Nothing But Net

The Column of Real Life Encounters from Internet Introductions

I started chatting in chatrooms when I was in college. It was a way to pass the boredom of studying and gave me a way to kill time when I was working on papers on my computer. I never really paid attention to the people in the chatrooms; I just hung out there to tell jokes and see how quick my come-backs were when people said stupid stuff. Right after graduation I started working at the family business; tool and die work. A year later my dad had a stroke and later passed away.

Being forced to take on a company as the new President was a terrifying thing. I worked hideous hours, 20 a day usually, for 3 years; until I could get things running smoothly again. The business thrived and grew.

Once things were running like a well oiled machine (my dad had a great staff when I got there) I started getting bored at the office. THAT'S when I headed back to the chatrooms. I jumped from room to room, trying on different nicknames until I eventually settled on one that described me. I am fanatic about golf; so I chose Tincup.

I found a room with lots of people who I thought were funny. I love quick wit, and this chatroom had plenty. I started only going into that room. If felt good for people to say "hi" to me whenever I got online. I had already learned chat abbreviations from my college days so when they said "wb Tin" I knew what they meant. I got to know these people by their real names and places they lived; learned who had kids and who was sick.

I was surprised when I noticed there was one particular name I looked for whenever I logged on. She was the first name I looked for in the list, and if she wasn't there I found myself a little sad. Over a period of about three weeks we were together online every chance we got. We both had one of the instant message services and spent countless hours "talking" to each other.

We traded phone numbers and I one day called her. It was the most exciting thing I had done in a long time. That first time we talked on the phone for over an hour. We still talked in the chatroom and on our instant message program. The first thing when I got to the office every morning was fire up my computer and get online to look for her.

After about a month of this we decided we HAD to meet in real life. She lived about 200 miles from where I lived and we talked about it for weeks before finally setting a day to meet. She picked a Saturday afternoon and she picked the place we would meet. Even though we knew a lot about each other and traded a lot of information; she was still nervous that I was really a psycho.

We tried to make jokes about it, but we were both really nervous. We thought we were in love and that this was the beginning of happily ever after.

As the day drew nearer, I discovered that she had told one of the other people who went in the chatroom all about our upcoming meeting. At first I was really mad; but then she explained that she needed to know that there was someone out there who knew where she was going and could tell the police if I turned out to be the Unibomber or Jeffrey Dahlmer. I laughed and understood.

We met in broad daylight in the lobby of an expensive hotel. We hugged when we met and she was everything she had said she was. We had traded pictures and so we had some idea of what each other looked like. We walked into the bar and sat down for a drink. Once we sat down, we got a lot more comfortable with the situation. We talked for hoursÉlaughingÉtelling stories about different people we knew in the chatroom we went in.

She told me she was only there for the day; that she was not going to stay the night. We talked some more and then I excused myself. I went to the front desk and checked into a room. When I got back I told her what I had done. She was a little freaked out by it; but I wasn't a whacko or anything so we picked up our drinks and went into the suite.

Five hours later we both walked out (I'm not going to tell you what went on behind the doors of the suite ). We have met often over the last year and are very close friends. I tell her the troubles I go through with my wife (Yep I was a chatroom liarÉ never told her I was married until MONTHS after we met; that's why I was mad when she told someone we were meeting) Good thing she finally forgave me or I would have missed out on a very valuable friendship.