Then, in January 1999, I was telling friends about a way to make some easy money by doing some testing for Yahoo! and our mutual friend decided this was a great excuse to get Brooke and myself back in touch, since he forwarded my email about the Yahoo! program to her. We started chatting, and this time, something sparked between us.

Over the next month, we hung out together to watch "E.R." and "South Park", and exchanged over 200 email messages, hundreds, sometimes thousands, of lines a day, totalling about two megabytes of just text. We grew closer, and began "officially" dating during that time.

In the short but wonderful time we have been together, so far, I have grown to feel more comfortable around her (except for that nagging terror of losing her!) than I have ever felt around any other woman. I don't have to watch my every word for fear of being misinterpreted, and I can joke freely with her, even with risque comments. I love to hug her, and she has a bright, sunny smile that makes my heart flutter.

I had a girlfriend way back in high school that I always used as the mark against which new interests were compared. Probably not a particularly realistic "bar" since that was after two years together. No one ever lived up to her. Until now. Brooke blew right past that mark in less than a week of getting to know her. I was dazed and amazed, but very happy. I still haven't quite gotten out of the "happily dazed" phase, I think. :)

She's really smart, too. She's a molecular biologist, and she went to college at 16. Of course, some friends may question her common sense, since she is dating me. :)

She runs marathons, and does lots of volunteer work for the Leukemia Society of America. She also has done several web sites for the various charities and other volunteer groups she is active in, as well as for some of the labs she has worked at.

For the first "full" day we spent together, we went out and I bought a piano. I had been wanting to learn to play for years, and she has played since she was about five. She also has a strong desire to teach (science, piano, all sorts of interesting stuff!). So, it seems like a wonderful match, and yet another reason to get together regularly.

She's still trying to figure out what she wants out of life. I'm doing my best to help in any way I can, and I just hope she decides to keep a place for me in her future. So far, so good. :)