Jonathan: At the end of the world

Not really, Washington's a pretty cool place. It was quite an adventure getting there, driving for four days in a gas-guzzling moving truck, sleeping on my couch in the back at little truck stops. I finally arrived in Olympia, though, and started figuring out my new life.

That was in the beginning of April, and for the next month I unpacked, dove into my new job at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, and started looking for a church. It was a bit lonely that first month, I will admit, especially after the whirlwind of parties I had left in Virginia. But then I started studying for the Bar - such fun!

Missi and everyone else back in VA were still in the back of my mind, but had started to drop off my radar screen, since I didn't anticipate seeing them again for a long time. But one day...

Bling! Up popped my IM screen on my work computer. Missi! My heart quickened a bit when I realized she didn't have a work question, she just wanted to say hi. Problem was, I didn't really have time to chat at work. She caught me a few more times after that, but it was always difficult to carry on much of a conversation, with both of us so busy. About the third time she casually asked for my e-mail address...ooh, a fascinating development. I gave it to her, with the thought I would wait a day or two to write, just so I wouldn't appear too eager.

So much for that. The very next morning I opened my email to discover a loooong, very random and lighthearted email from Missi.:) "Cool," I thought, "she takes the first step, and it's very natural for me to reply with a long return email, since that's the friendly thing to do..."

Well, that started the emails. Every day. Long ones. Checking my email in the morning began to be the highlight of my day. After this went on for about a month the thought "could this really turn into something serious?" began to grow too loud in my head for me to keep ignoring it.

I began formulating a plan to find out the answer...