9/29/2000

9 years ago today, on a complete whim, I drove to Charlotte, N.C. to meet up with a guy I kind of knew from high school. I'm really glad I did because his name was Mike Vail.

I often get asked how Mike and I met. People assume we were high school sweethearts but actually, we didn't really know each other in high school. He was 2 years older and played different sports than I did. Each of our graduating classes included maybe 125 people so we really should have known one another or hung out at a party or two. But despite both being from the middle of nowhere WNY, and likely frequenting the same house parties and bonfires, we never spoke.

Fast forward many years later and I was living in Raleigh, NC with Graham and Jen. It was the summer of 2000 and we had planned on going to a Dave Matthews Band concert. Graham invited his brother Chris, who was living near Mike in Charlotte. The two came over, and Mike and I finally struck up a conversation. Since that night, I've been smitten.

We spent the rest of the summer of 2000 emailing back and forth. Yes, believe it or not, I was enamoured by his emails full of fantastic vocabulary and witty comments. He'd email me at the end of his work day and I'd read it and reply at the beginning of mine. Each day was another email exchage between the two of us. And each morning I was excited to get to work to see what Mike had to say next. This banter was basically how we got to know one another and went on for a good 2 months.

Then one weekend in September, Jen was driving to Charlotte to see friends. I decided to hitch a ride and meet up with Mike. Let's see where this email banter is going to go, right? What do I have to lose? So, he met us out for drinks and shortly after his arrival, he and I went a separate direction and spent the evening telling stories from home and laughing over the antics we used to get into as kids.

From that weekend on, Mike and I were officially an "item". And thankfully for that because that weekend I also discovered he wore glasses. Ah, forget it! A witty sense of humor, fantastic vocabularly AND glasses - I was done. My heart was his.

So there you have it. Only 2 kids from a tiny town in WNY could find each other in NC, foster a relationship via the Internet, get hitched and have a baby. Happy anniversary, honey. I love you!