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Background: Part 1

If there is one thing I have learned about the human experience, we are all searching for a place where we belong, where we fit in, where we are accepted. A niche if you will. Those that have found the place are happy with themselves, those that havent, are desperately searching for it. This is how I found a place like that.

Also, I have just realized, that I have lost touch with most of my friends. It is really strange. After I graduated, I lost most of my school friends. I dont know what it was but I just couldnt stay in touch with them. Maybe they didnt care about me as a person and only my mind. The depression I had when I as unemployed didnt help either. I was sitting at home doing nothing like 90% of the time. It was very lonely.

I then got my job at my current company and I was very happy with myself. I am doing something I love for a great company. A company that cares about me learning and growing, that will take care of me as long as I take care of the company. It is a great relationship. I started this job in January 2005, I am still considered a newbie there.

The friends that have stayed with me during my depression, have been moving away from me too. They have either been getting married, having kids or just plain moving out of town. This has put a great damper on my social life. The only friends I had left, I had to make plans with like a week in advance. Then I would only see them for about an hour or so. So frustrating.

I just wanted to find some friends that I could call out of the blue, say I am bored, lets go do something, and be able to do that. Is that asking too much?

So right now I am friendless, have no social life and keep to myself. But at least I have the internet. There are many places out there where I can meet people. I have been trying for quite some time, but I have not had any luck. Well, it is all I got so I will keep trying.

On this one dating site, which I am not going to tell you, but it is OK as far as cupid sites go, is where this whole story begins. I have been on the dating site for about a year now. Almost since the site was put up. It is free, which is great for the pocket book, I have talked to a few people on here, mainly about relationships and similar interests. I had only ever talked to one person worth meeting, and that ended up with her being paranoid about me. It ended with me getting angry at her and leaving a message entitled, That Aston Kutcher movie, and leaving the message blank.

Yeah, not great on my part. I have regretted doing that to her, because she was a nice girl. I had left a nice comment on her profile, because I believed she was a good person. I would even like to be friends with her again. But that is another story.

On this dating site, they give out percentages of how well people match. Well, what dating site doesnt right? Well, in my local area I hadnt found anybody above 80% that would talk to me, until one day

It is the end of June 2005, I cant remember the exact date but it all starts around this time. I was pretty bummed out at the time. I just lost a chance at my dream job in Vancouver. I am not going to tell you the company name but if I gave you a hint it would be EAsy. I have wanted to work for these guys ever since I started at University. It was just upsetting that I know I could do good, but bombed in the interview.

That is when she messaged me. Carrie. She had sent me this nice message about how good it was to meet a gamer and that was local to her. I didnt realize it at the time, but I had messaged her before. She had another account on the site. I dont know why she flipped to another one, but under that other account, I remember send her one message, she responded, then I sent another, then nothing. Oh well.

But she had found me again. And messaged me first. That was awesome. On top of that it looks like we have a 80% match and 82% friendship possibilities.

We sent a couple of messages back and forth over the course of about a week. We talked about gaming, relationship her being polyamorous, the Stampede. Yeah, so it turns out there neither of us has ever been to the Stampede. I have been here 10 years and her 6 years. She said we should start a club, a Non Stampeder Association. Then I told her I was for it, but I think we might need to change the name. The NSA might make some people mad.

After about a week of sending message back and forth, I just had a great feeling about her. I think it was after I messaged her asking what she liked to do for fun. She said she didnt get out much with her current situation. Then we talked about how she is waiting at home while the government allows her residency, while her husband Jerry works his ass off to support both of them. Then she says that most of the time she likes to do free things, like walks in the park and visiting the library. Or having game nights at her place. That is when I learned that they have dubbed the place Chez Geek.

We also talked about how she doesnt like this situation and most of her friends take pity on her. I responded that I dont pity her, I have been there, and I know what it is like to be lonely and sitting at home doing nothing. It sucks. She thanked me for not doing that, it meant a lot to her that I didnt.

After I heard this and just had the great sense that I had to meet her. So I asked her if she was busy the next Friday and if she would like to meet somewhere. I offered the library that is downtown, because it would a neutral place, I even offered for her to bring a friend along. See I know the safety rules of the internet, and I wanted her to feel safe enough to meet me. From there we could just take a walk or talk. She agreed. So we planned to meet at the library after I got off work. She was even going to bring her roommate with her, she showed me picture with her having bleach blonde hair. That is what I was going to look for.

