Thank God for Craigslist

After my health had improved and I was working, again, I decided to try dating, again.  I went to Craigslist and posted a personal ad.

I got the typical responses:  “Here’s my pic, hit me up if interested,” a lot of penis pics, and several who just said, “Moo.”  I’d been playing the dating game for a long time, and none of it bothered me beyond mild annoyance.

Then I got an email from a guy named Drew.  It was funny and he actually told me about himself.  He was intelligent enough to compose an email free of major typos or grammar errors, and he told me that he actually prefers women with meat on their bones.

We exchanged emails for a few days and found that we enjoyed a lot of the same things.  He liked Harry Potter.  He loved to go camping.  He had a grown daughter that he couldn’t stop bragging about, and he thought I was beautiful.  I thought he was pretty good looking, too.

We finally met at Panera for lunch.  I was still recovering from health issues and doctors were still trying to find a cause for all my stuff.  So Drew and I talked for about two hours and then I needed to go home and rest.  We agreed that we had enjoyed the lunch and that we would do it again, soon.

I went home happy but cautious.

I finally got a diagnosis for my health issues: why I get sick so easily, why my lymph nodes were inflamed, why I was so tired all the time.  I had an autoimmune disorder called Common Variable Immunodeficiency.  Basically, my body didn’t have the ability to produce antibodies, which meant that I was unable to fight off infection.  The treatment is a monthly infusion of immunoglobulin by IV.

Drew asked me out again on Wednesday.  We went to dinner, and then he invited me back to his place to watch movies.  And foolish as it sounds, we ended up spending the night together.  I went home to care for my animals and then went to work.  And every day after was about the same.

He treated me like a queen.  He opened doors for me and asked for permission before doing anything.  He bought me a bunch of pretty bras because he’d noticed that I only had two that I ever wore.  He told me that I was beautiful and that he loved my body.  I’ve never loved my body. He just treated me like a precious treasure, and I’d never experienced that, before.

He moved into my house and helped me to get it back under control.  He bought new furniture and would often hand me catalogs and tell me to pick out a few things.  I don’t mean to make such a fuss about all the money he spent, because I’m not a materialistic person.  But I’d never had a partner who went so far to make me feel pampered.  He sent me chocolate covered strawberries at work, (we started seeing each other before my job with Laura’s father went south).  And when things started to get ugly at work, he told me that he’d respect any decision I made.

He introduced me to his daughter and we took a trip to Disneyland.  He loved Disneyland.  He even had a Disney jacket.  He introduced me to his brother and his best friend and his wife.  They were all wonderful people.  This was the first relationship I’d had where my partner brought so many wonderful people into my life and I took that as a good sign.

Speaking of signs, Drew and Adina have the same birthday, which also happens to be my parents’ anniversary.  They also have the same initials.  Adina R. S.  and Andrew R. S.  They both love Disney and Harry Potter, and I met them both on Craigslist.   I was pretty sure that we were soulmates.

We were together two years when he got a job offer out of North Carolina that he really wanted to take.  He asked me if I’d go with him, and by then, I knew that I was going wherever he went.  It was hard to leave my home, my friends, my neighbors and especially my family, but I knew that this man was my future.