In December of 2009, my friend had some Australians he'd met on a study abroad trip come stay with him for the winter holidays. With Christmas, New Years, and the dread of my 22nd birthday clouding my December, I didn't really need anything else to make my month exciting. But on that night when I got a call saying I should hurry up and get to Sara's house for drinks with the Aussie boys, you better believe I hightailed it over. I mean, prior to that December evening, the only Aussie accent I remember hearing was that of the late Steve Irwin and I had been single for the past two years.
This had the makings of a great night. So off I went, and to make a long story short-- only one Aussie was single and my best friend, Lisa, beat me to the punch. So much for hearing sweet nothings whispered in my ear by a beautiful accent, it was time for me to go back to searching around good old Chicago while my best friend kept me up to date with her second international love affair of 2009.
So I listened to the daily reports of International Love Affair #2, slowly losing interest when Lisa began telling me about Simon, the funny best friend she started talking to over Facebook after he made a snide remark about a photo of her and her Australian crush. To be honest, I was still only half interested in her conversations with Simon, as I was still a little bitter about her knack for meeting men with incredible accents.
A few weeks went by and I got a friend request from Simon. I added him out of curiosity and he sent me a chat soon after; something along the lines of "I was just adding people that my friends met overseas" (a likely story if he had added anybody besides Lisa and myself). Simon was a guy that I had never met and was most likely never going to meet, so I spent a minute or two contemplating even writing him back. As fate would have it, I took a chance and returned a chat message to Simon, thinking that if Lisa thought he was so funny, maybe I should give him a chance.
A week or two went by, and I was talking to Simon daily. I found myself rushing home from school to talk to him and getting jealous when Lisa told me about their conversations. I went out and bought an iTouch so that I could lay in bed and talk to him more comfortably. This was getting ridiculous, I'd never even heard Simon's beautiful Australian accent and I was already hanging on his every word.
A few weeks into our friendship, Simon moved and didn't have internet at his new apartment. This was devastating for me. Who was I going to talk to after school? I was no longer interested in face-to-face conversations; I needed to talk to my new best friend from across the globe. To solve this problem, I proposed a game of 20 questions through inbox messages. This soon became a game of probably 400 questions and I was pouring my heart out to a someone who I'd only ever seen pictures of (and not many at that, Simon's facebook wasn't nearly as extensive as it is now).
The time had come. It was time to skype Simon. I went out and bought a webcam from Office Depot and decided to test it out with Lisa. Simon came online while Lisa and I were chatting and I realized that I was way too nervous to talk to him on my own. So I ran and fixed my hair, and with Lisa on the line for moral support, I was going to Skype call him. Well, I'd fixed my hair for nothing because the video feature on skype doesn't work with more than two people on the line. But all was not lost, I finally got to hear his voice. And I was done for. I knew right then and there, while Simon cheated his way through the fifty states game, that I needed to meet this boy. That weekend, I got all dolled up to go out on Friday night, bought a bottle of South Australian Chardonnay, and Lisa and I made a video message for Simon. After four or five takes, it was done and we sent Simon the video the next morning. At that point, I couldn't wait another second for him to see the video and profess his undying love for me (thats all it takes, right? just a 90 second video...). Well, Simon still didn't have internet so I waited until he went to work the following Monday for him to watch. Apparently he needed more than 90 seconds of me saying "hi" and speaking Robot for him to get down on one knee. Simon finally got internet soon after and we started skyping everyday when I got home from school (about 5am for Simon) until it was way past my bedtime. We knew that we had something here and Simon kept tricking me into thinking he was going to hop on a plane and show up on my doorstep, only to find out that the tickets were going to be $2000.
At the end of February, Simon told me that his boss was going to take away his cell and internet connection so that he could work on a spread sheet and he'd talk to me when he finished. Again, I was devastated, I couldn't go all afternoon without talking to Simon. By the next morning, I was itching to talk to him, I had probably sent him 6 messages telling him I was going to call the Australian police if he didn't write me back soon. Luckily, I had a job fair that day down at ISU and a project due the next day, so I'd be pretty busy and maybe it was a good thing Simon wasn't around.
I got home from the job fair at about five, and decided to go straight home to work on my project. At about nine o'clock that night, I heard a knock on my door (this never happens, my mom and I pretty much have no visitors on weeknights and Wesley's friends go hang out in the garage). When my mom got up and asked who it was, I heard that beautiful voice, "It's Simon... from Australia". Well, wow. Either I was hallucinating or Simon had really flown 22 hours just to see me... in my pajamas. What was I supposed to do now? I could run down stairs, but that might be too eager. I could stay in my room and pretend I didn't hear the door, but that might make it awkward for Simon and my mom. So I stood frozen at the top of the stairs, staring at Simon for a good 30 seconds before I snapped out of it and went to give him a hug.
