I suppose I should start at the beginning. That takes us back to January of 1997. Dave and I were totally unaware of each other at the time. I was living mostly contentedly in Nutley, New Jersey in a cute little studio apartment with my cat. I was working as an administrative assistant at LUCENT Technologies until May when I planned to leave for the PEACE CORPS. I had applied and been accepted as an English teacher. I made this decision because I was bored with my job, I was single, I love to travel and I hoped the two years would help give me direction in my life. I was very excited about the whole thing.

In my free time at work I often surfed the internet to keep from falling asleep. At one point I came across a page called THE GLOBE which was giving away free one month memberships. Since I didn't have a computer at home, I thought this would be a cool way to make a home page. If I liked it, I would join for good. One of the features of the Globe is their Flirt ads. I'm not sure what possessed me, but I put in two ads. One was the ad I had composed in my head years ago but never had the nerve to submit to a newspaper.

[INSERT CHRISTI'S AD HERE]

It had a link to my home page; four paragraphs of frank self-analysis. The other ad was completely erotic. Since the ads were anonymous so I felt safe submitting them. Well, over the course of the next two weeks, I got lots of responses to both ads. Many times the same person would answer both ads. This was great fun. I bantered back and forth with these people (I can only assume they were men) with no intention of starting anything with any of them. And most of them weren't serious either.

On the morning of February 5, I arrived at work to find mail waiting in my Globe mailbox. I went to check it and found a new name in the list of senders. Intrigued, I opened it first. It read:

[INSERT DAVE'S NOTE HERE]

I know this will sound weird, but I felt a thrill go through me the first time I read this. This guy sounded perfect. I leashed my enthusiasm, however and responded with yet another quote from SHAKESPEARE. Then he wrote back with a quote from the same play. We traded quotes like that for two days. Every time I got mail from him, my heart flipped over. I hoped he wouldn't turn out to be too good to be true.

On February 6 I arrived home around 7:30 pm. I had taught an English class at the Paramus YMCA after work. I noticed, as I started getting out of my work clothes, that my phone was off the hook. Well, either I bumped it that morning or the cat had been particularly busy while I was out. Anyway, I put the handset back in the cradle. It promptly rang. I answered and this lovely male voice asked for Christi DeCloedt. Because he mispronounced my last name, I assumed it was a telemarketer. Then he told me it was Dave Newton, the guy I had been sending email to. I sat down on the floor of my apartment in shock. To make a long story short, he found my phone address on Yahoo! (which I promptly removed), and called directory assistance on the chance I was listed (which I was, obviously). We talked briefly, then I had to go. I don't even remember why I had to leave, but he asked if he could call me again. I said yes.

My co-workers wanted to have me committed on Friday when I told them about Dave calling me. They were ready to send the Georgia State Trooper out to have this guy arrested (for what I have no idea, but they were all freaked out). You must understand, this all happened while there was this story in the news about a woman who was kidnapped and assaulted by a man she had met on the internet. Well, first of all, the woman went to meet the guy alone with the intention of having sex. What was she thinking? But I was suitably paranoid to demand references from Dave. You never know. He gave me the phone numbers of his mother, his x-wife (and the mother of his son, more later), a friend of his from Florida, and one of his former employers: Gary Gygax (yes, all you gaming goobers reading this, the Gary Gygax. Go to DAVE'S WEB PAGE for more info). I checked them all out. Satisfied that he wasn't a complete monster, I opened up to the possibility of romance.

Still, there was something so bizarre about the whole situation. Even though my whole being was screaming "HEY! THIS IS IT! LOOK NO FURTHER!", my rational side couldn't just let this happen without further analysis. He was just too perfect for me. I kept waiting for the proverbial other shoe to drop. Even when we met on February 28, he was wonderful.

After many phone conversations (Dave joked that we were keeping our respective long distance services in business), we decided we had to meet face to face. Dave's x-wife, Debi, works at Continental and they are on good terms. Debi offered to give Dave a buddy-pass so he could come visit me. I was a mess the day he was due to arrive. I left work early because the earliest flight he might have come in on was at 3:20 or something. The trouble with a buddy-pass is you have to fly stand-by. Friday's are the worst days to fly stand-by. Dave was bumped from five flights. He finally made it on the last flight that day. It arrived at 11:30 at night. I was waiting on the upper level of Newark airport, watching the ramp from the terminal I thought he would come down (security wouldn't let me go to the gate). Suddenly I turned around and there he was. I can't say our first kiss was completely natural, but it was very nice.

That was it for me. After that I knew my fate was sealed. He proposed and I accepted that very weekend. We didn't get an engagement ring until I went to visit him at the end of March. We went to MAGNUM OPUS CON where he dragged me around by my left hand and introduced me to all his friends. They kept saying they were amazed at the change, and they decided I must be good for him. I guess he hadn't been all that pleasant to be around in the years between Michele (his second wife, the one who broke his heart) and me. My friends still weren't sure he was good for me, but they came around when they saw that I was serious and deliriously happy.

So, that's how it happened. On April 21, I moved to Georgia. At first I still intended to go into the Peace Corps. Dave promised to keep my stuff, my cat and my car, and wait for me to come back. After living with him for 6 weeks, though, I decided I couldn't leave. It wasn't easy. I really wanted both things very much. But I had to trade one dream for another, and even though one dream may seem kind of mundane compared to the other, I am happy. Besides, life with Dave is far from boring.