Sometimes A Contest pops up such as this one and it gives me an idea, I'm not much one for the whole being a contestant thing. Even when the prize is pretty damn good.
At least its better than a lifetime supply of Fish Food or a vacation pass to the local motel 6.
So without further Ado Let me get into it. The year was 2002 and it was... well it might have been sunny or it may have been rainy. At this stage I didn't get outside much.
I was recovering from some seriously heavy drug problems and a series of crashed relationships with Copious amounts of Twinkies and Snack cakes from the local discount Bakery store.
I was sat in front of my trusty old junkyard built PC looking for text based browser games to play on my endless supply of those free internet CDS. Good old AOL and that comforting death screech of the 56 modem dialling me into another world.
I found a game that took my fancy, created an account and met a few people that I really had a great time talking to, venting, generally bitching and moaning about our lives with typical Teenage angst.
(I was after all 18 out of work and gradually expanding outwards to achieve my own gravitational pull.)
It was called Everwars, Anyone remember it? Probably not I guess. The 00s were filled with those things.
Managed to get it up on the ol wayback machine, see cutting edge graphics!
Then the person who changed my life logged on... 
When her name appeared on the screen id like to say it struck me hard and I felt destiny approach...Had the shivers down the spine, you know all the mushy, lovey dovey shit.
But in all honesty All I felt was "Hey its a new person to talk at" #lonelyfatkid
"Hey Iaura" I never thought life would change so much from those two little words. As we talked together in both public and private chat we discovered we had a metric shit ton in common...
We liked the same movies, the same artists, both of us were interested in anime and crappy horror movies. Old school Rpg Games etc.
We exchanged Instant Messenger IDs (Remember those clunky AOL interfaces...?)
We talked for hours at a time I guess for me one that stands out was our very first aim conversation... I asked her how long she had been playing The game I met her on...etc.
She told me she was a newb and I pretty much said the same thing back, stupid as it sounds but the words she said to me next started my fall...
"Us newbs gotta stick together...no one else will look out for us."
You know those strange pulls you can feel towards someone, well at that point I thought it was a crush, one of those simple attachments that develop because of Looks or a personality. Just A basic fleeting feeling because I had no one else in my REAL life.
After a few weeks of chatting and generally discovering how much we had in common, I had fallen hopelessly head over heels into a Internet Fantasy fuelled crush on a woman I had never met.
There were two major problems at this point in my mind.
1: How do you tell someone online your getting feelings for them, when they've only known you for a few weeks without sounding like a stalker?
2: She Lived in England and I didn't have 2 pennies to rub together. So suggesting meeting up for a coffee was out of the question.
We carried on chatting in the chatrooms, writing cheesy roleplay stories together in the forums, and hanging out online as we could.
As time went on I eventually worked up to courage to tell her I had feelings for her. It went completely the opposite to what I was expecting.
I was very happily surprised at this turn of events. You might remember back in the day there were a lot of horror stories on the news about online relationships.
You know the magical moment you meet the chloroform toting serial killer of your dreams kinda stuff.
Well
In Typical me fashion I did any odd job I could, sold everything I had (which amounted mostly to videogames and consoles Id accumulated over the years)
With a wish and a prayer I sent the proceeds to her bank account to help buy a plane ticket.
I have decided that the more bald I become, The more my head resembles a Tater.
After a few days she said she had bought the plane ticket and was coming to see me.
The Oh Shit Moment kicked in pretty fast. It was real, It was happening.
What if she doesn't like me, What if she doesn't come, what if she isn't a she but a he...
Because seriously this has been long winded enough-
December 21st 2003
Her date of arrival. I went to the airport and waited. I remember that I half hid behind a pillar watching for her. I also very clearly remember the instant she walked through that gate towing a suitcase almost as big as her. I was well and truly In love.
You know the clichés, Heart skips a beat. Well I think I had some form of cardiac arrest on first sight.
We took a Cab back to my moms house where we were going to be staying. 3 weeks later, sat next to her on my moms couch with my grandma watching The lord of the rings movie.
Sat next to her I proposed, My grandmother took her engagement ring off there and then to give me. She said yes obviously or I doubt I would be telling this story.
Don't worry I did it properly the next night, out on a walk down on one knee in the snow at an old abandoned school nearby.
She still said yes.
A No probably would have made a very different tale.
We were married on February 14th 2004. (Not because its valentines day but because its the only date my great uncle could get the church, he was a holy roller preacher man so the wedding service was pretty nuts)
Our neighbours, my family and friends provided everything for the wedding and after party. Like I said we were broke.
My Great uncle gave us a Honeymoon suite as a gift in a nice hotel, and strangely enough the cab driver that picked us up the next night.
He was only the same cabby that picked us up at the airport.
He gave my wife a dodgy Gucci watch as a wedding gift. How's that for a bit of luck?
Its now been 17 Years, and next year we will have been married nearly as long as we lived apart. I will call that a tie for the luckiest thing to have happened in my life.
When I grow old with her at my side I will be able to say-
I've spent my years with you without regrets, Here's To my everything, to my missus, I spent more time with you than without you, maybe if there is an afterlife or even a next one I can spend that one with you to.
Because life without her, well that'd just be shit.
so 
To anyone who managed to get all the way down here, Thanks for taking the time to read this.
All photos taken on various phones etc. Throughout the years
