In which the author is smug about her happiness.

I'd like to tell you about a year ago today.

One year ago today I got up and went to work, just like every morning. I was working at SGI then, on the helpdesk, and things at work were still very good. My knees hadn't gone out yet. All the cool people were still in the ISAC, except maybe Vern, and he sent us enough email he might as well have still been there anyway. Deb and Brian and I were sharing a huge cube; I still didn't know Brian very well, but in the next few weeks we'd become pretty much inseparable. Deb was about to start dating Steve. Good times.

After work I drove to Mike&Susan's for Ahrounquest. Due to my obsessive saving of email, I can even tell you what dinner was that night -- World Wraps. I don't remember any of it, though. All I remember is being incredibly nervous, because I knew I had to talk to Earl. I'd known for nearly a week that he was at least interested enough in me to get jealous when I spent an evening paying attention to someone else. We'd exchanged some pretty telling email ... but the logical next move was to talk. In person. I was terrified. I spent the entire evening being hyper-aware of his every word and motion.

Gaming ended and we went home. Earl lived in the same apartment complex as me, just a few doors down. We got home at the same time and went to the mailboxes together. There was some meaningless conversation. I kept trying to work myself up to saying something _useful_, like 'Hey, you said you liked me in your email. What on earth does that mean?' No go. He walked me the short distance to my door, kept up the conversation while I let myself in, and then wandered away.

After several minutes of stalking around the living room and calling myself a coward, I worked my courage up enough to phone Earl. But what if he was asleep? I wandered outside to check that the lights were still on in his living room, then back to my apartment to phone him. I was shaking so hard I was practicall incoherent, but I managed to ask him if we had more to talk about. He said that we did, and invited me over.

I've forgotten how long we talked -- at least an hour, probably two or three. We laughed a lot. We talked about how we felt for each other, and what we wanted to do about it. I was grinning like a lunatic the entire time.

Now it's been a year. You know what? I'm still just as happy, if not happier. It's unfair, I know, but today of all days I will smugly bask in it.