Anniversarial tangent...

In the last few days, I've reconnected with an old friend from last year with whom I'd fallen out-of-touch. I met E last year, and despite what I thought to be decent chemistry and for reasons largely unknown, we never really had the chance to get off the ground, so to speak. Anyway, we've been missing each other on IM, so by default, have gotten into this one-line-of-text-at-a-time pseudo-conversation, trying to reconnect and catch up without the proper medium.

Last we spoke, E (who lives in SC, perhaps an hour or so away) had allowed me to talk her into coming up for a visit around the first of the year. That's the point where we just fell out of touch, and neither has been great about calling the other. Today, we finally were able to chat a bit about what's been going on, and through some random discussion here and there, found that we were both free, and so we're going to make an attempt to catch up. Here's to hoping that we do a better job of keeping with it this time, I'd love to introduce her to the gang.

In what might be seen as a bit of a departure from my normal rants, allow me to take a moment and recognize a bit of a personal accomplishment. My last "serious" relationship lasted for three years, and ended around march of 2000. Since then, I've been what some might term committment-phobic. I would probably not go so far as to say that that assessment is completely unfounded and off-base, but I think it does somewhat miss the mark. What I'd more closely categorize the situation as is possibly a disdain for societal norms, and all the restrictive stipulations that occur and come with conventional relationships. More on that another day. For now, my point in bringing that up is to illustrate that I've basically not seen anyone consistently and for any length of time in the last five or so years.

A year ago today, I met D, and my life (unbeknownst to me then) would forever be changed (don't you just love those grandiose, sweeping and overgeneralizing statements?) Initially, all we really had was a very intense, tangible chemistry. Very little of the usual awkward small talk or personal information was divulged in the first few encounters;

Everyone knows that these things that start out hot, smolder, burn even more brightly, and get even hotter, generally can't last. The intensity is generally short-lived, and the fuel is rapidly consumed, leaving all contributing participants spent and depleted. I stand before you to testify that this connection has defied conventional wisdom, and possibly even the immutable laws of physics (or maybe interpersonal relations...I'm trying to not mix my metaphors here too much) in not only continuing at a sustained rate, but has continued to surpass any and all expectations (it helps to not have any, I guess) as recently as this month.

Granted, we don't have what anyone, by any leap, would term a "conventional" relationship, but over the past year, I've seen my raw attraction for this woman develop into a real and very deep respect and admiration. As I grow to learn who she is, where she's been, and the things that she's seen, how all those factors and more shape the woman she is and is to become, I've come to want her in my life on a consistent and lasting basis, in any capacity she'll have me. This unfortunately flies in the face of standard "playmate" etiquette, and it's exposition could potentially have disastrous results, but in honour of the first anniversary of the occasion of our meeting, I felt it was the right thing to do to make the statement. My hope here is not to rock the boat, as it were, but to make known my intent and desire to continue to move forward, and commit my presence in a way consistent with the development of our relationship.

D, you mean more to me than I can ever hope to express via mere words, this year has been just barely the beginning, the proverbial tip of the iceberg, and especially in light of recent events, we look to have amazing times ahead of us.

I apologize for the disjointedness of the post, but writing under time constraints doesn't make for the best of conditions...typo and stylistic correction(s) to follow.