Thief + Wizard, Part 5/5

We timed this one intentionally. Laurel and I just celebrate our 8th wedding anniversary, and we remain as geeky as the day we were wed. So in lieu of your regularly scheduled gaming blog, I present to you the story of how we met. It was printed inside the program of our Lord of the Rings themed wedding, as pictured at right. (Don’t worry. She managed to get me across the Ford of Bruinen.)

There are few romantic prospects for the lonely geek. Rolling dice, reading fan fiction, waiting in line for the latest comic book movie… it all takes time. And mostly you’re content with your lot in life. You hang out with your geek friends, eat Doritos, drink Mountain Dew, and argue about whether Darth Vader could beat up Gandalf. But it’s not enough. You surround yourself with distractions and entertainments, play all the video games, surf all the websites, and wonder what else there is in life. And deep down, you know what it is.

There’s that one moment you hope for. That special moment shelved away in the fantasy section of your heart, so impossible because after all, you’re a geek. She’s never going to walk through that comic shop door. She’s never going to look at you and smile; never going to share your interests and your inside jokes. You’re smart and you’re rational, and you know that the girl doesn’t exist.

Except that one day in the fall of 2008, it happened to me. I was in a comic shop. I had a hand full of magic cards, a distinct lack of romantic involvement, and an empty afternoon stretching before me. But the door opened. The most beautiful girl in the world walked in, all dark hair and bright smiles, and I thought that I had wandered into a dream. But she was real. She asked the shop keep about local gaming groups.

I promptly conceded my card game.

That first month we were only friends. We played a few games together, fell in with the same social circle, and grew to like each other. And one night, walking out from that same comic shop, I asked her for a date. She said yes. And the rest, as they say, is history. If she hadn’t handed me a box full of dice last October — each one of which said “Will you marry me?” on it — I would have asked her before the year was out.

I wish we could all be geeks in love. There is no finer feeling on this or any other world.

 

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