Crash Into Me

My Lacey Again

By this time, I had immersed myself back in my life in Indiana. I was back at DePauw, in a Transition to Teaching program. Fresh from my Masters degree, I was now intent on getting into teaching as soon as possible to start my "real life". I needed a job, so I waited tables (mostly on weekends) at a family/breakfast restaurant called Perkins. I was hanging out with my old friends and Joel a lot. When I got the first email, it took me a few minutes to realize where it had come from. And then I remembered Mrs. White. I was pretty gunshy at that point, realizing that 1)I was being set up, 2)she lived 800 miles away and 3)I had no idea who she was. So I took it slow. I'm pretty sure Lacey was thinking the same thing. I emailed a couple of friends first off (hi Christin!) who told me good things, but still, I kept communication fairly light. A couple emails a week, just about general stuff. Movies, school, background, things like that. Then, the instant messaging. I really didn't know much about it, or use it very often, but a couple friends were on there, and I had to have it for the upcoming fantasy baseball draft, so I figured what the heck? That lead to some more frequent conversations between Ms. Rockett and I. Not a lot, just building little by little. I certainly was liking what I read, but that wasn't enough yet to put myself out there. And then came November. We had been talking about music a good bit, and being a music buff, I decided to burn her a CD or 2 with my favorite songs on it. This is something I had been doing for a while now (you're welcome, Christin, Jill and Laura), so it was still pretty innocent. To me, at least. Little did I know that Lacey had received the 2-CD set and promptly devoured it. Then, she did something unexpected, something that would forever change the course of our lives. She called to thank me. I don't remember a lot about that first conversation, only that it didn't last all that long, and her voice was a little bit lower than I had expected (for a voice major). But it was such a cute voice, with just a hint of a southern accent (quite a turn-on btw). So we decided to talk on the phone again. This is where the story take a bit of a turn. The next conversation turned into about a 5 hour phone marathon. We talked about everything, our lives, school, being reformed, you name it. We just clicked. And this coming from a guy who had been TERRIBLE on the phone before this. So, one phone conversation lead to another, which lead to another, and before long we were talking almost every night, to the point where I would look forward every day to the exact minute I could hear her voice on the other end. That's when I knew things were getting fairly serious. I know, it sounds crazy. We had never even seen each other. But you can really get to know someone over the phone. In some ways it's almost easier, no awkwardness, no sexual tension, no physicality getting in the way. It was pure, wonderful, and we loved it. By the time Christmas was getting close, I had already made the decision to visit Monroe. Remy and Bethany were having a wedding celebration, and I had missed the actual wedding, so it made for a good excuse to get down there. Joel would come with me. It was perfect. Joel and I would visit, Lacey and I would finally meet, I'd be there for those legendary New Years Eve parties I'd been hearing about, and everything would work out perfectly. It didn't go exactly according to plan...