Kate's Story
The night that I logged into the Star Trek chat the last thing on my mind was romance. In fact I had sworn off love and everything that went with it! I was in a really bad mood and feeling rather hostile toward men. I decided to go to the academy chat for some fun and to get my mind off my woes for a while, so when certain individuals were discussing love and all it's splendour, I admit I wasn't the most chipper of chatters. I began to argue about how it wasn't worth it to engage in affairs of the heart and was met with huge resistance from the love sworn in the room. I knew I was just bitter and that I was probably spoiling everyone's chat so I decided to depart and go to the lounge.
Fortunately, for that is how I feel now, one of the girls in the room was determined to renew my belief in love and she followed me. I explained to her that I had recently been thru a difficult time and gave her some details. I couldn't believe how candid I was being with strangers. Everyone in the room was doing their best to cheer me up - that is after all the way that most Trekkers are - but I wasn't having any of it! I pleaded with everyone to drop the subject and asked that we just return to having a normal evening of chatting.
Then Mr.Pink spoke to me for the first time. He asked me if I was from Toronto and if Kate was my real name because I sounded suspiciously like his ex-fiancee but then he said no, of course you aren't because my ex hates Star Trek. Then he started to tell me that he had been through a situation very similar to mine and started to describe some of what he had been through. I was totally relating to everything he said.
As the talk returned to the usual topics one normally finds in the room, I found myself drawn to Mr.Pink. I wondered what else we shared in common. Often during that chat we would respond to things in the same way-he called it mind-melding. I was fascinated by how we both thought the same way about most of what was being discussed. At first it was simple curiosity, but the more we spoke the more intrigued I became. He asked me if he could give me his e-mail and at first I didn't know what to say. I didn't know this person. I had never seen him in the room before. I was more familiar with other people in the room and yet I still didn't feel comfortable giving them my E-mail or taking thiers. But something in my head was screaming "Take it Take it!"and I really thought about doing it, and then I decided that he was probably just trying to be nice to someone who was down and not really interested in talking to me. So I decided that I would give him my E-mail; that way if he wrote me then I would know that he really wanted to talk to me.
I get my Internet access through remote dial-up at my school and the system wouldn't allow me to get my mail from home for two days, but all I could think about was "Did he write?" I kept visiting the chat room hoping that he would be there and for two days he didn't show up. I kept telling myself I was being insane but I couldn't help it, I was already hooked on a person I had only spent a few hours talking to.
When I got my mail I had about 15 messages in my box. I scanned all the subjects with butterflies in my stomach. When I came to the one titled "Hello from MrPink", I thought I would explode! I was so happy he wrote me! Then I was afraid! I was scared that I was going to read the letter and discover that he was some kind of creep and that I had been wasting my time wondering about him. I was so nervous opening the message I was shaking! I read his letter five times! He sounded normal enough and even nice! I replied to his letter by telling him a bit about myself and let him know when I would be in the room next.
The next time we met I was already in the room when he showed up. The electricity I felt in my tummy was unreal. Again, I scolded my self about feeling this way about someone I hardly knew as I typed in "hello Mr.Pink!!!" I whispered to him "Did you get my letter?"and he whispered back "yes I did-do you have ICQ yet?" I told him no and he said that he was experiencing a bad lag and asked if I could come back at 4:00 am. My heart sank! I had an exam at school that morning and there was no way that I could have stayed up that late. So I asked him "Where do I get ICQ" and I gulped. I had only had my computer for three months and was uncomfortable with down loading hardware but, I think I would have done anything to speak with him then and there. He gave me the address and I was off!
While I was looking up the ICQ address I prayed that if there was a God that he would guide me through the set up process. As my computer was accepting all the files to down load, I held my breath. I kept repeating to myself "This has to work! This has to work!" Next thing I knew I was sending my first ICQ message to MrPink! I think I typed "Is this working?" or something like that then he replied "Awesome!" He tried to request a chat but it wouldn't connect! I wanted to scream! MrPink went to the chat and asked if there was any one there who had ICQ and, if so, could they help to link us up? It just so happened that there was an ICQ councillor in the room that night and she set us up right away!
Finally, we were chatting! We talked that night for about two hours, and, as the time past, the further I fell for this guy! This was positively the most crazy thing I had ever done in my life! Some thing in me wanted desperately to hear his voice so I asked him for his phone number and he gave it to me. I asked him when I could call him and he said right now, he wanted to say goodnight. I said "OK shutting down now" and that is exactly what I did! I began to tremble as I dialed his number. He answered on the first ring! What was supposed to be a goodnight call lasted until 7:00 in the morning! So much for a good sleep before my exam. But I was so happy and so full of energy that having had no sleep at all didn't bother me (I got an A+ by the way!) After that we talked on the phone or chatted in ICQ every night! The more we got to know each other the deeper I fell in love! I felt insane - I was in love with someone I had never seen!
