Nerd Love and Field Trips...Nov. 2005

All of the Thanksgiving food, drink, and merrymaking was followed the next day by the quintessential south Louisiana experience: SEC football in Tiger Stadium! Yep, the LSU Tigers took on the Arkansas Razorbacks in what turned out to be a fairly nail-biting game, replete with the pagentry and sheer insanity of the world's pre-eminent tailgating venue. For those on the Great Southern Continent, tailgating will be explained later. Preferably in an interactive manner and before a Western Bulldogs game at Telstra Dome. We'll be giving lessons in the parking lot...

As if going to Tiger Stadium for a real, live SEC football experience wasn't enough of a field trip, Stephen and Joni went on many other adventures during his first trip to America as well. Here, you see Stephen on top of the Louisiana State Capital, with his back to the "mighty Mississippi River".

They also got to see a Civil War battlefield, a World War II destroyer, the Old State Capital, the remains of New Orleans, Port Fourchon, Grand Isle, Lake Verrett, and Joni's beloved Bayou Lafourche. Truly, our favorite couple are some serious nerds, and they are easily amused, which is good. And so it is that they have both found the great nerd love that they both longed for all their very lives...

And then, there was a Charlie Brown Christmas tree....

complete with ornaments that Joni and Stephen purchased at Lowe's right up the street from Joni's apartment.

Thanksgiving 2005 - More Food Than Stephen Can Shake a Stick At...


So, for the first time in his life, Stephen experienced the wonder that is an American Thanksgiving. Yes indeed, the stuff of TV and movie legend, brought right to his life.

Oddly enough, it was not a Midwesterner that our fair Stephen had fallen for. And thus it came to pass that Stephen experienced Thanksgiving on the Bayou... Replete with an entire turkey deep-fried in peanut oil, injected with Cajun Seasonings, and the entire surface suitable for classification as "Premium Croute" was the Bayou Thanksgiving experience.

Upon seeing a pot filled with enough 425-degree peanut oil to consume an entire 13 pound turkey alight over the enchanting blue dancing flames of the seasonal propane burner, Stephen could only remark "My Dad would give anything to see this..." And to think, that was just the 'Very BTNEP Thanksgiving' with Joni's work associates. The family feeds were yet to come! First, there was the big Blanchard Family Thanksgiving, this year hosted at Roland and Stephanie's house on the bank of Bayou Lafourche. This meal, replete with all the Cajun trimmings (rice dressing, turkey, gumbo, rice and gravy, salad, green beans, yams, and assorted desserts) followed by football viewing on TV and accompanied by booze all the way around was just the sort of cultural experience that Stephen had only imagined.

Then, there was the "Very Mediterranean Thanksgiving" supper at the Rathles, which included more booze, mullohekah (no, I really don't know how to spell it right...) stuffed grape leaves and other bits of Med-Love and followed by playing with the young of the clan and more TV.

August, 2005 - "People Do It Every Day"

So, on August 9, 2005, Joni got brought to the airport to get on a plane and fly across the world to actually, really, meet Stephen. Yes, this was daunting, to say the least, and even a bit scary. O.K. - WAY more than a bit scary. Terrifying. But necessary. So, the only thing that got Joni through the flights was the mantra "People do it every day." As in: people fall in love every day. People meet people every day. People fly around the world every day. People do extraordinary things every single day for a million reasons, so this thing can't be that big a deal or that scary an enterprise. Riiiggghhhtttt....


Needless to say, obviously, things went really well, and obviously, things worked out. And the thing that was the hardest in the end was going to the airport and walking away at the end of those first two weeks together to go back to separate lives across the world from one another. As evidenced by the email that Joni got from Stephen when she arrived back at her apartment at 4 a.m. after having flown back across the world:

"My own dearest Joni,
It’s now 11:42AM on Tuesday, and I guess your plane is now somewhere in the sky above Melbourne. I’m typing this at my place, I’ve got the You-Me-Us music on and a cup of coffee from the plunger at my elbow. I decided not to go back to the office today. I just found all I wanted to do was come back here and cling on to your ghost. When I walked in the door here, I nearly broke down. I miss you so much, so much, so much. As I sit here, I know the feeling you had of wanting to throw up. I can smell your hair on your pillow. The smell of your cooking hangs in the air, and I find myself aching for you in ways I didn’t know existed. I’m still glad though that I came back here. I’m glad – and pleased – to find that I miss you so much it hurts. And I was close to tears when I found your note under my mouse mat.
My dearest, dearest Joni, I don’t think I’m going to cope well without you. At first, I wasn’t sure about having you in my life, at least in the way it has turned out. But now, I don’t like to think about it without you.
I don’t know what else to say. I keep looking around and everything I see reminds me of you. Including the CD copy of the report on the Third Delta Conveyance Channel Project. I never thought such a thing could shake me up so much.
===
OK, just got back – went and heated up a bowl of Kajun Kangaroo. I looked at the rest of the flat while I was doing it. Precious, lovesome Joni, I will make this place better. I will make myself better. All I want now is to be the man you deserve.
Dearest one, I don’t know what else to say. I’m almost in tears at this point. The last two weeks have been beyond my dreams, and like you I think they have to have been the best two weeks of my life. You have made my life more perfect and wonderful than I could ever deserve to have had it. I will now, most definitely, be waiting for the days and weeks to pass until I can step off the plane in your world and again feel you in my arms and to kiss your sweet lips and face again.
I love you Joni. Hopelessly, hopelesly, hopelessly.
Stephen"

And then, there was, of course, mutual longing. Herewith is Joni's 4 a.m. reply to Stephen's email above:

"My dearest love Stephen,
Its now about 3 a.m. here, and I have just gotten out of the shower, hair dripping and all, and all I can say is "me too". I know that's feeble and infinitely less than the epic ballad ye deserve describing how I have cried on every plane I've been on today, in every airport, and am crying right now. I have looked at photos of us at intervals all day today, and all I can say is that every single mile of my journey, of any future journeys, any hardships, any anything that it takes to put me back in your arms is worth it and then so much more.
Also, in fairness, there's another note lurking in your flat. Look on top of the microwave, between the two tins of biscuits. (I can't believe I just called the little butter cookies biscuits... see what you've done to me in two short weeks?) Oh, and there's one I wrote on your blotter on your desk on the right hand side of said blotter.
I love you so deeply Stephen, and whatever happens with us will be worth every minute of this wrenching heartache, for you have made my life and my world and me so much better than I ever thought possible.
I love you and I miss you,
With all my love,
Your Princess"