A Blogger Romance

It's interesting the things that happen once you start writing a blog. Over the past year I've had a fellow teacher use one of my blog posts in her English class, I've been invited to write a magazine article, and I've even been contacted by strangers in Italy looking for advice on moving to Gorontalo. But probably one of the best things to come out of writing this blog was reconnecting with a certain 6'4, blond, blue-eyed guy I knew from college.

Once upon a time I had made a list of qualities I was looking for in a guy. Ok, so it was last summer. After a frustrating summer escapade, I had had enough and decided that the next guy I was going to get serious about needed to meet my 'minimum requirements'. With rather astonishing speed, I quickly composed my list in my journal. Looking over my list a few minutes later, I realized with alarm that I should be dating myself. Slightly depressed, I stashed my journal away and shipped out to Indonesia.

One year later, I agreed to meet my friend Henry from college for dinner while I happened to be in Washington, DC. Although I hadn't seen him in 10 years, the conversation flowed freely over delicious Indian food and continued over drinks by the rooftop pool of his condo. The guy I had remembered from college as tall and slightly goofy was still tall and slightly goofy but in a way I was totally drawn to. The more we talked, the more I realized that I was sitting with my ideal guy, my perfect guy that I had envisioned for myself last summer. What's more, he seemed to have been waiting for me too. He told me the charming story of how he and a friend stumbled across my blog while Googling recipes for eggplant juice and he admitted to having a crush on me in college. What followed was a whirlwind three days of dinners, a baseball game and drinks with friends. At the end of the three days, he left DC to head up to Maine where he spends a week of vacation every year volunteering at a summer camp for the children and families of 9/11 victims.

With Henry at a Nationals game in Washington, DC

What do you do when you think you might have met 'the one' but are leaving the country for 10 or 11 months? I've never had much luck with long distance relationships and so when Henry asked me if this was just a fling or something more, I hesitated. We had three absolutely fantastic days together and I can't remember ever feeling so happy, safe, understood and adored in a relationship. But still, it was only three days. Can either of us really commit to a relationship after such a short time? It seems like a crazy thing, but I think we both recognize what we've found in each other. I'm still hesitant to label this, but we talk on Skype and Gmail a lot and he even sent me a big bouquet of flowers with an adorable note on my first day at my new office. I have a good feeling about this.

Flowers from Henry