There’s a meme going around Facebook (for the zillionth time) where people post: “I want all my Facebook friends to comment on this status, sharing how you met me. But, I want you to LIE. That’s right, just make it up. After you comment, copy and paste to your wall so I can do the same.”

My pal Tom commented, “A lie wouldn’t be half as crazy as truth in our case though. Lmfao.”

It’s true. Then I started thinking about how I met some of the awesome people in my life (aside from the blood relatives, because it’s pretty obvious how I met most of them!). In many cases, the truth is damned near stranger than fiction. Just a few examples:

My best friend/roommate Lyse — Back before the Internet, we both belonged to the Mercedes Lackey fan club and I put an ad in the fan club’s newsletter asking for pen pals. Our first letter exchange included me describing my kids as “larvae” and her asking if they were going to pupate anytime soon. Based on mutually-compatible sick senses of humor, we soon bonded into soul-siblings.

My best friend from high school Brenda — We were in the same French class in high school, and bonded over the fact that when French-English dictionaries were handed out, we both looked up the dirty words first.

My husband Geoffrey — I had just finished braiding his then-girlfriend’s hair at an SCA event, and she was giving me a thank-you kiss. (It was a little more involved than what you might normally expect from a typical thank-you kiss.) He walked up with a rather annoyed look on his face and said something like, “Who are you and why are you kissing my girlfriend?”

My ex Robert (the World’s Best Ex) — He was an assistant manager at a restaurant where I’d just been hired. I took one look at him and thought, “That’s yummy! I’d like some of that!” Two months later, he moved in with me. A month after that, he got fired for “fraternizing” even though we did our best to keep it a secret, and I had already found another job and given my two-week notice.

My Number One Internet Fanboy Karel — We both collect tag lines. One of us (I think it was me but I’m not 100% sure anymore!) sent a thank-you note to the other for posting a text file of tag lines for fellow aficionados to plunder. We started an email pen-pal thing, which led to online chat-pal thing, and eventually arranged a meeting and realized we had great in-person friend chemistry too.

And just how did I meet my friend Tom? He was a band member for a group that was playing a gig at a hotel where Brenda & I were guests at a sci-fi convention. She & I thought he was hot, so we invited him (and another guy I was hitting on at the convention) to join us in the hotel’s hot tub that evening. It turned out to be an awesome weekend. *grin*

It’s November already?! This year has been pretty craptastic, aside from a few memorable exceptions (you know who you are), and I won’t be unhappy to see it go. Assuming the course of the giant freaking asteroid passing us next Tuesday has been calculated correctly and it doesn’t smash into the planet, I expect 2012 will outshine this year in hopefully every way.

I lost both my grandmothers this year, my dad’s mom in March and my mom’s mom in August. Our finances are still wobbly, due to expensive vehicle repairs and Geoffrey having to change jobs (plus not getting paid for nearly 3 months of reserve drill), but we’ve tightened our belts and should be more monetarily stable within a few months. I’ve been to the doctor more this year than usual, and that didn’t help finances either, between the increased co-pays and a very expensive EKG. It’s almost a good thing that tendinitis in my elbow has cut down my crocheting to less than 2 hours a day anymore, because I can’t afford that much yarn!

And now for something completely TMI…

Driving back from running our errands this morning, my younger demonspawn said something that really stunned me. We had stopped at the Dollar Store, and each needed different stuff, so I didn’t see what she’d gotten. She said, “I got a ‘To-Do’ notepad that has each day of the week, and I want you to write down 1 or 2 things every day that I can do to help you around the house.”

Oh my. I instantly got all teary-eyed, my heart felt like it was going to burst, and I had to choke down the enormous lump in my throat so I could breathe again. It was a good thing I was at a red light, so I had a few moments to pull myself together and blink away all the blurry tears.

And now for something completely TMI…

You know Portland is an incestuous little polyamorous town when the ex of a guy who I’ve known for many years (and who wanted to nail me) is now dating my husband, the two of whom (on their date Saturday) bumped into a former romantic interest of my boyfriend and her husband, both of whom dated my husband’s date.

I’m extremely worried that just about any poly person in Portland can be connected to me in way less than six degrees.

(I so very need to move to Alaska. Or anywhere that I can find a less-cluttered dating pool.)

I have been waiting for this for over 8 months: my beloved Geoffrey will be home tomorrow (*knock wood*)! I’ve missed him so fiercely, and rather vocally — making all my friends & relatives sick of hearing about it, I’m sure. We only got married 18 months ago (after living together for almost a decade), but he’s so much more than my husband; he’s my best friend, the great passion of my life, a true partner in every way I’ve asked for, my solace when life knocks me about, and a safe haven when my strength wears thin.

From the time I was old enough to be interested in romantic love, I’ve always said I wanted a love who was like a male version of me, with just enough differences to make things interesting! And I never felt like I truly belonged — not anyplace, or with anyone. There were certainly people with whom I felt comfortable, and deeply loved & trusted, and shared with them a sense of belonging. But, although I don’t believe anyone needs another person to “complete” them, I have felt the most complete as a person in the years since I fell in love with Geoffrey. I absolutely belong with him, profoundly and completely.