We both have really busy lives at home, and so we were having a difficult time finding a way to meet. Then I got a lucky break! A weekend came up for me two weeks later that was totally clear. I asked him If I could come for a visit and he said I could. MrPink is a bass player in a band and was going to be playing at a bar when my bus arrived. So we agreed to meet there. When I got my tickets I began to get really scared and nervous! I kept thinking what if he doesn't like the way I look? He told me That he didn't care what I looked like and I thought to myself "ya whatever!" but I didn't feel any better. Oddly enough, it didn't even occur to me that I might not liked the way he looked!
For the entire bus ride I had a lump in my throat and a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. When the bus pulled into Toronto and I got into a cab I thought for sure I was going to throw-up! As I stood in front of The Free Times Cafe, I tried my best to calm myself down. I took a deep breath and entered.
When I got to the back of the bar where the band was playing, he had his back turned toward me. I walked slowly up to him and I poked him in the back. When He turned around I found myself staring into the most beautiful eyes I had ever seen in my life! He smiled at me and he said "hey you!" He put down his guitar and grabbed me by the hand and led me back out into the city sidewalk under a street lamp. Then he held both my hands and spun me around. I was in total shock! The way he looked at me and the feel of his hands in mine sent a thousand volts of electricity through my body. To say the very least, the first weekend we spent together was just as magical as our chats in the Continuum and in ICQ.
If you had told me that I was going to fall for someone in cyberspace and actually have it work out before all this happened, I'm sure I would have said that you are nuts! But as the weeks go by during this blossoming love I am reminded just how crazy (and wonderful) life can be.
MrPink's Story
Preface:
This story is absolutely true. Everything I'm about to say comes from my heart and I truly believe every word I've written. That being said, I must strongly advise anybody and everybody who has met someone through the internet to be extremely cautious. You should never give your phone number, e-mail, address or even your real name to anyone unless you've known them for quite some time. Unfortunately, there are many crazy, predatory people out there waiting to find someone they can victimize and the unfortunate truth is that there is very little policing that can be done over the internet. I would NEVER encourage anyone to meet with someone they've met on-line without taking the appropriate precautions. Never go alone and always tell several people where you plan to be and how long you plan on being there. It is also advisable to have a friend at home you can check in with at regular intervals so they know everything is OK.
That being said:
I AM NOT A GEEK!
Well, I suppose I'm a bit of a geek. I'm your average Star Trek fan. I've seen all of the original series and the movies at least ten times, I've seen all of the TNG episodes at least three times, I watch DS9 once a day (twice when there's a new episode) and Voyager every week. I've been to a few cons and I dressed up like a Klingon for Halloween once. I know a bit of trivia, but I'd never win any contests. I'm not fanatical about it, but I suppose I qualify as a "Trekker".
By the way, my name is Michael and I'm a 25 year old male working as a graphics design artist in the music industry in Toronto, Canada. I have a working knowledge of Mac computers and extensive experience in design and layout programs. Oh yeah, and I basically know how to get hooked up to the net and surf around a little, but I'd never been in a chat room until about a year ago.
I was surfing one day (giving myself some time off) and I decided to type in "startrek.com" to see if there was a sight there. Sure enough, I ended up at a webpage devoted to all things Trek. There were several links and one happened to be a link to a Star Trek chat. I'd never been into chatrooms (to be honest, I thought they were for geeky losers with no friends and too much time on their hands... lol), but I decided to check it out. Well, there certainly were a few geeks in there, but there was also many intelligent people who were actually over fifteen (imagine that!). I was a "newbie" and everyone was very patient with me. The people in that room were eager to answer any questions I had and they explained chatroom etiquette and lingo to me. It was a very humbling experience to be coddled by people I'd thought of as losers only two hours previous. I quickly got a handle on things and actually made some new friends.
Gradually, I found myself going on-line more and more often and visiting that chatroom for hours at a time. I went and downloaded some proper chat software and I had some great conversations with people from all over the world about everything (sometimes we even talked about Star Trek!). After about a week, I met this girl...
Now, let me explain a few things about myself. I was engaged for five years and I canceled the wedding about six months before it was supposed to happen. I don't want to get into the gory details. Sufficed to say that she definitely wasn't the one and I think I was settling because I didn't think there was anything else out there. I was also caving in to pressure from her and both of our families. I finally decided that I would rather be alone than be miserable for the rest of my life, or end up divorced. It was a pretty rough time for me, but I pulled through. All this went down almost a year ago.
So, back to the chatroom...
