My Love Story, Chapter two

So, Simon King was really in my bedroom. The man I'd been chatting with for two months was no longer living in my computer, he was real and sitting a meter away from me and I still had a project to finish and school in the morning. So I did my best to focus on my work, checking every 15-30 seconds that Simon was still sitting in the pink, fuzzy chair behind me and hadn't disappeared back into my computer where he usually hid.

I planned to keep his arrival quiet so that I could have him to myself, at least for that night. But of course my excitement got the best of me and I changed my Facebook status to share my utter joy of this event. Seconds later, Lisa begged to come over and I had to share Simon for about an hour.. she, too, could barely believe that he was really here. I didn't get a minute of sleep that night, for fear that it would all turn into a dream and Simon would disappear.

The next day at school was excruciating, I had dropped Simon off at Lisa's and was calling during every break to make sure that he was still alive and hadn't escaped (this went on all week, I'm surprised nobody called me out for being the psycho I was). I made it home in record time to pick Simon up so that I could soak up every minute I had with him. Of course, it was Lisa's birthday so I had to share him with her family, and I did not take well to sharing Simon that week. That night, after we'd gotten home and were laying in bed, I couldn't take it anymore. I was bursting with love, but it was going to be insane if I admitted that after less than 48 hours together. So I hinted around with a "There's something I really want to tell you, but I think its a little bit crazy..." and before I could finish, Simon said "I love you. I fell in love with you when I saw you at the top of the stairs."

That was the highlight of my life up until that point. The man of my dreams told me he loved me, I wasn't the only crazy person in this relationship because he loved me too. I was set, I knew I never wanted to lay my eyes on another man for as long as I lived. I didn't want to spend even a second away from him.. but I didn't really have a choice. I had school all week and Simon was leaving on Sunday (only five and a half days with him and I had school on three of them). I got really possessive the rest of that week; I got mad at Lisa for building a snow man with him, scolded Wesley for keeping him at the pool hall for too long, and refused to take him to meet pretty much anybody because that took away time I had alone with him.

The rest of the week was a blur, it went by way too fast. Simon unsuccessfully made his first snow angel, I took him out for some of America's most gourmet cuisine (Uno's Deep Dish and Hooter's), I taught Simon what an ice scraper was, he nearly froze to death a few times, he met my dad in his pajamas while I was at school, I took him to the Art Institute, and we learned that we couldn't live without each other.

That Sunday was the first of a series of three worst days of my life. I had to take him to O'hare Airport to fly back to Australia. Watching Simon walk into that terminal was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. I pulled over three times on the way home because I couldn't see through the tears anymore.  How was I going to be apart from him until April?

My Love Story, Chapter one

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.

Why I'm Here

Its 10:32pm in Sydney on November 4th, 2010. I've been playing with the idea of starting a blog since about April so I guess sneaking out of bed tonight to start was a long time coming. I've always enjoyed writing but it always seemed a private thing to me, so this blog is going to be my first time sharing my writing with anybody (excluding my previous English teachers and Simon, who I wrote a story for earlier this year). The reason its taken me so long to get this blog up and running is that I couldn't think of anything particularly interesting to write about... Well, I spent the majority of my summer in Europe with my best friend, got engaged in Paris to an Australian I'd spent a grand total of 3 weeks face-to-face with prior to the proposal, and picked up and moved to Sydney for about 9 months. If I don't have anything to write about now, I don't deserve a pen for the rest of my life.

I'm going to start with my love story. I'm not sure how long its going to be so I'm going to write it in chapters. If you can't handle the suspense, visit my wedding website (www.mywedding.com/simonlovesholly) for a synopsis.