April 1st - No Foolin'

I'm not a fan of pranks.  Most of the time, the supposed jokes are neither practical nor funny.  If that makes me a humorless troll, so be it. 

No, April 1st means something else to me.  You see, ten years ago today I met my husband for the very first time face-to-face. 

If you haven't heard the story, we met through Match.com.  One night in February 2004, I did a hard target search through Match and found Hubs' profile.  I wrote him.  He wrote back.  We burned up the email delivery system and then the phone lines.  Then he said he'd like to meet me.  Problematic since I lived in Utah and he lived in Colorado. 

He offered to send buy the plane tickets.  And I accepted.

Now, should you think I was being less than cautious*, I had already used my Google-foo to determine he was who he said he was.  Plus, I alerted a few friends to where I was going, who I was going to meet, how to get ahold of him should I disappear.  And we were meeting in a hugely public place - namely, the baggage claim of Denver International Airport.

Anyway, I rounded the turn into baggage claim and there he was - chatting with one of the DIA employees while he waited for me.  I would've known him anywhere - because, like, I had his picture memorized.  And yes, it probably was love at first sight.  I mean, I was already 99% in love with him anyway.  All I needed was the final piece of actually seeing him in person.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

So, yeah, April First isn't about fooling anyone about anything.  The only funny thing is that we were so anxious to meet that we didn't even realize the date's social significance until after the day was over.  And now we laugh about meeting on April Fools' Day because it never was a joke to either of us.

*Please, if you're traipsing into the unknown to meet someone you've only ever talked to online, be super cautious and remember it's okay to be paranoid.  I told Hubs exactly what I did to make sure he was who he said he was, and he agreed that was the best thing.  If your perspective mate has a problem with a few background checks beforehand, ask yourself what exactly they might be hiding before you put your life in their hands.  K?