A Different View

Ok, so, this is probably a post that has to happen before I can continue on with my stories and rants about cross country travels and whatnot. That's because at this point in the journey, it becomes rather imperative that everyone is aware of some things in my life that I wish for everyone to know and feel comfortable talking to me about. Basically, I'm just going to tell you that I am gay. I realize that this may come as a shock to some and to some it may also be a disappointment; however, I hope that it is not viewed that way because I do not see it as such. I simply feel that I am attracted to people more so than gender. However, it seems that in my recent dating history, women have been more on the radar than men. I wish to address here for a moment that I do not intend to uphold the belief that I was "born gay." Please do not feel sorry for me for "being this way." I am happy with who I am, and I have done some of my own work with myself to be comfortable and accepting of who I have become. I remain the same confident, blunt, and yet lovable person that I have always been, but I do feel the need to make it known that this is part of who I am now, and I would like to be able to discuss it freely--especially within my family. I love all of you, and I want you all to know and love me for who I am!

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Without further adu, I would like to introduce Megan Andrews, my current and amazing girlfriend:) I guess this is an appropriate time to say a little about how we met. Interestingly, ours is a story of the modern age and technology. I was working on an ultimate tournament that UGA was putting on last December, Classic City Classic. I was the women's tournament director, which was a daunting task. It was also a very frustrating task, and I struggled under the stress. Luckily, Michelle Ng, captain of the University of Texas at Austin came into my life. She had run a few tournaments and was, in fact, trying to currently set up a women's tournament for the fall as well. She came in right as I was feeling defeated, and she offered great advice. Without her, CCC would have had a very unprepared Tournament Director, I would like to thank her again here-Thanks, Michelle! The main method of communication that I had with Michelle was gmail chat. It was great. We could chat while I did stuff online to prepare for the tournament and intermittently we managed to change the subject a few times and talk about a few personal things. This eventually led Michelle to do her usual networking. In my case, it was a "love connection," if you will. She actually said (well, typed) "I have a life partner for you, so you should rest easy knowing that." My immediate response was "who?" and I tried not to be too obviously anxious; I knew that I should be at least somewhat skeptical. However, Michelle told me that she was pretty talented in this area and that I should trust her judgment. I must admit, it was somewhat hard to believe that Michelle, who hadn't actually met me in person, could introduce me to someone who a) I might be interested in, and b) who might actually be interested in me. Regardless, I began to facebook stalk Megan as soon as I learned her name. There wasn't a whole lot that I could find not to like, unless you want to get into my competitive nature--she played ultimate for Stanford and had won two National Championships with them--I have to admit that I was a little jealous and intimidated.

Finally, we met via gchat, if one can consider that meeting. We hit it off instantly and I was surprised by how easily we communicated and understood one another through chatting. We continued on this way for a little while, though by our second conversation I had asked if she would be coming to the east coast any time soon--oh ya, did I mention that I was in Athens, Michelle was in Austin, and Megan was in San Francisco? Crazy. I should also mention the slight weirdness that Megan had actually been in my apartment in Athens before. In 2006, we hosted CCC in Athens and Stanford managed to fly across the country to come. I happened to offer up my apartment to their team. Ironically, Megan was only in my apartment for a brief time because she was staying with some friends at UGA instead of with her team. She did come up into the apartment for about 10 mins, and, according to her, we met, but I met a few too many that weekend to remember her specifically. But still, crazy.

Here is where I tend to speed up the story some because it kind of happened that way: we gchatted for a few weeks, our first conversation was October 18, 2007. On November 8th I managed to get her number from Michelle and give her a call, it was her 23rd birthday. She was at a brewery and enjoying herself, but she appreciated the call, nonetheless, and I enjoyed hearing her voice for the first time. After about 2 weeks of talking on the phone, we had managed to make quite the connection--enough so that we were both too curious about our chemistry together to ignore it; we split a flight for her to come to Atlanta December 21st. As luck would have it, when each of us was beside ourselves with anxiety and nervousness about meeting, our interaction was delayed. Megan's intended route had a connection in San Diego and her flight from San Francisco didn't make it there in time. She panicked and tried to get on the flight, but they wouldn't let her, she was too late. Insult to injury, there was no other flight to ATL that evening. She would be spending the night in San Diego--not with me. We were both devastated. Luckily, she had a friend in San Diego that picked her up and partied with her and took her to the airport the next morning around 4am in order to catch the first flight to ATL that Saturday. I spent yet another night hardly sleeping for all my nervous energy. Finally, around noon the next day, the time had come for me to leave for the airport. I drove there and parked and waited. I waited and waited. My palms were clammy, the armpits of my shirt, soaked. Finally, a tall, blond walked off the escalator. I recognized her instantly and felt the huge rush of adrenaline that I had anticipated. I walked up to her (carefully, trying not to do anything foolish or clumsy) and for a moment we embraced in a hug. She smelled wonderfully! We walked out of the airport hand in hand.

I guess the rest is kind of history at this point. We really hit it off that first weekend. By the time she came to see me in December, she had already booked a flight to come back in January. In the mean time, I was in Phoenix with Terry and Lea Young and managed to hang out there and then fly to San Francisco for New Years before heading back home. This was a potentially risky step because Megan was celebrating with her family: her parents, aunt and uncle, and her brother and his fiancé (at the time, now they are happily married:) ). I met them all and loved them all. The last minute decision to go there for New Years had been a good one. Megan came in January (and managed to finagle her way into coming a day earlier than I was expecting, this was fortuitous because the weather on the day I was expecting her was atrocious). At this juncture she met my parents, which went fairly well. Then we went a while without seeing one another until my spring break in March. A little before this point that I had talked to my boss at the Morris Center for Physical Therapy, Becky. I told her that I had a friend, Erin Mordecai, who was in grad school at Santa Barbara, who said that I would love it out in California. She had even offered me a job in her lab. Becky then became quite excited. She pulled me off to the side and said that no one else knew yet, but she was moving back to San Jose early in March. She was ecstatic about the idea of me being able to continue babysitting for her kids! She also figured she could work out something for getting me a job at a physical therapy office where she was working. With this prospect, and Megan in California, my mind was nearly made. When I went out there for spring break, I met up with Becky and stayed in touch. I realize that I'm not to this point in the story of my blog, but Becky has been an amazing connection and she is largely the cause for my livelihood out here at the moment.

Megan managed to visit me just once more in April for a few days in Athens. At this point, we were planning on meeting up halfway across the country in Colorado. Thus, we are now able to resume the story as it was being told before this interruption...