How It All Started...On Twitter - Part III (The Final Chapter)

It's been a while since my last post. I just haven’t time to write. I know I'm supposed to be able to blog with ease from my iPhone but I really don't like typing long messages on that thing, and let's be honest, my life is not complete without a real spell checker... So anyway, my original concept for this blog was actually to talk about how Fab and I work through issues as a long distance couple, but I thought it would be fun to share our story first...When I started I had no idea it would take 3 posts to tell the story! Anyway, his will be the final chapter of our little romance...how we actually met and how we became an "official" couple... IN PERSON!

August 5

After spending countless hours on the phone, and g-chatting, and tweeting, and texting, and emailing, we began to casually talk about how we'd like to meet in person, and when that might happen. I, still lacking patience pants, decided that I'd just take the lead on this (noticing a trend here?). We now have an ongoing joke about how I "invited myself to Jax." I didn't see it that way at the time, but in retrospect I have to giggle because I guess it’s true. Fabrice had casually mentioned Labor Day being a good time to try and make arrangements to meet in person because we both had that Monday off, but with classes just starting for him, coming to LA was out of the question. Well, that was my cue! I jumped on it and started looking for flights to Jax. I said to him "Well, that’s no problem, I have tons of PTO at work, I'll just take a couple days off and come to Jax" and that was that. I started looking for flights, and I asked him to email me his class schedule, and viola! I don't know if you all have been keeping track of the timeline here, but this was LESS THAN 2 WEEKS after our first phone conversation. Wow! I didn't even realize how fast it all happened until I just typed it out.

Meanwhile, a childhood friend of Fabrice's, @trniii as I knew him from Twitter was coming to LA with his wife for a family wedding. He arranged a "Tweetup" with me and some other "Tweeps" (Twitter buddies) at a local bar for Happy Hour. Fabrice mentioned to @trniii that he and I had been talking on the phone, and if I'm remembering this correctly, his initial response had been “WTF? Isn’t she in California?” followed by a snicker. Now, I wasn't there, but I am assuming that Fabrice had to play it cool with @trniii, and he had no idea how much Fabrice and I were talking or how close we had become, but he did tell him that he liked me, and that I was really cool. Well, as any friend would be, @trniii was skeptical, but he told Fabrice he'd check me out and report back, and that if he and his wife liked me, then Fabrice was in trouble! So the big "Tweetup" day finally arrived. I was very nervous about meeting @trniii because I knew he'd be giving Fabrice a report on me. I toiled over what to wear, and Fabrice doesn't know this (I guess he does now), but I actually bought a new dress. hehehe. So I arrive at the bar, and meet @trniii (Theo) and his wife @cherrocks81 (Cher). We were discussing playing instruments and Theo decided now was the time to begin the interview process. He casually mentioned Fabrice in the context of playing the Rock Band video game, "Oh, my friend @masterluke103 is the master of Rock Band" I casually replied with a smile, "Oh, I know, he told me"...I think by this time Fabrice had started texting me. Unfortunately, I am a chronic text smiler, so I totally gave myself away. Theo asks me "Who are you texting? This is a tweetup!" I looked up with the biggest grin and of course my cover was blown, and he say laughing, "I know who yooou're texting". Well, the details after that are a bit blurry, but I do remember a very simple line of questioning, "What do you like about him?" ..."Everything?"..."Really?"..."Yes"..."Well, seriously, what are you doing? He is in Florida. Are you going to visit him? Are you going to move?..."Yes, and if things continue how they have been yes, I will move."..."You're going to move where?"..."To wherever he is"...To this, he replied stunned "Wow! You’re serious. How often do you guys talk, do you talk every day?"..."Yes, every night." And that was it. I guess he had asked all the questions he felt were necessary at the time. What I didn't know (and this is the part that I probably shouldn't be telling, sorry honey!) was that while we were there, Theo received a call from his "Dad," but of course this was Fabrice and Theo was actually giving his initial report right there while I was at the table! Can you believe it! Well, to this day, I do not know what Theo told Fabrice about me, but I guess it must have been good because he didn't run for the hills after that...

August 24

So after meeting Theo, Fabrice and I continued with our normal routine, and we were learning more and more about each other, and becoming closer every day. It was clear that we were now officially dating (but without titles), and we both wanted our friendship to go to the next level, but we both had apprehensions about taking that step before actually meeting. The funny thing is that the apprehension didn't really have anything to do with our feelings for each other. It had more to do with the us not wanting to have to explain to our friends how we could possibly be in a relationship with someone we had never met except in real life...Nonetheless, we didn't quite make it to our Labor Day meet up to make things official. On the afternoon of Aug 24, on Gchat, Fabrice was recalling a conversation he'd had with Theo. He had asked "So how are things going with Eboni"..."Things are great, the more we talk, the more I like her"..."Relationship?" to which Fabrice replied with a cyber sigh, "I don't know how this happened to me but, yeah"...On the other side of cyber space a huge kool-aid smile spread across my face, but I let him continue the story without interrupting...I think we may have even ventured off into a few other topics of conversation before I brought it up..."So I noticed in your conversation with Theo, you said that we were in a relationship...Soooo, are we?" In true Fab fashion, he replies smartly "Duh" and that was that.... he had just made me the happiest girl in LA (I'll grab another barf bag). So that was that, two weeks before we would meet, we made our relationship official. Of course, I was ready to tell the world, but it was strange... Our entire relationship had developed right under the noses of our Twitter friends and while some people had caught on to the flirting, no one knew what was really going on. We talked about it, and decided that we'd keep it on the low until we actually met. Again, we just didn't want to have to explain things to people. So in true cyberdating fashion we decided to announce our relationship to the world via a picture posting on Facebook from my first trip to Jax which wouldn't be for another couple weeks...

