Bruce Toews

All right, so here I am, Caroline beside me writing an LJ entry of her own. She has been such a gracious, wonderful, loving host, it's absolutely beyond belief.

After I got here on Tuesday, here being Milwaukee, we swung through the drive-thru at McDonald's for a quick bite to eat. It was the first thing I'd eaten all day, other than a couple of tiny, tiny packets of chips I had on the plane. I had, for those of you who took my McDonald's poll, a double quarter-pounder with only the meat, the bun, and ketchup. Unfortunately they didn't put on enough ketchup. I also had fries and a vanilla milk shake. Mmmm, yum, grease.

Of course, one of the highlights of this trip (one of many) was the big Thanksgiving dinner Caroline was going to make for me. Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, instant potatoes, and a packaged brownie for dessert, oh, and a breakfast sausage with "TURKEY" brailled on it. Okay, kidding. Actually we had fresh-baked right-out-of-the-oven corn bread, sweet 'n' sour rice, a corn casserole, and rump roast. For dessert we had her famous triple chocolate cake, and I can see why it's famous!

We watched Monday's Corner Gas episode together. Together! It was so cool! "Eat at the Ruby! It's not my fault!" I loved it.

So here we are, it's Friday already, hard to believe. I'm writing on a TV tray with the keyboard and a Coke on it, and Caroline beside me. I know the cyber-world is different from the real world, but in this case, the real world is even better.

Oh, by the way, I spent a fortune on cellphone calls in Minneapolis, where I had a thre-hour layover. I tried making a voice post here, honest I did. But, uh, anyone wishing to hel me recoup my losses, I take paypal at dogriver@ogts.net. Don't worry, I am not asking for donations, that was called a joke.

Help me plan my first meal for when I visit Caroline.

[Poll #1088879]

This news has been quite some time in the making, and now I feel the time is right to go public with it.

About a year and a quarter ago, I added tazcat to my LJ friends list. We had seen each others' messages on various mailing lists for years, and I always thought she was a cool person, so I enjoyed the opportunity to get to know Caroline through her writing. She in no way disappointed. I never dreamed that we would ever become friends: frankly I considered her out of my league. Over time, we enjoyed a comfortable amiability over LJ, responding to each others' posts, making each other laugh, that sort of thing. Things could best be described as very amiable, and I was happy with that.

Back in may, when I asked for assistance with some LJ issues, Caroline offered to show me how to do what I was wanting to do, and we added each other to our MSN contacts. This resulted in some MSN chatting, and a nice friendship ensued. Neither of us was looking for more: we specificaly did not want anything more. I felt that here was a nice person with whom I could chat.

In early August, we tried talking to each other via Skype, and we found that we enjoyed each other's company, as well. Still, we were friends, nothing more. Again, that's all we wanted.

But as time progressed over the next few weeks, there slowly came a realization that we valued each other as more than friends, and eventually we finally both admitted the feelings we were having for each other.

At the end of August, I bought a plane ticket to Milwaukee to visit Caroline, and I'll be visiting this incredible lady on November 21. God has richly blessed me with this new relationship. We've had our pitfalls in the ensuing months, but these have only served to strengthen the bond between us, and I count my blessings all the time and realize what I now have. We share a level of understanding between each other which I, for one, ahve never been able to enjoy before. It just keeps getting more and more wonderful by the hour. Yes, I'm scared about meeting her for the first time, but I'm also so incredibly excited and overwhelmed with my feelings toward her. I truly feel that God is in this. My relationship with Him has grown exponentially alongside my new relationship with Caroline, and the future is full of promise. Thank you, Caroline, for all that you've given me and for allowing me to give back to you.