First Contact

My online adventures helped me to meet many new and interesting people. In December of 1996, the height of my online chatting, I met a guy from Germany. Actually, his name was z. We met each other in a Pow-Wow session with common friends. We were mainly just friends bordering on acquaintances for almost 2 years. We mailed each other every six months or so, I was offline a lot during that time, and remained friends. As a friend, Patrick has this wonderful ability to listen to people. And I can tell you that through my last relationship Patrick listened a lot. He was so very good at it that I just kept coming back to tell him my woes. During the months the emails would sometimes be very infrequent. In one such news email I told Patrick that Mikey and I were getting married in Spring of 1999. That we had finally set a date. Patrick, ever being the wise advice giver, asked me how sure I was. I cannot even remember how I replied. I only knew that he was a great friend.

My Rescuer

A few months later in April things had become very difficult in my present relationship. I was struggling with a decision. We both felt that a change was necessary. I was considering moving from Indiana, where I was living, to Texas to go to school. During this time of indecision I ran into Patrick in ICQ one day. We spent about seven hours non-stop in ICQ chatting. I was so flattered by his attention, and he was as good a friend as ever. Little z was genuinely concerned for me. He proposed that I come to France to live and to study for the summer or for a year. The thought was that the time away would give me lots of time to think and to put my life back together. It was a wonderful idea and I wondered how great a person I had found to grant me my dream of visiting France and Europe. I was ecstatic! And to top it off I told him there's no way that I could pay for the plane ticket, and he said "Don't worry about it."

Falling

So, those plans were made in the first week of May for late July. Meanwhile, Patrick and I had found that we had more of an interest than just friends. We started talking on the phone everyday after that ICQ chat, things happened so fast. When we first talked about the trip it seemed it was ages away, but we soon found that it wasn't as long as we thought. We spent hours and hours on the phone listening and learning about each other. We must have written each other 6 mails a day on average until July. We also decided that I would fly to Los Angeles the day after his family and he did on July 10, 1998. I had never been to California and it was a nice thing to be able to meet him in the U.S.A. His family was spending two weeks in L.A. and then returning to France.

The Day

July 10th was a very hectic day for me. My first flight left Oklahoma City at 7:50 am, only I got the time wrong. Ack! Patrick and I stayed up late on the phone together the night before. And the drive to OKC was around 3 hours, I was up again at 4 am and still had things to pack. When we arrived at the airport we had realised by looking at the ticket that not only was I late for the time that I thought the plane was leaving, but that I had missed my flight. This was no fun at all! So, we got things arranged so that I was on standby and they assured me that it would be no problem to get me on the next flight to St. Louis. I had to call Patrick and tell him the bad news. I felt so bad doing so, even looking back on this, so perfect. We were always so perfect together. It's hard to see when you are in the situation, but I can see why people have told us what a great team we are, because we work together. We spent a few hours on the phone that day in airports, because my layovers were both an hour or longer. He was as sweet as always, and a little concerned for me. So cute! When I finally got to in LAX Airport, he was relieved. When we met he was so cute, because he was so nervous. He, being so wonderful, was standing there waiting for me with a red rose. I was so happy to see him, and glad to be off the plane and on my way out of the airport. I was so tired, and so happy. I can't tell you how that moment has changed my life, but more importantly all those moments we spent getting to know each other. There's nothing more vital to a relationship than forming that lasting friendship.

Upon arriving at the car Patrick handed me an envelope, a letter that he promised me he would give me. He had written another letter before this one, but had somehow misplaced it. This letter was written that day and contained some photographs of himself and his home in France that he wanted to give me. It was so terribly sweet of him, and he seemed so vulnerable in those moments. When we left the airport it was a little busy to get out of the parking lot and into traffic. We made the half-hour drive home pretty peacefully. I'm told that the whole time I was wearing my sunglasses, thus covering my eyes, and that Patrick was wondering how I was doing under them. I never thought about that. I just thought, yeah, sunshine, sunglasses! We talked on the way there about the evening to follow. His parents had a dinner planned, but I told him I was way too tired to attend. He said that he would take care of it and not to worry. When we arrived at his parents' apartment his whole family was there, excepting his father. I met his mom, her mom (Patrick's Oma), her sister (Patrick's Aunt), his uncle, and their daughter, Ariane. Whew! I thought I was tired before, and on top of it all they didn't speak much English. And they were anxious to leave, they were actually waiting for us. So, I said, what the hey, let's just go. We had dinner that night at a Chinese restaurant, his dad's favourite. Patrick's dad met us at the mall up the street, he was driving the Corvette.

