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Author Topic: Dear World
John Van Pelt
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Sharpie and I are engaged!

We met playing Scrabble online. I didn't know her gender for some months, and assumed she was male. A unique way to start a relationship -- I liked and respected her tremendously, long before any inkling of thinking of her as a partner could have surfaced -- and longer still before we ever met and I found out how absolutely brilliantly adorably smart, fun, and cute she is.

No, wait, did I say cute? She's tough as nails, tough, I say [Smile]

We haven't shared much (hardly any) of our journey publicly. I am 3 years divorced; she is just divorced, after a long estrangement. We both have teen children. We live 450 miles apart. Becoming committed to each other, nurturing this relationship across the miles and with complex and often worrying constraints, has been a journey, with pains and bumps and doubts and incredible highs. This fall she took back her maiden name; saw her children off to attend their father's remarriage wedding ceremony; started wearing my ring. She has done it with smarts and grace and impeccable principles, while enduring her own secret sauce of anxieties, demons and insomnias.

I think today -- every day -- that I must be the luckiest person alive, to have found the person I think we all dream about -- that person I think we all find, at least in part, in anyone we love -- the person who fits, who mirrors and sparks and thrills and prods. Sharpie takes my breath away every single day, with a look, a joke, an idea, a story, a game -- or simply by being there. With me! She chose me. God.

Right now the date is July 7, 2007; but I think we are looking for ways to move it up. Not easy decisions: big questions loom about jobs, moving, kids... but today we are free, engaged, ecstatic... and every step is worth it.

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rivka
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[Big Grin]
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Tante Shvester
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Mazel Tov!

And by the way, I think that Sharpie is the coolest name ever. (It is her pen name).

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Kwea
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[Hat]

Good for you, I hope it works out well. [Smile]

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HollowEarth
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Woot.
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firebird
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Congratulations [Hat]
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ketchupqueen
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[Big Grin] Congrats!
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quidscribis
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Yeeehaaaaaaaw! Congrats! [Big Grin]
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Raia
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[Smile]

Congratulations, to both of you!

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Bob_Scopatz
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Congratulations!

[Big Grin]

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Dan_raven
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Congradulations, best of luck. You deserve it.
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John Van Pelt
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Thank you thank you thank you, to all.

Sharpie looked at my post last night and said, "now I'm going to have to post." [Big Grin]

She is a woman of few, but choice, words.

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Bob_Scopatz
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Many of them with triple word score, from what I hear.

[Wink]

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twinky
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*disqualifies JVP from the Six Rejections game*
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imogen
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[Big Grin]

That's fantastic!

A big congratulations to both of you.

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ElJay
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[Big Grin] [Big Grin] [Big Grin]

Yay! Congratulations to both of you!

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Sharpie
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He's not the luckiest person alive -- I am!

Don't worry; I won't get sappy [Smile] But BELIEVE me, I could!

I'm very happy. Very. (Except about the fact that I'm packing my car to head back to Virginia and won't see him for at least 10 days. Thank god for modern communication technologies.)

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ClaudiaTherese
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Congratulations!
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ludosti
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Wonderful!! Congratulations you two!!!! [Big Grin] [Big Grin]
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Vána
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Congratulations!
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Noemon
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Wow, what great news! Congratulations to both of you!
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mackillian
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[Big Grin]
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T_Smith
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Congratz, guys!
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Sterling
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Congratulations. Love is a wonderful thing.
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divaesefani
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Yay! Happy!
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Anna
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That's great! [Smile]
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John Van Pelt
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Thanks again for all the happy replies.

I updated my blog(s) with a post very similar to the one that started this thread, and my parents replied there with their congratulations.

This was interesting/unusual/odd in two respects: first, they already knew about the engagement, and have for some time (although certainly 'going public' was an important step, and I intended it to be seen as such); second, I am fairly sure it is the first time they have ever commented in a blog or forum of any sort, for any reason!

My mother is 'of an age,' and would rather pen a note on monogrammed paper than send an email, even for something so trivial as a thank you or a schedule update, let alone regarding a major life event. For her to have responded 'in kind' here was very, very endearing.

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