The Story of How We Met, on WoW.

Valentines Day is coming up so I thought I might share the tale of how Jake and I met. At first when people asked how we met I would just say, "through mutual friends," because it is a really nerdy story and people always give me funny looks afterward and it was just easier. However, that isn't exactly the truth.

One day I was at work when my friend Chris showed me some new pvp gear you could get on World of Warcraft. I'm not much of a pvp person (player vs. player) I'm more of pve (player vs. environment, where you kill non player characters) player but there was a neckpiece that was better than the one I had, so I resolved to do battlegrounds when I got home to get enough honor to buy it. I was just going to do BGs by myself but I noticed some guy in trade chat spamming "LFM to BG, please have vent" which means he was looking for more people to do battlegrounds with him, and to please have a mic so you could talk to each other. I messaged him back and a group of us went and queued for random battlegrounds. We did 4 or 5 of them and then went our separate ways but whenever we passed each other in game we'd always have our toons wave at each other.

Then one night I had a question about something and none of my other friends were on so I messaged him and we just started talking. We became WoW friends. After a couple months of being WoW friends, we traded facebook info. Guess what, he was cute! Shortly after that we traded phone numbers and would text each other occasionally but our main communication was still through vent. We'd talk to each other all night while raiding, BGing, farming gold, whatever. Then we'd talk on facebook chat after we had logged off WoW.

Eventually we decided to meet. I flew over to Utah first. Mainly because I really needed a break from my job and to get out of the Coos for a bit. I was a little nervous but not really since we already knew each other as friends. So I landed in Salt Lake and called him to find the way to the baggage claim where he was. He gave me directions to go right then left then down the stairs. So I'm coming down the stairs, still on the phone, and I can't find him anywhere. I keep asking him where he is and am turning in circles looking for him like a complete idiot while he is laughing on the phone because he can see me the whole time. Butt head. I finally found him and we got in the car. We were both really nervous because it's weird to actually meet someone in person that you like and have been talking to for a long time. I stayed in Utah for 4 days and we just hung out, watched movies, nearly got killed by his friend's questionable driving skills, cuddled, and walked out in the ridiculously hot sun. I mean seriously, it is freaking hot here in the summer.

The next month he flew out to Oregon. We went to all my favorite spots in town and at the beach. We went to Shore Acres Botanical Garden and the Japanese Garden at the park. He met my family and befriended my cat. We talked about one of us moving. I decided to move because I was ready to be leaving Coos Bay anyway. So I flew back to Utah again and stayed for a couple weeks where we both were really sick and did nothing but sleep or play WoW. One day I was especially miserable and Jake got up and went to the store at 5am to get me medicine. He's just that nice. I quit my job, spent a few weeks visiting family in California and then Jake flew out to drive with me to Utah.

And here we are, together and happy in Utah but hopefully moving somewhere else soon. I do not love Utah anywhere near as much as I love Jake. We have our computers set up right next to each other and we WoW together all the time. In fact, we even share a lvl 85 mage (in addition to our lvl 85 druids, priest, and dk). He uses it for pvp and I do pve.

When we were dating long distance I kept a notebook in which I wrote to Jake. Some of them are love letters, some are just writing down things he missed or memories I want him to be able to refer back to later since he has a really poor memory. I kept it a secret for a long time and even once he found out about it, I kept it until Christmas when I wrapped it up and gave it to him on Christmas morning. When we're apart and miss each other, he can read our book and be reminded of how much I love him.