Love and Marriage
Two days ago, on Saturday the 5th of August 2006, I asked faery_007 (aka Heather Sommer) to marry me.
Flash back to High School
I was never a popular kid in school. I didn't hit puberty until I was 15 years old, so I was always the shortest kid in class. The nerd. The one to get picked on. Consequently, I had few friends.
I was always into computers and computer gaming. As part of a grand scheme to make High School fun, during Sno-Fest (an annual winter festival) I hosted Video Gaming. Using the school projectors to play the likes of Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. For two years running it was a huge hit, to the point of having little room to move and people waiting in lines to play games.
As this boosted my self confidence I had a vision: to initiate a video gaming club in the school.
People who knew me then realize that I was (and still am, to some part) painfully shy. But I fought for it, talking to teacher after teacher, going through various levels of school administration, and jumping through various hoops. Finally, during my Junior year, I had it. Fall Creek Gaming Club (FCGC). We started off with a few projectors with N64's & PS1s, but the real treat was 8 player Starcraft on the library computers. FCGC became very popular with a lot of people, and was my sweat and blood to keep me going through high school.
As part of me running this, several gamers of a different sort took interest. Namely, faery_007 (Heather) and xfuumax (Kristen). They were gamers of a different sort: not interested in computer games, but this new concept I had only briefly touched before.
Paper and Pencil RPG's.
Kristen was thinking about running a game during lunch period for several people. One of them was my best friend (at that time) of Simon, so naturally (me being a teenage male), I wanted to play in the game with the cute females and my best friend.
So started the Dark Ages Chronicle. My first character I ever played in an RPG was Kheva, a Knight. Much has been said about him, along with many stories. Sufficed to say, he was my greatest character ever.
What made the whole thing more special was the setup. You see, in order to play such a powerful character, I had to have a drawback.
Said drawback was that I was bound to Daema (Heather's Character) as her protector and guardian.
Oh, the Irony.
The game lasted the entire schoolyear, during which time I grew very close to Heather and Kristen. That summer I got to hang out with them many times and enjoyed a great many games.
And then something wonderful happened, surrounded by many terrible things: I got to date Heather. It was only for a short time, but I learned much of my romance and other talents during this period. We experienced many adventures: Mall of America, Carson Park, and doing our stress-relieving act of swinging.
There is a little playground with swings in the midst of a Soccer park in Eau Claire. We used to go there and swing and talk for hours. We swung during storms, we swung during the day and night.
And then life happened.
Unfortunately, after a lot of drama, I didn't get to see her for a while. I bounced around through a tumultuous time in my life for a while before I once again was brought back into gaming, this time in the guise of Live Action Role-Playing (LARP). There I enjoyed the company of Kristen, her then boyfriend (now husband) Matt, and (of course) Heather. I met some cool people there (Topher, Ed Pope) and had the time of my life.
...
My heart broke when Heather left Eau Claire.
She was gone for a long time. I spoke to her every once in a while, still holding on to my love for her. She came back to Eau Claire after NoBrand Con and I fell in love again. I couldn't chase her at the time.
I tried though. She dated, I dated. Time passed.
...
All of the sudden, we were dating. I loved her as much as I could. We spent all the time we could together, talking and experiencing much in life. We cemented our feelings and desire to be together and everything seemed happy.
I won't go into details. This is a happy story, but the things that happened then shouldn't have had to. But they did. I moved on and learned my lesson. It took a long time, but it was good.
We drifted apart slightly, never really stopping contact, just halting it. I got my shit together and my life straitened out, and the entire time she was there for me. My truest friend.
It was painful. This wall between us, caused by me. My feelings for her couldn't fully be expressed, her feelings for me doubly so.
And then, by a shift of Fate and Irony, we had the chance to go somewhere alone and talk. No one around to confuse things.
It was difficult, we dodged questions and avoided obviousness.
And then, in the single most important thing that has ever happened, she told me that she still Loved me.
The dam broke, the angels sang, and I held her in my arms and wept.
We worked on things slowly. We had to respect the people around us and we had to remember to take things slowly. After some time we got to date again. It was everything it should have been, our time being carefree and easy, all past happening forgiven.
We talked of our hearts, our feelings. It was every romantic thought compressed into being. It was bliss and joy.
And then I realized how much I Loved her. It paled everything in my life. I had always been afraid of marriage and commitment, and now I knew what I had to do. We looked at rings, I got some ideas.
We napped, went out to eat, got some movies, and then I took her to the swings to 'de-stress'. And there, on those swings that we had built up our relationship, I asked her to be my wife.
...
Love is a thing I will never understand. I am no longer afraid of it. Instead I now know what I want in my life:
Her.