During the days leading up to our first meeting, I was thinking to myself why I wanted to meet her. I think I had just found a friend. Someone who I understood, who would understand me. I wanted to see if this was the case. If it was, I would like to hang out with her some more. Learn from her about life and about polyamory, which I was very curious about at the time. Maybe in the mean time play some games together. Not those kinds of games like Clue, or Crib. Prevs!

The fateful day arrives. I get off work like 15 minutes later than I want to because something broke and I had to fix it. I had to walk across downtown to get the library and I thought I was not going to make it on time. So I jogged about half the time there. I then had to find her. It took me about 5 minutes to actually find her. But I did.

I first saw Carrie from behind. She was sitting at a table in the far end of the floor with another woman. They both looked to be reading and not really doing anything else. The blond hair totally made her stand out. I later found out that it was just a wig, but it fooled me. As I approached her, I was a little nervous, but I was brave. When I spoke her name, Carrie turned to me and gave me one of the most beautiful smiles I have ever seen. It made my heart flutter for a brief second, I remember shaking her hand and taking in all of her beauty.

Carrie then introduced her roommate Mary to me. I greeted her too with a similar handshake. Then Carrie and me started talking we got up and moved to go look at some books so we would not be interrupted by Mary and so we could get to know each better. We talked about the book we liked and we have been reading recently.

The entire time we were going through the book stacks, she was looking for something to read while I was looking at her. She even said to me, You are not looking at the books.

In the back of my mind, there was this little voice that saying Yeah, I am looking at something much better right now. But let the voice be squashed and started to look at the books. Carrie then found a book she liked and sat down in the middle of the book stacks as she started to read the books preface. I noticed that she kept scratching her shoulder. I ask if she was ok and she replied that she was and that it was just a sunburn that was bugging her. She then made a comment that back in Texas she liked to sun bathe naked.

So now I am sitting on the ground in the library with this beautiful girl having images of her being naked. To say the least I was a little uncomfortable, but I got over that in a second. She then stood up saying the book wasnt very good. This left me to quickly adjust myself in my pants I think she noticed that too.

She found a couple of book and we went back to the table where Mary was still reading the same book. Mary and Carrie talk for about a minute before Carrie wounded how much she owed in late fees, seeing that you cant check out books while you have late fees at the library. So Carrie went to go check.

My first gut action was to go with her, but I didnt. I didnt want to be clinging to her. I started to talk to Mary. I asked her what she did, what she was doing with her life. I learned that Mary was a student on her third major switch. She seemed just as nice as Carrie was.

Carrie came back and said she owed like $16 in late fees. My first gut reaction was to pay those late fees off for her. I wanted to make her happy for some reason. But then I remembered that promise that I would not take pity on her. I stayed quite.

It was then that Carrie and Mary decided that it was smoke break time. Carrie then turned to me and asked if it was okay for them to have a smoke in my presence. Now I would have been the first one on the boat to bash smoking at the time, but since she asked so nicely, how could I refuse her smoking.

Before they were going to go for the smoke break, they decided to call up Carries husband to come and pick them up. Jerry agree and asked them to be ready in about half an hour standing outside the library for him.

So went outside the library, to some tables that were there. It was then that I pointed out that there was a no smoking sign above their heads. Off we went across the street to a park. They found a picnic table and we all sat down. Most of the talking was between Carrie and Mary. I add a few points here and there but I was just enjoying listening to them. Asking questions when I wanted to know something about what they were talking about. Or a comment if I thought it was funny.

After the smoke we went back to the library to wait for Jerry to pick the girls up. That was when Carrie spotted a cute girl wearing a cute skirt. She was trying to steal glances at the pretty girl but kept getting embarrassed. I told her that she shouldnt be embarrassed and should just go talk to the girl. You never know, she might be interested in you too. Carried didnt talk to girl.

It was like 5 minutes later when Jerry showed up. I didnt get a good look at him at the time but he saw a great look at me. Carrie then gave me a hug and Mary and Carrie got in the car and they were off. Wow, she gave me a hug after only knowing me for an hour. It was a great hug too; I havent been hugged be a good friend like that since junior high. I hope we remain good friends for a long time.

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After the first time we met, we sent each other some messages. Mainly just joking around kind of messages. We talked about how days were going, how hers were going, the usually friend messages.

Then one day in early August she invites me over to her place for a games night. She told me that they held these and invited people that they wanted to get to know better over. I was totally excited about it. She told me to bring some pennies because we were going to play some poker and use the pennies as chips. I was totally stoked.

