2003 to present

two years ago, the days leading up to our introduction found me laying low and watching alot of covert cable in the river west abode i maintained solo. discovering the marvels of public access channels in chicago brought me to "talkin' sheet", the show which found a small group of streetsmahht sistahs lounged out on a plywood island in the center of a stark soundstage. these queens of sheba hold dominion atop a big ass sheet, hence the show name. they jaw on about anyone who's pissing them off, their drama, world events and periodically somebody's kid races through the set to a chorus of "boy, get yo ass off that sheet!" it rivals "local league bowling with dwayne dowd", certainly. religious programming is always rearing up on the access and i stumbled across a gem one night that somehow managed to co-join christianity and ufo's into one singular sing-a-long. human cast members occasionally intermingled with the giant alien puppets and racially mixed ventriliquist dummies who were subsequently waving their jesus *and* alien freak flags simultaneously. a human hippie tells the story of seeing his first ufo in burbank, california in 1967, the prayerful puppets rapt with attention. next up: the dummies testify about their alien abduction experiences and everytime this poor man tries to talk, the spacemen puppets keep interrupting his ass to sing songs about the bible. and yes i did see a dummie identified as chip the black boy onscreen. yes i did. it was in the midst of these viewings that i first spoke to him, the man i would come to call Mole. while lamenting the lost trimester i wasted on Ick, i was ready for a good experience to come my way. it's so odd to acknowledge how we met because we'd both been skeptical in the past, but i must label us for one thing we undeniably are -- the internet dating success story. may or may not seem conventional by today's standards, depending on your viewpoint, but i still find it amazing that we stumbled upon each other via the online freeway, and also that we lived so close to each other already. with just one mile separating our places, he directly north of me, we've often mused that we may have crept by each other on the streets before we met. Mole's neighborhood and my neighborhood were the same. did we steal glances in front of the bookstore and keep walking? i think there was a familiarity, an ease, when we met that seems to have lingered between us. this native chicagoan charmed me by knowing that cape girardeau was located "to the back of the shoe at the bottom of missouri." from our first date @ the silver cloud, we were in each other's back pocket. after a mere six months, the aforementioned ease held court as we made the decision to share a home. it never felt like we rushed needlessly, it's just always seemed like the right thing to do. even now, i'm still excited to see him at the end of every day of work and i feel slightly adrift on the rare occasions we don't sleep next to each other. as i begin to mentally categorize some events as happening a few years ago, the further back my partnership with the Mole seems to take root and the more i ponder if there still might be some personal merit in getting married. no need or concern for hurry, just noting the possibility again. a romantic like the Mole can do that. two years ago, i found the right man to adore, and we're still on the journey together. it has beginning written all over it.