I met my fiancé Marco in October 2006. We first knew of each other for some years before that through an online game called Avatar MUD, a text-based medieval fantasy game similar to Zork.
But the first time we met in real life was at a gaming convention in New Jersey, USA. I was working the help desk at the time. To be honest, to me he seemed a bit unapproachable online, playing a character that tended more towards evil than good.. yet I had no idea that that night would change everything.
I’ll admit the first thing I swooned over was the Dutch accent. He dragged me in with some witty comment regarding the game. But I would be remiss if I didn’t mention that things didn’t start off completely storybook-like. Back then I was rather penniless, in my first job out of college. I found myself in a hotel room that ended up being overbooked — I think there was at least 8 people attempting to sleep in that room at all times of the day. So, I was lucky enough to score myself a place to crash in his hotel room rather than sleeping on the floor in the first room.
Christmas card from Marco, 2007(?)... one of the oldest letters I have from him
Being quite the gentlemen, he gave me the bed and he took the couch in the adjacent room. Little did I know at the time, but since he was on the taller side of the spectrum his poor little feet were hanging off the edge, out of the blankets, and he was silently swearing at me most of the night. Ha! Opps… I found that out the following night when I timidly asked if I could stay in his room again since the sleeping situation hadn’t improved in the other room. The amusingly thing was I was perfectly fine with the couch and would have switched in the middle of the night if he had asked. The second night I took the couch, and I think there was less swearing going on.
It was hard to say goodbye… He told me to email him when I got home, but I put it off, as I worried that he was only saying that to be nice. He waited about 48 hours, and then emailed me with: “So here I am opening my email and I have not received any mail from you! *sniff* Hope you are doing alright?!” … Yes, yes, I am doing alright, except that you are over THERE and I am over HERE.
Story of our lives, that. 5+ years later, and here we are. Here I am, filling in a blog with the intention of moving over there. To spend our lives together.
. . .
(Yes, we’ll have to get a bigger bed after I move in. Yes, I’ll make sure it’s long enough for his poor little feet!)
Life in the Hague 
Snicker
*cough*
I remember telling him you could have slept in my bed
I wish you both all the best
In my defense, that bed was going to be vacant all night too *wink*. But no, I don’t remember that.
Probably because you were a lot less scary than a tall Dutch guy. 😉
Make sure it’s a California King for your tall Dutch fellow!
Cheers!
How sweet is your story…good luck and all the best in Holland. Thanks for dropping by and Groetjes!
Expect that with tall guys over 6′ 3″, the hanging feet!