On Going to Tennessee, and How I Wish Chelsea Was There

I posted about going up to the Alliance meet up just outside of Franklin, the same way a lot of us have. It was an absolutely phenomenal time we all had. I do wish that my girlfriend had been there with me.

My girlfriend Chelsea, known as @ladymaharet here on Steemit, is my best friend. More than that, she is a talented and dedicated artist. We have plans to move her down here to join me in Alabama in July/August, so moving forward, I'm going to make it a point to have her with me the next excursions I go on. Still, I really wish she could have gone with me. There is nothing I'd love more than for you guys to meet her in person and get to know a little of the amazing woman that I know.

^{She's way more good-looking than I am.}

I'm recently divorced, and despite the fact it was a smooth transition from married to unmarried, and I'm sharing custody with my wife, this has been anything but an easy process. This has been, without a doubt, the single most traumatic event of my life. I've written about it, like I write about most everything with you guys, but it's hard to put something like that into words. At no point in my mind did I expect I'd find someone who would love me for who I am, flaws and all. But more importantly, I didn't think I'd be able to love someone again after that. Once you invest yourself completely in someone, you tend to never want to trust another person again like that. Not just because you want to protect yourself from being heartbroken, but because you don't want to risk the guilt and the shame that comes with being an utter failure to your significant other. I had that in spades. It's not something you come back from easily.

And then, out of nowhere, comes this woman. I decided to get back into roleplaying on IRC, like I used to do when I was growing up, to get my mind off of what was going on and the specter of law school looming over me. And so, I met Chelsea. In a few weeks, she turned it all around. We both have our problems and our neuroses, and neither of us are unscathed by how terrible life can be and the poor decisions we, as people, too often make (rather than learning from other people's mistakes, like my dad always told me to do). But I was completely open with her. I didn't hold anything back, and I told her everything about me--the good, and the bad. And here we are, more than a year later, ready to get her down to the US to move in with me.

^{Seriously, she's the best woman in the world. Way better looking than me.}

She's amazing. And I would have loved nothing more than to have her in Tennessee with me. I'm telling you guys, you all need to meet her in person. She's reserved in a room full of new faces, just like I used to be, but once you sit down and talk with her, you won't find a warmer, more welcoming person. And once I get her down here, I know she's going to take on Southern charm and hospitality like something she never knew she had.

I love this girl more than everything, and I wish she'd been there with me. But moving forward, you can bet she's going to be there at my side for every event I'm invited to.

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Like what you read? Follow me, @anarcho-andrei! You can also find me on PALnet, Steem Romania, and the Fiction Workshop on the Writer's Block.