Anniversary

Today is my anniversary -- my marriage is now old enough to drink. :)

Jim and I have actually been together for 28 years; it just took us a while to settle down and do the ring thing.

We met playing GemStoneII, an online multi-player fantasy game, back in '89. (Yes, there were multi-player games back in the eighties. Yes, there was internet back in the eighties. Whenever I hear someone talking about how things were "before the internet, in the early 90s," I just have to eyeroll.) I played for a few months before meeting Jim, although we were both fighters, and he was the assistant guildmaster of the fighters; I saw him around, but it took a while for us to stop and talk. We hit it off pretty quickly, and before the game shut down to make way for the next generation, our characters, Swiftkill and Callista, got married in an event online, surrounded by friends in armor. Of course the wedding was interrupted by a monster attack -- that many players gathered in one spot attracted the ogre magi :) -- and Swiftkill showed why he chose that name by killing the thing with one blow before anyone else could even draw a weapon.

Later, in GemStoneIII, we were both brought on staff within a couple of months of each other (although I was first [cough]). We worked in GS3 together for a few years, then I moved on to another game the same company did. We came together again in another, newer fantasy game called DragonRealms, and worked there for a few years before leaving the company. Being a gamemaster in an online multi-player game is a high-stress job with low pay and a lot of burnout, but was mostly fun -- building areas, designing quests, coding puzzles and traps, roleplaying with the players. Seriously, watching the first batch of players find and explore an area I built, listening to them comment to each other about it, and have fun discovering things -- it's freaking awesome. :) Jim and I did that together for about a decade, first from a few hundred miles away, then after we got married in realspace, sitting on opposite sides of the computer room. That made it a lot easier to chat and kibitz back and forth, rather than having to type comments to each other, although we did that too, LOL!

I was basically alone for the first 33 years of my life. I had the occasional boyfriend, but never for more than a few months, and although I generally stayed friends with guys after we broke up, one or two ended pretty badly. It was never really serious until Jim, though. There were times when I just felt so incredibly lonely, and wondered if I'd ever find someone to be with for the rest of my life. It was worth the wait, though, because Jim is my soulmate. He's not perfect, but our flaws sort of complement each other, and at the end of the day we love each other deeply. I literally can't imagine being married to anyone else.

Love you, hon.

Angie, looking forward to another 21 years together