life, the universe, and donna

I’m reasonably certain (although I have a famously bad memory, so I could be wrong) that a year ago today, I had my first pseudo-date with Nick.

It was cute. We had gamed together (with his ex and a mutual friend of ours) for a few months the year before, but I had to drop out in January when I moved to the suburbs. Then in March, he looked me up on Facebook, and we started chatting a lot. Discovered that he had broken up with his girlfriend.

I have an odd ability to have NO interest in someone if they have a significant other & a closed relationship. Hell, I’m not even sure if I’d call it an ability, it’s totally passive. If someone is unavailable, they simply don’t exist to me in “that way”. There are exceptions, of course, like if I knew them pre-unavailability and was already interested. But when I first met Nick, he had a lovely girlfriend, and was therefore virtually invisible to me save for the “hey, he’s amusing and wacky, gaming with him is fun” judgment. Hell, the first time I met him, his character attacked someone with… a turkey leg? Yeah, he’s an interesting guy.

Anyway, so then he was single. And suddenly hit my radar. Huh.

But still, my “radar” is different from most peoples. I don’t look for people as long term partners. I prefer friends with benefits, right? Still, he was fun to chat with, and I liked him. We ended up going to see a movie. I forget what it was, some post-apocalyptic brain-cake. Forgettable, but fun at the time. Afterward, I hopped on the train back to Surrey, and he went back to work. (Those gamer types, they’re hard workers. Work at 10pm? Yeaaah, I don’t do that too much.) We met up again for dinner a couple of days later, and ended up going back to his place to watch a couple of movies.

Then the bastard went to L.A. for work for 10 days. Bah! We both bought webcams and had a lot of late night conversations — you know, the awesome “I could talk to your for hours” kind of conversations where you figure out how to save the world six times over, if only you could remember how again in the morning. I even considered flying out for the weekend. Sanity (and horrendous flight costs) prevailed, but … yeah, I think that was when I became rather seriously smitten.

Anyway, time went on, and we got closer. I ended up relying on my wonderful family to look after my poor dog in the evenings that I spent with Nick, and the very, very rare occasion that I was able to stay the night. They, of course, sent me guilt trips about how much my dog missed me, and I missed her too… so come July, I started bringing her with me. I even left her with him while I was at work a few times. That? That’s trust. My dog? I LOVE my dog. I don’t leave her with just anybody, y’know!

We weren’t supposed to be a couple. He was fresh out of a serious relationship, I’m terrified of anything resembling commitment. But… whoops. Somewhere along the way I seem to have fallen for him like a sack of bricks. Moved in, became a real couple, mentioned him on my blog, and so on and so forth.

It couldn’t be better. It’s been a fantastic year, sweetheart. I love you.