Incidentals

Alex and Jenni's Site

Our Story

July 2002

On July 26^th Alex began posting on the forums of the Red Dwarf Fanclub where Jenni was already posting. The first thing Alex posted was:

Hi,
I'm a new poster so I'm saying hi. Happy?

The third reply was by Jenni, who said:

Yeah, Welcome Slices!
LuvsRimmer

So they knew each other as fellow Red Dwarf fans but they didn't have a clue that in a matter of months they would be so much more.

December 2002

On December 1^st Alex started using the Trillian chat program. The first AIM user he added was Jenni.

alexdunlop81: Hi, it's slices from the red dwarf boards
LuvsRimmer: oh hey!
LuvsRimmer: What's new?
alexdunlop81: well just signed up to aol messenger
LuvsRimmer: so I see
LuvsRimmer: added ya to my buddy list
alexdunlop81: I'm actualy meant to be reading a computer science text book, but I got fed up
LuvsRimmer: I've been reading the boards when I should be grocery shopping
LuvsRimmer: my fridge is empty since I got home from Thanksgiving
alexdunlop81: When was thanks giving?
LuvsRimmer: Thursday
alexdunlop81: oh right
LuvsRimmer: about five hours before I came down with stomach flu
alexdunlop81: oh
LuvsRimmer: I'm mostly recovered now, thank goodness
alexdunlop81: where did you go for Thanks giving then?
LuvsRimmer: but I had to miss out on the big holiday sales
LuvsRimmer: I went to my parents, which is two hours drive. We had dinner and watched foorball at my cousin's house. I drove back home Saturday noontime.
alexdunlop81: Well i better get back to the computer science book... still it makes more sense than the lectures
alexdunlop81: cu
LuvsRimmer: bye

They then spoke again on the 7^th and contined talking on a regular basis.

January 2003

As Alex and Jenni continued to talk their conversations became the highlight of their days. Alex found himsef waiting up late in order to talk to Jenni, and smiling when ever she came online. Late in January, a conversation about Jenni's Mom collecting Disney videos led to discussing their views on children and how Alex had worked with kids at church. This was the first conversation that Jenni saved, as it gave her insight into Alex's thoughts on children (well frankly, it made her think "ooh he'd be such a good daddy"). In hindsight, Alex was glad they had the conversation as well, as it gave him insight into her past and her thoughts on the future. Since then this conversation has been referred to as the "babies conversation".

On January 27^th, Alex was talking to their mutual friend Patrick, who suggested Alex send a Valentine's card to someone from the Red Dwarf Fanclub forums with the hope to set something up for Dimension Jump (the Red Dwarf convention). Patrick suggested a few names, but failed to mention Jenni's. When Alex told Jenni this the next day, she got quite mad at Patrick. When Alex commented that he hadn't thought she'd be interested, a panicked "OMG OMG what do I say??" to Jenni's friend Felicia ensued. Upon Felicia's advice, Jenni enigmatically replied "You'll never know unless you try." In an IM on the 29^th, Jenni told Patrick off for not having included her and revealed to him that the reason she was angry was because she was romantically interested in Alex! Never one for subtlety, Patrick proceeded to arrange for them to meet in a chatroom, where he bluntly spilled the beans that they liked each other. Thus began weeks and months of grinning and being sickenigly cute and gushing about each other in her LiveJournal. Their first phone call happened on the 31^st of January. Neither really knew what to say but Alex's accent turned Jenni into a puddle of Anglophile goo.

February 2003

On the advice of Patrick, Alex sent Jenni some beautiful pink roses via Proflowers.com for their one-week anniversary. Valentine's day was only two weeks after they got together, so they were unsure how to celebrate it. Buying cards was difficult, as most Valentine cards (well, ones for grownups anyhow) say "I Love You" and they weren't ready to say that. But they managed to find suitable ones and sent them out. Several days before the 14^th, Jenni received a very lumpy package from Alex which then sat on her desk at work all day tormenting her. When she opened it on Valentine's Day it turned out to be a soft cuddly teddy bear with a bag of raspberry jelly beans which she named Alex. Also in the package was a box of Cadbury Milk Tray (as she'd told Alex she loved milk chocolate best) and a heart-shaped Galaxy. In a separate package delivered via Amazon, Alex sent her a webcam! So once she got the webcam installed and Alex connected his digital camera they could see each other!

They spent the evening talking by voicechat on Yahoo using makeshift headsets and the Falling Hearts IMVironment and grinning at each other. Jenni had sent Alex a package of his own including a card, a tiny brown Boyd's Bear with a red sweater on that said "be mine" and lots of confetti hugs and kisses.

March 2003

As time passed, Alex and Jenni would make references to "things better said in person" as they both had begun to feel they were falling in love but were scared to say so before their anticipated first meeting in person at Heathrow in April. As they were chatting via Yahoo on the 14^th of March, they were very close to saying that they loved each other as Alex was talking about how his ex-girlfriend had said it and not meant it. The following morning, Jenni posted about it in her LiveJournal. That evening, as they were talking by phone, Alex threw caution to the winds and said "I love you". These words that Jenni had longed to hear made her blissfully happy as she told Alex that she loved him. Neither of them had expected that they would say it before they actually met in person, and indeed the following day Jenni even asked if she'd dreamt it. It wasn't how or when either of them had expected it to happen, but for Alex and Jenni lots of things have happened in unexpected ways.