teny jr dot com

Thanks to my cousin Jeff for introducing me to chatting online a decade ago. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have been hanging out in chat rooms on America Online, signed in as “Tenyrsgon“. I wouldn’t have been in a particular room called “Friends First”, saying hello to all incoming chatters like a professional Walmart greeter. Most importantly, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to meet someone on this very day 10 years ago. Someone who everyone referred to as “CL”.

From that day forth, Christine and I talked everyday, online and on the phone. As time passed, our online friends would refer to us as a “couple” - Teny and CL. But we couldn’t really call ourselves a couple; we were friends first. There was a certain connection that we had; we could talk to each other about anything and everything. We used to say we were “on the same wavelength”.

We certainly took our time. We didn’t see a picture of each other for the first 4 months. We didn’t meet in person until Valentine’s Day weekend when I flew out to St Louis to visit her. My parents thought I was visiting a friend in Chicago. I didn’t feel comfortable telling my folks about this, given the nature of the situation. It wasn’t common for one to travel cross-country to be with someone they never met. I did tell my sister, and she thought the whole thing was cool. She did ask me, “what if you get to the airport, and she doesn’t show up?” I knew CL too well to not do this to me.

I arrived at Lambert Airport at 7:50 pm. Nobody at the gate. No big deal; my flight arrived early. I went to the restroom first. Came back out; no sight of CL. Still early - let’s go to the baggage pick-up. She wasn’t there either. I got my bags, sat down and listened to my walkman. 30 minutes later, still no CL. All I kept hearing in my head was my sister’s voice.

I gave her a call. Turned out she was having a situation with D’s babysitter, and it would be an hour before she would get there. Whew! Nearly 2 hours after I landed, CL finally arrived with a grin on her face. We had a wondeful weekend together, and when it was over, we wished it could continue.

I made 3 more visits before I felt I could call the Midwest home in 1997. I proposed to Christine in Orlando, Florida in October 1998, and we were married in Walt Disney World on June 22, 2000.

Somehow, thanks to an old AOL tool known as Powertoys, I still have the chat transcript of our chance encounter (and no, I won’t post it; it’s like looking at an old picture of yourself doing something rather embarrassing).

Happy Anniversary to my sunflower, CL …

I love you, Darling, with all my heart!

XOXOXOX

Teny

Posted on September 17th, 2006 under CL, events, family, me • RSS 2.0 feed • Leave a response, or trackback