I wrote a longish piece today about my relationship with Sarah, but a problem with Netscape (which I'm increasingly annoyed with) led to me losing it. It's kind of a rock and a hard place thing: I don't like using IE as it's a tool of the Dark One, but Netscape is quickly moving to obsolescence, and it's owned by another Evil Empire. Time to spring for something not controlled by Gates or AOL.

So Blogalicious is all about the love today, it being Valentine's Day and all. I will try to write again on the original topic: how Sarah and I got together and all of the time that went from there to this past summer, when we went public (or, as you'll see, it was more how I went public).

I should start by thanking an individual and a company. First, thanks to Matt Bruce for hosting a pair of college bowl tournaments during the summer of 1999, as Sarah came down to help at both and wound up staying with me (in the spare room!). Second, thanks to Boston Edison for sucking just enough to have a power outage that lasted from our return to campus after the second tournament until after Sarah left. For it was that power outage that led Sarah and I to stay up most of the night talking, planting in both of us the notion that perhaps there was more there than met the eye (though it wouldn't have taken much, given that we were sitting in the dark).

Time passed, emails were exchanged, hints dropped. And more hints dropped. And yet more hints dropped. Sarah is a very patient woman, although I have to admit towards the end I was kind of playing along, trying to make a decision between going for it and heeding a very clear warning.

This is where the secret part of things comes into play. In more than one meeting, the director of my department at BU told us, in no uncertain terms, that dating students was not allowed, and we could expect to be sent packing were we discovered doing so. In an area of student affairs where the gray area often dominates, that sort of clear language was a clarion call.

But I went ahead and started seeing Sarah. In the words of Buffy Summers, "Love makes you do the wacky."

The first date was a combination of the dorky and romantic. Saw the Imax film on Egypt starring Omar Sharif (a fave of Sarah's) and got dessert at Caffe Vittoria in the North End.

And then things went from there. It's kind of funny to think, but since that date we've done a few fun/romantic things, but we settled into our relationship quickly. Probably because we'd known each other for a couple years beforehand, and we'd spent so much time talking about things.

Talking, or more broadly "communication," is probably the cornerstone of our relationship. Neither of us is afraid to talk about things that bother us, and we're both willing to give answers that may not be popular but do address the issue at hand. We've never had a major blowout, thanks mostly to this ability to talk things out (there are those who say the occasional blowout is good, but I think they're thinking about the making up more than anything else).

Not that we're perfect. I'm a slob, and Sarah tends to nag (she's giving it up for Lent). But we do the best we can, and so far it's been pretty darn good.

Kind of funny to think I'm in love, given the general lack thereof previously. But there it is. I am in love, as sad, sweet, pathetic, joyous, and all together indescribable as it may be. Sarah often asks why I love her, and the only answer I can come up with is like that Potter Stewart did when writing about obscenity: I know it when I feel it. And I know that I am in love, and am very happy that I can say it now.

Sarah, if you're reading this (and I think you will, after I told you I had something that got lost), I love you. I couldn't say it publicly for too long, but I can now, and won't stop doing so.

Ever.