This had the makings of a great night. So off I went, and to make a long story short-- only one Aussie was single and my best friend, Lisa, beat me to the punch. So much for hearing sweet nothings whispered in my ear by a beautiful accent, it was time for me to go back to searching around good old Chicago while my best friend kept me up to date with her second international love affair of 2009.
So I listened to the daily reports of International Love Affair #2, slowly losing interest when Lisa began telling me about Simon, the funny best friend she started talking to over Facebook after he made a snide remark about a photo of her and her Australian crush. To be honest, I was still only half interested in her conversations with Simon, as I was still a little bitter about her knack for meeting men with incredible accents.
A few weeks went by and I got a friend request from Simon. I added him out of curiosity and he sent me a chat soon after; something along the lines of "I was just adding people that my friends met overseas" (a likely story if he had added anybody besides Lisa and myself). Simon was a guy that I had never met and was most likely never going to meet, so I spent a minute or two contemplating even writing him back. As fate would have it, I took a chance and returned a chat message to Simon, thinking that if Lisa thought he was so funny, maybe I should give him a chance.
A week or two went by, and I was talking to Simon daily. I found myself rushing home from school to talk to him and getting jealous when Lisa told me about their conversations. I went out and bought an iTouch so that I could lay in bed and talk to him more comfortably. This was getting ridiculous, I'd never even heard Simon's beautiful Australian accent and I was already hanging on his every word.
A few weeks into our friendship, Simon moved and didn't have internet at his new apartment. This was devastating for me. Who was I going to talk to after school? I was no longer interested in face-to-face conversations; I needed to talk to my new best friend from across the globe. To solve this problem, I proposed a game of 20 questions through inbox messages. This soon became a game of probably 400 questions and I was pouring my heart out to a someone who I'd only ever seen pictures of (and not many at that, Simon's facebook wasn't nearly as extensive as it is now).
The time had come. It was time to skype Simon. I went out and bought a webcam from Office Depot and decided to test it out with Lisa. Simon came online while Lisa and I were chatting and I realized that I was way too nervous to talk to him on my own. So I ran and fixed my hair, and with Lisa on the line for moral support, I was going to Skype call him. Well, I'd fixed my hair for nothing because the video feature on skype doesn't work with more than two people on the line. But all was not lost, I finally got to hear his voice. And I was done for. I knew right then and there, while Simon cheated his way through the fifty states game, that I needed to meet this boy. That weekend, I got all dolled up to go out on Friday night, bought a bottle of South Australian Chardonnay, and Lisa and I made a video message for Simon. After four or five takes, it was done and we sent Simon the video the next morning. At that point, I couldn't wait another second for him to see the video and profess his undying love for me (thats all it takes, right? just a 90 second video...). Well, Simon still didn't have internet so I waited until he went to work the following Monday for him to watch. Apparently he needed more than 90 seconds of me saying "hi" and speaking Robot for him to get down on one knee. Simon finally got internet soon after and we started skyping everyday when I got home from school (about 5am for Simon) until it was way past my bedtime. We knew that we had something here and Simon kept tricking me into thinking he was going to hop on a plane and show up on my doorstep, only to find out that the tickets were going to be $2000.
At the end of February, Simon told me that his boss was going to take away his cell and internet connection so that he could work on a spread sheet and he'd talk to me when he finished. Again, I was devastated, I couldn't go all afternoon without talking to Simon. By the next morning, I was itching to talk to him, I had probably sent him 6 messages telling him I was going to call the Australian police if he didn't write me back soon. Luckily, I had a job fair that day down at ISU and a project due the next day, so I'd be pretty busy and maybe it was a good thing Simon wasn't around.
I got home from the job fair at about five, and decided to go straight home to work on my project. At about nine o'clock that night, I heard a knock on my door (this never happens, my mom and I pretty much have no visitors on weeknights and Wesley's friends go hang out in the garage). When my mom got up and asked who it was, I heard that beautiful voice, "It's Simon... from Australia". Well, wow. Either I was hallucinating or Simon had really flown 22 hours just to see me... in my pajamas. What was I supposed to do now? I could run down stairs, but that might be too eager. I could stay in my room and pretend I didn't hear the door, but that might make it awkward for Simon and my mom. So I stood frozen at the top of the stairs, staring at Simon for a good 30 seconds before I snapped out of it and went to give him a hug.
I look forward to reading your blog about you & Simon, about your new friends, about your teaching, about your exciting life & times! You'll always have this, so cherish what you're writing-it's your history unfolding!
ReplyDeleteLuv,
AK