September 4

So finally the big day came, September 4th, and I was going to meet Fabrice. I was so excited, and I spent HOURS preparing... hair, nails, new outfits...I tried on every outfit before I packed it...Ladies, just think of a first date to the 10th power! Fab and I had exchanged a million pictures by now, but what if we didn't look the same in person? Or what if we had no chemistry in person? We were both anxious and I swear it was the longest flight ever...Finally, my flight lands, and the pilot announces that we can use our cell phones. I text Fabrice and excitedly tell him I've landed, and wouldn't you know it, I was early...Oh, wait, I have to back up a second and tell you that instead of flying into Jax, I flew into Orlando... It was cheaper, and Fab thought it was a quick drive, no more than an hour... Boy, were we wrong! Turns out that there are two airports in Orlando and the one I flew into was a little over 2 hours away, but that’s not all. He had set an appointment with the cable guy, and of course the cable guy shows up LATE, and just as he was walking out the door heading to the airport. Once the cable guy left, he had to put air in his tire! When he finally gets on the road and heads the wrong direction on the freeway. Well he eventually got headed in the right direction, but needless to say he was very late. When I landed, he was still about an hour away. The funny thing is we hadn't figured out that he had the wrong airport yet, so he thought he was much closer than he actually was. Even funnier, is that in one of our numerous getting to know you conversations I had gone on and on about how waiting at the airport to get picked up was one of my ultimate pet peeves, and how in my opinion it was SO inconsiderate to have someone waiting after they'd been traveling for hours." Quite naturally, he was freaking out. When I called him, the first thing he said was "I am so sorry; I didn't want this to be how this trip started." The crazy thing is I was so excited, that I didn't even care. It was actually kind of a relief. I went in the bathroom, and fixed my hair, brushed my teeth, and refreshed my makeup. Then I sat down at a restaurant and ate a late lunch. By the time I finished he was there...So I picked up my bags and headed to the curb outside of baggage claim. I had butterflies in my stomach standing there on that curb... I had to be waiting for like 3 minutes but it felt like forever, and finally I saw a white Honda pull up (he had told me what his car looked like), and out jumped a very handsome Fabrice with a big smile, and the cutest dimple in his right cheek. He was just as handsome as he was in all the pictures and I loved his smile. He came over and gave me a big hug, and he just held on for a minute. He didn't kiss me though. We recently discussed that this was an awkward moment. Do we kiss? Do we not kiss? We had been cyberdating for about a month and a half now, but this was still our first time meeting....so he decided he'd just give me a hug, and I was okay with that. He grabbed my bag and threw it in the trunk, and I jumped in the passenger seat. He hopped in the car and before he pulled off he looked at me and smiled, and I looked back and smiled. "Hi" I said, and he replied, "Hi, you really are tight as tight as your pictures" and that was it. I had officially "met" my boyfriend Fabrice, and I was loving what I saw.

Besides that awkward kiss moment, we were instantly comfortable with each other. It was like we'd been dating forever, which I guess makes sense. We had been dating over the phone for over a month, and in that time we probably learned more about each other than the average couple who started out by going on a few dates and talking on the phone once or twice a week. Since we couldn't see each other all we could do was talk, talk, talk. Obviously, this has its downside, but in retrospect, I credit the long distance nature of our relationship for how close we are now. We both agree that what makes our relationship so special is that we communicate with each other so well, but I don't think we can take all the credit for that. I am sure that a part of that is just due to us not having a choice. Anyway, the 4 days I spent in Jax were absolutely delightful! I enjoyed getting an inside look into his life...his favorite movies, rock band, and his favorite restaurants...We laughed, we played, we shared pictures... I cooked, which I LOVE to do....Oh and of course, before we could even make it home from the airport, we kissed. After that first weekend, if we had any doubts about our compatibility, we didn't anymore. We were both convinced that we were perfect for one another...Oh, and by the way, as planned we did announce our relationship to the world by posting a pic on Facebook and changing our relationship status...Lol, in 2009 it doesn't get anymore serious than that! Fabrice even surprised me by tweeting a pic of us (the main pic for this blog, actually) from a restaurant...Twitter went wild...What? When did this happen? hehe... its funny because every once in a while someone new will pop up and say "Hey, wait a minute, I didn't know ya'll were dating."So this is where the hard part begins...After all it can't be all rainbows and butterflies, right? How does a happy couple make a relationship work on opposite coasts?