In the Beginning, There Were Dorks

Three years ago today, Ron Clark and I became Facebook friends.  This seems innocuous enough.  Friends is just friends, right?  Well, of course I knew it was bound to be more than that, because I had met him just over a week earlier and had an instant crush.  But, I had vowed not to do anything with my crush, unless Ron sought me out.  And then he did, through the social media be-all end-all: Facebook.  At risk of exposing just how dopey I was, I am going to share with you some of our earliest FB and face-to-face interactions.  To those who are not on Facebook, be sure to read to the end for the surprise twist.  ;)

As mentioned in my previous post, My Reintroduction to Ron Clark, I had just gone through a break-up with a culinary guy.  This was why I was trying to hold off on starting anything new, and I felt anything new should not begin with a food industry person, which Ron was.  My first writing on Ron’s FB wall, on 3/9/09, was this: 

Hey food guy who is not crazily obsessed with food to the point of estranging everyone in his life...this is such a refreshing concept to me. :) So...we are officially friends now. I feel special...but I am just one of 200, I suppose, so I should not get too excited about it.

In hindsight, I feel like this was maybe a little desperate.  Of course Ron wrote right back on my wall (which I cannot see without switching to the FB Timeline thing and I am just not quite there yet) and told me I was special, in spite of being a mere one of his then 200 adoring FB fans.  Ron writing back opened the door for me to send him a message.  The message went like this: 

OK - so this seems kind of weird. You are my little brother's friend. I am going through a horrible, sick break-up thingy. Whatever. But, I really enjoyed your company the other night & would like to get to know you better. Do you find that weird? If you do, that is cool - I get it. We can just chill & be Facebook friends. But, if you would be willing to entertain the idea of a real life friendship, I would like the opportunity to chat with you again in person. I do seem to be winding up in Alma a lot lately...kind of unfortunately, but oh well. Let me know if you would be up for a visit & what the best way is to contact you. I am planning to be there this Sat/Sun for a baby shower. Tell me if you are up for it & if you have time to spare.  

PS - I promise you this is not just a ploy to get Dustin's bass back...though the subject has been brought up multiple times since I met you by multiple family members.  You are a wanted man, Ron Clark.

Subtle, right?  Like, ‘I am so cool, I am not going to really ask you out, like on a date, because that scares me.  I will just ask you to hang out instead.’  So, Ron wrote me back the next day and said:

I don't find that weird at all. I enjoyed hanging out the other night as well and was hoping that you would be around more often. I don't know what your plans are this weekend, but I am around for most of the day on Saturday. I have my Grandma's birthday dinner on Saturday night, and I told my uncle that I would hang out with him after, which is going to be interesting. Remind me to tell you why. Anyway- give me a call (989) 576-2701 or email (rclark@tmstechnologies.com) or facebook me, or send up the Ron signal. 
PS- You make it sound like this bass is some sort of family heirloom, in which case, I'm a tremendous douche, or make that, I'm just a tremendous douche for not getting it back a long time ago. Also, it sounds like your family may or may not have put a hit out on me. Yikes.

Anyways, these humble beginnings started it all.  That weekend, I was in town for my friend Jessica’s baby shower and afterward, Ron and I met at mutual friends’ Chandler and Cassandra’s house for the usual game night.  They have the most extensive board game collection of anyone I know and board games plus beer make for wonderful evenings.  I drank.  I played.  I eyed the adorable Ron Clark from across the room, subtly of course.  For example, I only took pictures of him when he was in the background and I was taking a picture of someone else, so as not to be too obvious.  (I know, I know, I am such a dork.)  He was wearing a plaid purple button up shirt and a gray tweed blazer.  He was so cute and so witty.  I was so smitten.  And I admit that I drank too much, which always makes a person all the more smitten. 

So, when it came time for Ron to walk home at 4 in the morning, I offered to walk with him, at least part way.  It was cold out and I asked if I could put my hand in his blazer pocket, which he allowed.  I figured this would be a signal to him that I was crushing on him, but I don’t think he got it.  To this day, he says he just thought my hands were cold, which they were, but - Come on, Ron, I had pockets I could have used just as well as yours!  We got to a bed and breakfast in Alma, Saravilla, and decided this was the halfway point where I would turn and head back to C&C’s house to crash for the night and he would mosey on solo to his apartment.  I reached up to hug Ron and gave him the quickest of kisses on his lips.  And he did not kiss back, or hug back really.  WHAT THE????  

In talking about this moment later, Ron says he was just completely surprised because he did not see it coming and did not know how to respond.  He didn’t think I would like him that way.  Maybe I was being too subtle and playing it too cool.  Of course I didn’t know that Ron was just surprised.  I immediately felt a rush of stupidity.  I had read it all wrong.  He was not interested in me that way at all. 

But, we had plans for breakfast the next day and I was not going to back out on a friendship with this awesome guy over a simple rejection.  I figured this was just part of what single people endure.  I would just go back to playing it cool.  And I did.  And breakfast was nice and the sun was out and we sat in a park afterward and talked and didn’t touch.  It was sweet.  When I dropped him off, he asked to give me a proper hug.  So we hugged, nothing more, but this time he hugged me back.  From that day on, we began a texting and phone calling long distance relationship, with weekend visits, that would blossom into so much more.

I could not be prouder to announce that today, three years to the day our Facebook friendship began, Ron and I got married.  That’s right, you heard me:  MARRIED!!!  Me, the girl who swore she would never get married finally did it.  Ron and I exchanged our vows in a very small ceremony at our house, performed by our hospice chaplain, Vic.  It was a beautiful ceremony and we could not be happier. 

Pictures and video to come, hopefully tomorrow.  In the meantime, let the joy that is filling our hearts fill yours as you read this.  All is full of love this evening.