I Love you, Heather.
-Tim
Flash back to High School
I was never a popular kid in school. I didn't hit puberty until I was 15 years old, so I was always the shortest kid in class. The nerd. The one to get picked on. Consequently, I had few friends.
I was always into computers and computer gaming. As part of a grand scheme to make High School fun, during Sno-Fest (an annual winter festival) I hosted Video Gaming. Using the school projectors to play the likes of Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros. For two years running it was a huge hit, to the point of having little room to move and people waiting in lines to play games.
As this boosted my self confidence I had a vision: to initiate a video gaming club in the school.
People who knew me then realize that I was (and still am, to some part) painfully shy. But I fought for it, talking to teacher after teacher, going through various levels of school administration, and jumping through various hoops. Finally, during my Junior year, I had it. Fall Creek Gaming Club (FCGC). We started off with a few projectors with N64's & PS1s, but the real treat was 8 player Starcraft on the library computers. FCGC became very popular with a lot of people, and was my sweat and blood to keep me going through high school.
As part of me running this, several gamers of a different sort took interest. Namely, faery_007 (Heather) and xfuumax (Kristen). They were gamers of a different sort: not interested in computer games, but this new concept I had only briefly touched before.
Paper and Pencil RPG's.
Kristen was thinking about running a game during lunch period for several people. One of them was my best friend (at that time) of Simon, so naturally (me being a teenage male), I wanted to play in the game with the cute females and my best friend.
So started the Dark Ages Chronicle. My first character I ever played in an RPG was Kheva, a Knight. Much has been said about him, along with many stories. Sufficed to say, he was my greatest character ever.
What made the whole thing more special was the setup. You see, in order to play such a powerful character, I had to have a drawback.
Said drawback was that I was bound to Daema (Heather's Character) as her protector and guardian.
Oh, the Irony.
The game lasted the entire schoolyear, during which time I grew very close to Heather and Kristen. That summer I got to hang out with them many times and enjoyed a great many games.
And then something wonderful happened, surrounded by many terrible things: I got to date Heather. It was only for a short time, but I learned much of my romance and other talents during this period. We experienced many adventures: Mall of America, Carson Park, and doing our stress-relieving act of swinging.
There is a little playground with swings in the midst of a Soccer park in Eau Claire. We used to go there and swing and talk for hours. We swung during storms, we swung during the day and night.
And then life happened.
Unfortunately, after a lot of drama, I didn't get to see her for a while. I bounced around through a tumultuous time in my life for a while before I once again was brought back into gaming, this time in the guise of Live Action Role-Playing (LARP). There I enjoyed the company of Kristen, her then boyfriend (now husband) Matt, and (of course) Heather. I met some cool people there (Topher, Ed Pope) and had the time of my life.
...
My heart broke when Heather left Eau Claire.
She was gone for a long time. I spoke to her every once in a while, still holding on to my love for her. She came back to Eau Claire after NoBrand Con and I fell in love again. I couldn't chase her at the time.
I tried though. She dated, I dated. Time passed.
...
All of the sudden, we were dating. I loved her as much as I could. We spent all the time we could together, talking and experiencing much in life. We cemented our feelings and desire to be together and everything seemed happy.
I won't go into details. This is a happy story, but the things that happened then shouldn't have had to. But they did. I moved on and learned my lesson. It took a long time, but it was good.
We drifted apart slightly, never really stopping contact, just halting it. I got my shit together and my life straitened out, and the entire time she was there for me. My truest friend.
It was painful. This wall between us, caused by me. My feelings for her couldn't fully be expressed, her feelings for me doubly so.
And then, by a shift of Fate and Irony, we had the chance to go somewhere alone and talk. No one around to confuse things.
It was difficult, we dodged questions and avoided obviousness.
And then, in the single most important thing that has ever happened, she told me that she still Loved me.
The dam broke, the angels sang, and I held her in my arms and wept.
We worked on things slowly. We had to respect the people around us and we had to remember to take things slowly. After some time we got to date again. It was everything it should have been, our time being carefree and easy, all past happening forgiven.
We talked of our hearts, our feelings. It was every romantic thought compressed into being. It was bliss and joy.
And then I realized how much I Loved her. It paled everything in my life. I had always been afraid of marriage and commitment, and now I knew what I had to do. We looked at rings, I got some ideas.
We napped, went out to eat, got some movies, and then I took her to the swings to 'de-stress'. And there, on those swings that we had built up our relationship, I asked her to be my wife.
...
Love is a thing I will never understand. I am no longer afraid of it. Instead I now know what I want in my life:
Her.
I Love you, Heather.
-Tim