Kevin

This is my page about Kevin. I'm writing it partially because he has a page about me, but also because I think he deserves it. The rest of the world deserves to know how wonderful he is, too.

Nearly the first thing anybody asks about Kevin is where we met. It's not so bad now that we've been together for a year or so (oh dear that sounds so long!), and it's not so much a meet-the-new-boyfriend thing any more, but I tend to feel a little strange when I say that we met "on the internet." That's technically true, but it always seems to me that the only people who use that phrase are not familiar enough with all the online world has to offer, to know that there's more to meeting people online than ICQ Random Chat or the equivalent. Kevin and I met on Usenet, in a newsgroup called alt.fan.pratchett. I'd been subscribed to AFP for a couple of months by the time he started reading the group in early 1999. Eventually he emailed me in reply to a couple of posts I'd made, then I replied to him, and so it went. He kept persistently replying to every email I sent, and somehow we began a regular, nay daily, correspondence.

Kevin was very considerate even then; I remarked once that I liked having new email in the morning, so he made an effort to write to me early enough in the day that I'd have something in my inbox before I left for 8:00 German class. I unfortunately didn't appreciate this until much later; I thought it was mere coincidence or habit which caused him to send me email at that time of day. We just kept emailing back and forth, I suppose because neither one of us stopped the exchange.

In December 1999 I was trying to fly home a couple of days before Christmas, but there were heavy winds that day, so American was desperate to get people off my flight. If there was too much weight on board, the plane would run out of fuel on the way. They were offering $500 when I checked in three hours before the flight, so I volunteered right away. By the time the flight left, they were offering $1200! I could barely believe my luck. That wasn't all - they could only fit me on the next flight in first class, so I got to travel in style. I spent the whole flight thinking about what I'd do with my jackpot.

I pay about $250 round trip between MHC and Dallas, so I'd never use up $1200 in a year that way. Besides, I felt that I should do something wonderful and extravagant, and take advantage of this opportunity to have an adventure. Life is, after all, what you make of it. So I decided to take my mother and best friend Maggie to France with me for spring break. In retrospect, I shouldn't have brought my mother along, because I thought I needed and wanted her, and I didn't really. I thought I wasn't ready to travel alone, but I just needed to get my feet under me, and I was fine. She did have fun, however, and it was nice for her to meet my host parents.

Upon learning that I was going to France, Kevin planned to hop over the Channel to meet me. In spite of the vagueness and variability of my plans (which at one point required Kevin to change his travel arrangements significantly), we agreed to meet in Paris on the morning of the day I was going to fly back to the USA. My mother had a direct flight to Dallas in the morning, so Maggie and I went with her to the airport, checked our bags, said goodbye, and went on into the center of Paris.

We were supposed to meet Kevin at 10:00 in front of his hotel, which was just south of the Gare de l'est. We were a bit early, and there was no sign of Kevin. We considered going in and asking for him, but we decided to take a walk instead. On the way back we saw a pale guy standing outside the hotel, and I recognized him as soon as I saw him. We ambled down across the Seine and saw the Pantheon, and then we wandered back up towards the Gare du Nord, where we idled for a little while until Maggie and I had to go back to the airport. We took a couple of pictures, and then Kevin walked with us as far as he could go without buying a ticket. I gave him a hug and a bisou in farewell, and we walked through the barriers.

I don't remember much about the ride to the airport or the flight, but I do remember that I couldn't wait to get home and email Kevin. I was, suddenly, quite attracted to him and anxious to tell him all about our trip, everything that I hadn't had time to say in our few short hours in each other's presence. I got back to MHC on Sunday afternoon and wrote him a huge long email straight away.

And then the bomb hit. Kevin was on ICQ with me when I found out about Emily; it's not his fault that he couldn't help more. He did everything he could for me in the first couple of weeks. I don't want to go into all that in too much detail here, because that's not the point of this page. The point is that Kevin was there for me when I very much needed emotional support.

In the eleven months (as of mid-March 2001) since Kevin and I have been "together," we've only had eight visits together, totaling less than two months in cumulative time. That's not much; like everyone in a long-distance relationship, we fill in the gaps with email and phone calls and sometimes even snail-mail. The hardest thing, I think, is not being away from him but being with him, since whenever we can be together, it's unnaturally intense.

But everything's worth it for Kevin.

(Cue chorus of <vom>s...)

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