And that almost didn’t happen. We were pals who were supposed to have a summer romance, a nice diversion, a delightful little fling and nothing more. Both of us fought the feelings we began having for each another; neither of us wanted to admit to ourselves that not only was love on the menu, but very likely a lifetime of it! And considering how stubborn and tenacious we can both be, that meant a whole lot of resisting those feelings was going on.

Then one evening, his face half-pressed into my neck, he blurted a muffled, “I love you.” I looked at him and said, “What did you just say?” He tentatively repeated it — and he couldn’t possibly have missed the huge amount of relief in my voice as I said, “Oh thank God you said it first!” Four months later, he moved in with me. That was 11 years ago this month, and now I literally can’t imagine life without him.

I don’t know how long he’ll be home, since we currently have exactly zero information on the likelihood of him being deployed in the future (he’s a reservist), but I intend to cherish whatever time we get. And hokey though it may be, I truly believe that, “Le mo ghrása mise agus liomsa mo ghrá” (I am my beloved’s and my beloved is mine).

It’s almost Turkey Time, and better yet, it’s almost time for my beloved Geoffrey to come home! I am counting the days, quite literally. All we both want at this point is for him to successfully complete his training, and come home safe.

On the home front, the Lyse Beast is doing well in nursing school, and Anxiety is working part time and finishing up her high school credits at an “alternative” school which is pretty darned awesome. If I’d had an option like that, I daresay I would have been a lot more successful and much happier.

My gardening attempts this year were a dismal failure. It was a seriously weird weather year, and hopefully that was the majority of my lack of success. I’ve heard from a lot of other people in the Pacific Northwest that they did poorly this year, too. The only thing I can do is get the garden ready for winter, which in my case means digging the rest of the potatoes, raking & composting the heck out of my raised beds, and planning for spring. Next year’s garden will be a lot less complicated; we’re going to stick with just a few crops, and hopefully be able to grow enough to can some of it!

I’ve been doing a lot of crocheting, especially as the weather has turned bitterly cold this last week. It’s a la nina year, too, so I suspect it will be a long and very cold season. I have around a dozen projects in progress (some of which have been untouched for months, admittedly), and no few of them are items for cold-weather wear. With any luck, I’ll have most of them finished by the end of the year.

I’ve rather given up on NaNoWriMo; I got 6300 words and then all kinds of busy started happening (including moving the eldest spawn). Eventually, I recalled what I’d learned from the last time that I did NaNo — that I’m not cut out to be a fiction writer, and that I don’t enjoy writing fiction enough to do it for my own satisfaction. Hopefully this time the lesson will stick.

I’m still on graveyard shift, and for the most part I’m pretty happy about that. With the weather getting cold & nasty, I’m afraid we might have some really stressful evenings coming up. I may need to pack an overnight bag, if things get crazy enough that they start mandating overtime. It’s really too bad that most people aren’t more willing to get themselves prepared for winter conditions and use their common sense in driving during inclement weather!

No, I wasn’t in a coma for the last year. That would have been way too restful.

I’ll just sum up the last 12 months by saying it’s been fraking exhausting, with no end in sight. (Not a complaint, mind you — I absolutely LOVE most parts of my life, and I fully expect it to just keep on getting better! But it is tiring.)

Okay, alright, to hit just the highlights –

And now for something completely TMI…

The local newspaper up in the Washington state town where my sister and her family live did an article on my niece and the fund-raiser set up by the school that her sister Haley attends. A blood-cancer charity has also set up a web page about Katie, and they are having a Poker Tournament fund-raiser for her.

Happy Father’s Day! Happy Summer Solstice! And…

Geoffrey and I got married today. Still mind-boggled by it. Details soon, but for now I must collapse…sooo exhausted. It was a pretty amazing day, all told.

Less than a week until the wedding, eep! Here’s my list of stuff still to get done:

• Buy a new bra (and probably shoes)
• Get some speakers for my iPod
• Dye my hair (I may be 40 but I refuse to be gray!) & get it trimmed
• Buy the sparkling cider & grape juice
• Finish getting the ceremony written
• Order the corsages for the moms & boutonniere for Geoffrey’s dad
• Check the site for logistical surprises & do a brief walk-through
• Finish sewing the dresses!

It may seem like there’s a lot left to do, but actually most of the preparations are already finished. We have a dinner at Geoffrey’s parents house on Saturday night (eve of the wedding), so all this has to be done by late Saturday afternoon. I am hugely glad that I took these vacation days to prepare, or we would be completely FUBAR.

And my sixpence arrived in the mail today!!! It’s gorgeous, and the lady who took my order was so incredibly nice. When I called to order, she asked if I had a special year in mind, and I said no (they stopped making them 2 years before my birth year, which was the only year which popped to mind). Then she suggested one that’s a century old, to commemorate the year of the wedding, and I thought that was brilliant! So I have a 1909 King Edward VII sixpence for my shoe!

So tonight Geoffrey & I will do a bit of wedding-preparation shopping. Normally I hate all shopping unless it’s for books, but I promised myself a bra from Vicky’s, and I don’t mind shopping there too much. Except for all the ridiculous pink decor.