"it pays to read your email", or "how I got married"

So I haven't updated this blog in about a month. And that's only with one post. Don't exactly have a good track record going for me, do I?

Anyways, I came to the conclusion that I'm gonna write this blog to catch up old friends who I haven't had a chance to talk to in awhile and I can bore them with long stories via my blog instead of in person. But I don't consider the next little tale to be a boring one. In fact, it's the one that has had the biggest impact on my life, well, ever. And it all started two years ago tomorrow...

I did what everyone has probably done at one point or another, whether they are willing to admit it or now. I signed up for a MySpace account. Why? Can't exactly remember. Probably because everyone else is doing it, and it's less painful than following everyone over a cliff.

Along with a description of myself, I had to put a picture. I remember not wanting to post a picture of myself on my profile (which is weird looking back on it because I had just lost 70 lbs. and was not disgusted with my appearance for the first time in a decade). Instead, I posted a picture of a Starbucks cup with my name written on it.

I got this particular Starbucks cup while walking one morning. Me and my former roommate, David Price, used to get up and walk from our apartment at the Villager near 440 in a 5-mile loop every morning as part of the aforementioned weight-loss regimen. About 1/3 of the way through the walk was a Starbucks where I would stop and get a skinny vanilla latte or something like that (I know, drinking a latte while exercising seems absurd, but this was usually about 6:15 am, and I needed the boost). I was always stuck carrying an empty cup on the return trip to the apartment, so one morning, I decided to impale it on top of an iron fence behind the Regions Bank in Hillsboro Village. And there it stayed for over a year-through rain, sleet and snow (I still have the cup, by the way. Found it shortly after someone removed it one day and I had to keep it, for sentimental value).

So where was I... my profile picture! It was the cup that had my weathered name on it, and my preference of drink indicated on the side. I started the MySpace account and had my friends on there. It was mainly to stay in touch with friends from far-away places, and possibly network for my career. I remember specifically thinking it was NOT FOR A RELATIONSHIP. I had ended a relationship a couple of months prior (great gal, but it just wasn't meant to be). Before that I had been in a relationship that can only be described as "EPIC FAIL". So dating was the last thing on my mind.

Well, one day I came home from work. I checked my MySpace account and saw an email from a cute girl entitled "Like the profile". I was intrigued, to say the least! I liked my profile too! So we had something in common! Anxiously, I opened the email, and it said:

"Well hi Chad! I never email people on myspace.....normally I just check it everyday to see if anyone has asked to be my friend. You know..it's a great place to develop deep friendships (sense the sarcasm?). But....I like your profile. I can relate to what you are saying about being bored. I feel like I just went through a major phase of "boredom" and "what's the point of everything". While I was feeling that way, I was coming up with all these things I wanted to do and saving money to do them....and then all of a sudden I became content again. Weird how that works.

I like the starbucks cup profile pic.

Anyway....if you are bored.....feel free to email me back.

Jen"

So I was duly intrigued, and far from bored after reading her email. Here's someone who felt like they could relate to me after reading my profile? THAT profile?!? Immediately, I read her profile, looked at her photos and wanted to know more about this beautiful woman who wrote me out of the blue. I finally decided the only way to know more about her was to do the obvious and write her back... I don't remember what all I said (and MySpace deleted the response... sigh. Hopefully Jen has it). I do remember making some comment about trying to prove that MySpace could be for more than seducing 14-year old girls to move to the Middle East. It was coherent enough that Jen ACTUALLY WROTE BACK.

And no one could've been more surprised than me.

After a couple of months of talking on MySpace every day, I actually got up the nerve to meet her for coffee at Bongo Java (I know... two months? I'm so brave!). We had never spoken on the phone, never saw but a few photos of each other. We met that night it was great. We talked for a very long time, even though the temperature was SO HOT. As the night ended, I told her I wanted to see her again, and so it started. And before too long, I knew she was the one.

We were engaged just a few months later on December 21, 2006.

So, if you're reading out there, Jen - thank you for being brave enough to write to a total stranger and start what is the greatest adventure of my life, two years ago. And thank you for the friends who never gave up hoping and praying that I would finally meet my soul mate. I'm glad to tell you that your prayers were answered.

-chadley