Silly Mom Thoughts

I was a sixteen year old high school junior messing around on AOL and searching the internet. A little instant message popped up on my screen from this dude named TurkDog4.

TurkDog4: Hey! Your profile is funny.

Me (I seriously can’t remember by screen name): Thanks, glad you like it.

You see, instead of writing my actual name under the “Name” column of my profile I wrote:

Name: Hi, my name is, my name is, my name is Slim Shady.

Eminem’s hit song had just come out, and I thought I was being clever. The rest of my profile was about as serious as my name. The only actual information I gave out was my city and state, which was how TurkDog found me. In his own boredom, he had been searching profiles for girls who lived nearby. He found me.

We chatted online all night. He told me about himself and his family and how he was kind of dating this girl but she smoked and he didn’t like it. I told him about myself and that I was sort of dating this boy, but I didn’t think it was going anywhere. Turk tried to convince me to try to make things work with this other guy, and gave me some pointers.

This strange feeling came over me, chatting with this boy. It solidified my feelings that things really weren’t going to work out with the other guy, and made me think that maybe something was going to happen with TurkDog. Like a crazy, crazy girl, I tried writing my first name with his last name in my journal that night.

(In truth, I did that with any boy that sparked my fancy. I had to be right once, right?)

The next day, Valentine’s Day, I ended things with the other boy (sorry Keith). That sounds cruel, but I don’t think he took it so bad. We honestly hadn’t been hanging out that long, and I think I was starting to get on his nerves anyway.

The day after Valentine’s Day, I logged on and my heart leapt into my throat when I saw that my TurkDog was online. I messaged him a big, smiley-faced “Hi!!”

TurkDog4: Hey. Who are you again?

My heart sunk. What the heck?! Unenthusiastically, I typed my name and very little else. I was pissed.

TurkDog4: Oh! Right, I’m sorry. You’re the cute girl who doesn’t smoke and is really funny.

Things started lifting, but I wasn’t convinced. I think my lack of reply clued him in to my disappointment because he kept replying with facts he remembered about me and little funny snippits of our conversation. Soon, he regained my trust.

Two days later, we chatted on the phone for the first time. Three days after that, I showed up at his work and we met for the first time in person. The next week, we were officially boyfriend and girlfriend.

Four-and-a-half years after we met online, we said “I do.”

Now, ten years since that coincidental (and maybe not-so-coincidental) meeting, two babies and two more on the way, lots of ups and downs and happiness and love later…

I’m still in love with TurkDog.

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