After waiting in the mall for his dad to show up and having some time to get adjusted to each other it was time to eat. We went into this fairly ordinary looking Chinese restaurant and discovered it was pretty fancy. On top of it all, Patrick's father knew the owner, and the maitred and we were ushered back to their best table and asked about expensive wines. The meal was a bit for me to handle, but it was okay. I found that his dad was very fluent in conversational English, and even sounded a bit American. That would be due to his Elvis Presley fascination. I took something normal and it ended up being the same as his grandmother took and I was asked to choose again and I couldn't figure out why. I had forgotten that you often share the different entrees in a Chinese restaurant. Towards the end of the meal Patrick's dad, who was seated to my left, asked me to try something spicy. I did and it didn't seem spicy at all; it tasted like a ginger root. Then he gave me another piece and I seemed to bite directly into the root and it was awful. It was so spicy and so strong that it immediately made my stomach ache. I wasn't feeling well at all, and I thought it would pass. When it persisted I told Patrick, who had noticed I wasn't feeling well, and we left early.

His dad gave us the keys to the Corvette and we walked out of the restaurant together. Due to my feeling so ill we walked arm in arm to help me to get to the car. When we got to the car he was so sweet and asked me if he could kiss me. Ahhh. That first kiss, there've been many that followed, but I'm forever grateful for that one that started them all. We drove home together in the Corvette, with the top down, from Los Angeles to Valencia. It was a really pretty drive and another first, my first in a convertible and in a Corvette! You can see why I was so happy, right? We spent a little getting to know each other time before his family came home and then we went to bed. I slept on the couch and Patrick slept next to the couch with his arm up on the couch so that he could hold my hand through the night. Sweet, sweet, sweet.

Los Angeles

We spent two weeks together in Los Angeles, sleeping on the floor, in the living room of his dad's apartment. It was a nice time. We got to spend some time getting to know each other. We drove down to Santa Monica together, in the Corvette, enjoyed the sun. We drove down Wilshire Blvd to Rodeo Drive and Beverly Hills. It was really interesting for me, because everything was so new. I'd never seen so many palm trees. We went to see Armageddon together, our first movie date. We also went to Six Flaggs Magic Mountain. We had a really great time. The time flew by really quickly. We had to say goodbye on the 25th, because my flight wasn't until the 27th. It was hard, but Patrick made it easier by not making it long.

Flying to Paris

I spent my last day in California with Patrick's Aunt, Uncle, and Cousin. It was great! We went to Santa Monica and I didn't wear too much sunscreen. I ended up getting burned kind of badly. I was on the plane at 9:45 that night, sunburned, tired, and a little lonely for my sweetheart. The flight over was a little hard, because when you're sunburned all over there aren't many comfortable positions. When I arrived it was very hectic and I had to go through the security and get my luggage all alone, because of the airport security. When I saw him I was so glad to have found him. Everything looked weird and I hadn't heard hardly any English since I had boarded the plane the night before.

It was 6 p.m. when we landed in Paris. It was a grey day, but I was so happy to see Patrick. We got to spend a few minutes together waiting for his dad to come and pick us up. He came in their Mercedes 500 SEL, what a big car! I was so extremely tired and when we got back home, three hours later, I had the opportunity to meet several more people and sit at the table with them and socialise. By the time I went to bed that night the sunburn wasn't much of a problem. I remember it being kind of hard for Patrick then, because he couldn't hold me due to the extremity of the sunburn.

Living in Nantes

Soon to Come!