.com and wrote to me.  I had established a few rules for myself.  At the time that I used matchmaker.com, they had a few different areas for each profile.  There was the multiple choice, short answer, and long answer.  I filled mine out absolutely truthfully.  Although I knew it was unlikely that most told the truth as I did, I attempted to treat them as if they did.

One of the rules I'd established for myself was that if a fella answered one particular question wrong, I wouldn't write to him.  The question was: "What are you looking for?"  The choices (since it was in the multiple choice section) included things like: "long-term relationship, just for fun, one night stand."  I hope you can determine which answer was unacceptable to me.

Well, Jessie had answered with the wrong answer.  He had answered that PARTICULAR question with the wrong answer.

The funny thing... with every other guy I'd met through matchmaker.com, they always asked to meet me really fast.  Not Jessie.  In fact, I asked to meet HIM!  You know what he said?  He told me he had to do laundry because they were going out to sea for two weeks!  (Sounds a bit like when a girl says she has to wash her hair, so she can't go out.)

I told him I'd write to him in email while he was gone.  He didn't believe me.

But I did.

The night he returned, I was out with another guy.

Yes, I was that cute!  heeheehee

Anyway... I went out with that other guy just because I was bored, honestly.  I wanted to go out, he offered, and so I went.  Unfortunately, I didn't REALLY understand how much he liked me.  And I didn't deal with him very well... I wasn't blunt and direct (as I usually am).  In fact, I was a coward in the way I dealt with him after that night.  He brought a friend to meet me because he liked me THAT much.  That, of course, scared me off because I truly was looking for just a fun friend to hang out with and maybe kiss sometimes.

When I returned from hanging out with that guy and his friend, I found that Jessie had called and was so annoyed with myself.  To give me credit, though, their ship had pulled in early.  Jessie wasn't due back until the following day.

I attempted to call him back.  No answer.  They were using the internet and those were the days when a phone line was almost always tied up to use the internet!  Can you imagine that?  I tried repeatedly to call him back.

Somehow we finally connected and made a plan to meet at the Denny's I'd worked at on Newtown Road.