I arrive there well before when I was asked to, because I am like that, you tell me to be somewhere I am there 30 minute early. I first met Mary on the porch having a smoke with her girlfriend and another roommate. We talked for about 2 minutes and introduced me to the others before Mary told me Carrie was inside.

I went in and saw her on her couch, thumbing through some cards. She greeted me with one of those great smiles again. I dropped my stuff and sat next to her on the couch. I asked her was she was doing. She said that she was organizing her Magic card.

Now I remember Magic. My friends played that back in junior high. I wanted to learn, but I didnt have the money to play.

We talked about her week and my week. Then Jerry came up and was all in a rant. He had just been banned from someone elses journal (???). One of his friends writes a web comic and he was given a very religious message from someone praying that the writer would find God and stop his comic. The writer call on his minions to do some of his dirty work, and Jerry was the first to do something. He was then banned from the religious persons journal. I think that is what happened Whatever did happen his was kind of in a ranting mood.

So that was the first time I met Jerry.

Mary got a phone call from her mother then and they talked for about an hour. This left me just talking to Carrie about thing. I think we started to watch some TV too. She turned it to Big Brother, the CBS reality TV show. I asked her if she watched this before she said yeah. I told her that I watched it too. So we talked about the show while waiting for Mary to get off the phone.

After Mary got off the phone it was time for a smoke break. So out the porch we all went. It was about that time that Teri showed up. Teri was all complaining about her stressful day. She was planning to move into an apartment with her boyfriend soon. She was in a mad dash to get everything packed and all the papers signed.

We all then piled into the house and started the games. We first played this game called Fence and Fencibility (I think it was called that). It was all about trying to buy art for a discounted price. It was pretty fun. I didnt lie much, which seemed like half the game. The other half of the game seemed like to give offers beyond the game.

After a round of that we had a smoke break then another round. Jerry won both of those. Then it was another smoke break and then we started the poker.

Jerry was sitting at one end of the couch, which was described to me as the best couch to crash on ever, Carries other roommate, lets call him Sam who played as the dealer for all the games, beside him and Carrie on the floor in front of the couch. I was at the end of the coffee table beside Carrie, and then it was Marys girlfriend, Mary and Teri at the other end of the table.

We started with some simple games, 5-card stud, 5-card draw and just played hand after hand. Jerry was playing the overly aggressive role in the game. Sometime he would be going all out with nothing but a bluff. Which is probably why he won in the end. But I am getting ahead of myself.

During one of the smoke breaks Carrie was talking about her wedding and how she was in the bathroom with her maid of honor and asked Jerry to come in to the bath room after her during the reception. She then asked him to sing the Monte Python song, Sit On My Face. Made me laugh.

Then she briefly told us about her honeymoon. They went to Banff hot springs. Ate at restaurant and slept in the honeymoon suite at a hotel there. They were planning to go back there his year sometime. Then Carrie pointed directly at me and said, You are coming too! I replied, Okay. Which got a Yay! out of her. I later found out this was all suppose to happen for her birthday later that year.

We went back inside and started playing poker again. I remember one time Carrie had folded her cards but I was still in. I was thinking of what I wanted to do and she started rubbing my lower thigh. I was kind of surprised she did this. It felt good, even though it lasted a couple of seconds. I think I might have folded that hand after that, because I wanted to, not because Carrie was rubbing me.

Another hand I saw her start to rub Sams leg too. I just thought this was her way of being friendly after that and didnt think too much about it.

There was also another hand where Carrie and me had both folded. Carrie turned to me and asked if I want to play a quick game of Rock, Paper Scissors. That is totally something I would ask someone if I was and waiting for something to happen. I said yep. So we played a couple of quick games. I lost, a best two out of three.

Then it was time for another smoke break. I think during this smoke break they told me it was okay for me to drink and that I could spend the night on their couch. That is when I told them that I didnt drink. They asked why, and I told them that I have an addictive personality and that my family has a long history of alcohol abuse. They seemed to understand that which made me feel better.

Mary and her girlfriend were the first ones out. And they went to bed first. Next was our dealer Sam to say goodnight. After Jerry had taken all of our money, me Carrie, Jerry and Teri just sat and talked. Jerry was the next one to go to bed after falling asleep on the couch. I think at some point Carried started to play some video games on her computer while Teri and I talked for a while. Conversation was mostly just technology and her work.

It was that time we decided to say good night. Carrie was trying to say goodnight to me but Teri would stop talking. Which is okay I didnt mind. I got walked out and was given a big hug by Carrie. I hugged her back just as hard. It was awesome.