[Short and sweet]

A year ago, one of the coolest, most intriguing, interesting, clever, adorable and genuinely nice people I've ever known entered my life ... in a typically digital way.

Ben IMed me March 27, 2000 while I was trying to repackage a Targum story for my news writing and reporting class. I spent most of my time that night talking to him because he was so incredibly ... odd.

At that point I'd had vignette.org for almost a year and my journal for a year and a half, but Ben had only come across the site during the end of March, when I transitioned the main page to a blog. Thankfully, what he read was interesting enough to prompt him to IM me. And I'm so grateful he did, because from some idle chit chat on a weekday afternoon, while I was at a college newspaper office in New Jersey and he was in a basement/office in Michigan, grew the most rewarding, fulfilling friendship of my life. And the most mature romantic relationship I've had so far.

Since that first day, when he made an appearance in my blog as treeb jen [he would also be tree bjen, jenks and jenkiebaby], he has become a confidant and a best friend. During the past year we've been through stressful work environments, a job hunt, a cross-country move, four San Francisco trips, one East coast journey and countless hours of sharing ourselves. I've never been so close to someone and so eager to find out more. I've never been so comfortable.

My words can do no justice to the absolute joy I've felt because of his kind and generous heart. His words come closest to expressing the intense happiness associated with not just that delightfully insane night in Chico, but all of the past year as well.

[I should mention that tomorrow marks three months from when I landed in San Francisco International Airport for the New Year's trip that changed everything.]