TheBanyanTree: Love Story

[Mike Pingleton]

"I just figured out that I was done with David for good and I was
ready to look for Mister Right and not just Mister Next.  Going to
bars was the worst way to meet guys and I really wanted to try
something else.  So, one day on my lunch hour I went to Yahoo
Personals and signed up.  I had someone take my picture right in the
school office and that's the one I used."

"I'd just come back from living out in Washington for almost ten
years.  My divorce was a done deal a number of years ago, but since
then I just hadn't found anyone else either out in Bellingham or back
here in Troy.  I was thinking 'what is wrong with me?'  Why can't I
find a girlfriend?  I mean two or three years went by and nothing."

"So I put my ad out there on Yahoo and I said I was only interested in
guys from in and around town.  I had a bunch of replies the next day
when I checked, but not a one of them looked interesting.  I said I
was looking for an outdoors kind of guy from around here but some of
them weren't even in this state and some weren't even close to being,
you know, outdoorsy."

"One day I just decided I would try on-line dating, since I wasn't
meeting any women anyway.  I went to Yahoo and put my profile out
there.  I used a picture of me fishing - fishing pole in my hand, ball
cap, raggedy shirt.  I wasn't going to pretend to be anything more
that what I was."

"I told Mom what I had done and she said, 'why didn't you search the
Troy area?  Why put your home town?  You don't live there any more and
you already have an idea about the kind of guys from -there-'.  So I
expanded my search and looked at some profiles from around Troy.  The
first one I looked at was from this guy named Doug.  In his picture he
was holding a fishing pole and I thought 'wow, look at those big
muscled arms'.  Then I read his profile and he was an outdoorsman,
hunter, fisherman and so on.  I thought 'I'm going to email him' but
this window popped up that said I had to pay to send him email.  I
thought 'wait a minute, I'm not dropping thirty nine bucks to find out
this ain't the guy'.  So I went back and updated -my- profile to
include his area.  I figured if he was out there he might be
interested in me and pay to send -me- email.  And it worked!"

"I had contacted this one woman but she kept playing games with me
through email, saying 'call me at such and such a time', and then
never answering her phone.  After a week of this I said enough's
enough, and I had figured that this wasn't working.  So I stopped
checking in to look for new profiles.  But one night I decided what
the heck, and I decided to try again, and Amy's was the first one I
pulled up.  I thought 'Troy?  I've never seen this woman around Troy'.
 I would have remembered her for sure.  So I sent her an email
thinking, 'there's no way I have a chance with this woman'.  I mean
she was so beautiful."

"So I put out my hook and caught my fisherman.  And we started
emailing back and forth and back and forth.  Then it came time to
meet, a first date.  So I told James 'you gotta come with me', and I
emailed Doug and said I was bringing my brother with me.  You know,
just in case he really was some kind of weirdo.  So we arranged to
meet at the Steak N Shake and James drove me.  I was just too nervous
and I couldn't calm down and breathe normal.  I must have checked my
hair and face a dozen times on the way over."

"I was waiting in the parking lot and realized we had forgotten to
tell each other what kind of vehicle we would be in.  This car pulled
in and I saw this woman in the passenger seat, kind of a rear-quarter
view, and I thought, that's gotta be her.  I walked up and gave a
little wave and she waved right back."

"We forgot to tell each other what we were driving, but I just -knew-
he would be in a pickup truck.  And so when I saw this truck and a guy
getting out of it, I knew it was him.  And he came over and shook my
hand and James's hand and we talked a little bit, and I told James
that he could go ahead and leave.  And I got in Doug's truck and off
we went on our date."

"I had some ideas one where to take her - we drove to St. Louis to go
to Union Station and on the way we just talked and talked and talked. 
I can't even remember all what we talked about, I was so nervous. 
Then she said 'I have a confession to make' and I thought 'oh boy,
here it comes'.  Then she said 'I'm not really from Troy' and I
thought 'is that it?  that's all?'  No problem!"

"We went to this make-your-own-tshirt place in Union Station and he
said 'hey, come over here', and then he kissed me, our first kiss.  In
a tshirt place - how romantic is that?  It was.  It was."

"Then we ended up going to the zoo and then back to Troy and Amy had
me meet her parents and the rest of her family, and I thought they
were great people.  Then we went out to a local place to eat and our
date didn't end until about one in the morning.  And I couldn't
believe it - I couldn't believe I was with this beautiful woman and
she liked me right back."

"The next day Mom said to one of the other women at school, 'I can see
Amy marrying this guy', and a year later we're in Jamaica getting
married.  All of it because of Mom's idea.  And all because of a
couple chances and things happening, we're sitting here telling you
our love story."