What event in your life do you feel deserves its own Memorial Day? (Only one stipulation on this — no weddings or births, since those are already celebrated.) The event in my life that deserves it’s own Memorial Day would be March 10, 1996 – the day I wandered into the IRC Undernet room #!Fredsplace, where I talked to Fred for the first time. I’d been in the channel a time or two before and seen him in passing, but never really talked directly to him. You know how chat can be. On this particular evening, sitting in front of my incredibly crappy on-it’s-last-legs $50 computer I’d bought from a friend’s husband, I watched as Fred, who was the “owner” of #!Fredsplace, flit from conversation to conversation. At one point, he jokingly asked for a volunteer to flirt with him. I watched him ask once, and then pretend to pout when no one jumped to volunteer, and so I typed /me raises her hand. We chatted in the channel for a few minutes and then took it to private chat, where we found that we had an awful lot in common. We got into the “Me too!” mode, where one would say something, and the other would say “Me too!” “I breathe oxygen!” “Me too!” I’ve written about how our relationship began and developed before – so I won’t talk about it further here. So much has happened in the more than 7 years that have passed, but if I hadn’t wandered in that room at that time, if Fred hadn’t been a flirty mood, if if if, then very likely my life would be very different right now. Frankly, it scares me to think too much about it. So, yes. If there’s one day that deserves a Memorial Day in my life, a day that is not already marked by a birthday or anniversary, then it would be that day – and I’d celebrate it with huge, booming fireworks from coast to coast if I could. Because what happened that day made the past seven years possible, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