I logged in and the first thing I saw was this girl Kate saying, "Anyone interested in a size three wedding dress?" This sounds totally corny, but something made me reach out to her. I asked her what had happened and she told me a story that was so similar to mine I almost cried. We related experiences back and forth and suddenly this room full of people became oblivious to us both. We were ignoring everyone else and just talking to each other. I asked her if she had ICQ (a chat program that lets you send messages and talk to someone privately in real time) and she said she didn't. She had just stumbled onto the website exactly the same way I did! I whispered to her (a message only visible to the person you send it to) and told her she should get ICQ and look me up. She asked if she knew me and my first response was going to be, "Yes, yes I think you do." But, after careful consideration, I decided not to say that in case I freaked her out. Instead, I said, "No, but if you want to talk to someone, I'm a good listener." She said, "Thanks."
We talked... and talked... and talked.... finally I had to go. I whispered her my e-mail and asked her to send me a letter. I didn't expect her to give me her e-mail (security issues and all that), but she did anyway. I was so excited! I wrote her a letter the next night and didn't see her for two days. Just when I was beginning to think she was avoiding me, I received an e-mail from her saying, "Sorry, my server was down and I haven't been able to join the chats or send e-mail." She wrote me a letter and I still have it saved in my personal folder on my hard drive. I even printed it out t so I wouldn't lose it if I crashed! I felt like such a little kid, but I didn't care.
A few days later she downloaded ICQ and, with the help of a mutual friend, we got "connected". Our first private meeting was chaperoned by this friend because we couldn't connect directly for some reason. I was totally freaked! Everything she said was so perfect. We got along from the first word and haven't had a disagreement since. We both kept saying, "This is crazy but I feel so close to you and we haven't even met." It was definite gagging material.
After a few days of chatting, I gave her my phone number. She asked when she could call and I said, "Right now, I want to say goodnight to you." She got offline, called me right away and (six hours later) I said goodnight. That was the beginning of the end for us. We talked every day for hours at a time. I told her things that my best friends don't know and she did the same. I couldn't believe the feelings I was experiencing. I kept thinking," This is so crazy! How can you feel this way towards someone you've never met?" But I couldn't stop myself. We fell in love without ever seeing each other.
We made plans for me to visit her. She lives in Ottawa, about five hours from Toronto. Because I play in a band on the weekends, it was difficult to find a time that was good for both of us. We finally settled on three weeks. One week later she said she couldn't wait that long and hopped on a bus to Toronto.
I was ridiculously nervous during the days leading up to her arrival. I felt like I was sixteen and getting ready for a big date. I kept saying to myself, "Listen, if worst comes to worst and you guys don't like each other, at least you've made a great friend." Yeah, whatever.
I wasn't expecting much. I mean, we'd described ourselves to each other over the phone and I had a pretty good idea of what she would look like, but all she kept saying was, "I just hope you aren't disappointed." That made me think the worst. I'd like to believe I'm the kind of person who can say, "Looks don't matter to me," and mean it, and I truly felt that I wouldn't care what she looked like because I was in love with who she was as a person. However, I am certainly glad I didn't have to find out what I would have done if she was hideously ugly. She is absolutely beautiful!
I was playing the night she was to arrive in town and I gave her directions to the club. I knew approximately what time she was going to get there and all I could do was watch the door in anticipation. I kept seeing girls walk through and thinking, "Is that her?.. no. Is that her?.. no." It sounds so Harlequin Romance, but somehow I thought I'd know when I saw her. We had to go on stage and get ready and as I was plugging in my bass someone poked me in the back. I turned around and fell in love, again! I'm a big Twin Peaks fan and the only way I can describe Kate other than to say she is perfect is that she reminds me of Lara Flynn Boyle. She is so absolutely gorgeous! Wow! I can't go into further details and still be able to print this in a family forum, but I think you get the idea.
My roommate (and drummer) described the scene in the club as, "Very weird... I mean, here's two people who've never met before and there was no awkward pause, no hesitation. You guys just embraced like you were long lost lovers who had found each other again. It was pretty strange. You just sat down holding hands and acted like you'd known each other for years."
Well, that's exactly how it felt to me. I was more comfortable with her than I had ever been with anybody, including my ex-fiancée. We had to keep reminding ourselves to take it easy, that we'd just met. We had the most beautiful weekend ever. We spent time together, we went to the zoo, I made her dinner (and breakfast), and we just enjoyed each other. It was devastating when she had to leave.
We're working on finding a way to be together (it's impossible for either of us to move right away). I know it is only a matter of time, though, before we work it out. I know nothing will keep us apart. Nothing.
She makes me feel so special. I truly am in love for the first time. She makes me hear music again. She makes me feel like a little child. Every day I learn something new about her and every new thing I learn makes me love her more. It makes me crazy to think of all the little things that had to happen in each of our lives to bring us together, but somehow I know that we were meant to find each other. Some people don't believe in love at first sight but it happened to me twice with the same girl.
