One in a Million Odds
Sep. 2nd, 2003 02:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
willowispTwenty-eight years ago, I was just a hair over four years old, and somewhere out there a boy was born. This was certainly not an Earth-shattering event at the time, because little boys are born on a daily basis. And, since if anything I am null-psychic, I'm fairly certain that no one in my immediate area had any idea how important that day would end up being to me. Fortunately this lack of awareness did not change the outcome.
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callicrates may have been one of many children born on September 2nd, 1975, but he has also since proved to be one in a million. A running notion in Pterry's _Discworld_ novels is that a one in a million chance of something happening always happens, and on that day, Andy was it. He was born in Indiana; I was born in upstate NY. He went to school in Indiana and I went to school and college in upstate NY. The chances of us meeting were quite probably one in a million, and we all know what that means.
I should digress here for a moment. There were some factors in my meeting of Andy which I should note. If it wasn't forblackgryphon I probably would never have read Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, and I certainly would not have read them in the summer of 1992. If I hadn't been dragged onto PernMUSH kicking and screaming by Todd (I wish I knew where he was nowadays) in the fall of 1992, I wouldn't have met Andy's character, and without the folks at Ista both impressing us to the best blues in the world, we almost certainly would never have become as close as we did. As much as I might cringe at some of the things Anne McCaffrey has done/said, I have to thank her for inventing the dragon/rider bond which captured enough imaginations for MUDs to be themed after them.
Andy's parents also deserve a note of thanks, for giving him life and for getting him into Sycamore before public schools killed or crushed him. A lot of friends, many who are reading this by default and some who may be reading it without my knowing (if so, create a journal already so I can friend you ;), helped out more than I could ever state. For that I am more than grateful; and anyone who has Andy's friendship is genuinely fortunate, because he is the best friend anyone could have: compassionate, loyal, and with a devastatingly funny sense of humor.
In a lot of ways I don't deserve someone as wonderful as he is. I'm a slob; I procrastinate; I hurt his feelings without meaning to but with the same results. I find it continually incredible that someone like him would even deign to spend time with me, let alone spend his life with me. And I am elated that twenty-eight years ago the one in a million occurred, making one of many into the (future) best husband in the world.
If you think there were a lot of superlatives in this, you are absolutely correct.
callicrates may have been one of many children born on September 2nd, 1975, but he has also since proved to be one in a million. A running notion in Pterry's _Discworld_ novels is that a one in a million chance of something happening always happens, and on that day, Andy was it. He was born in Indiana; I was born in upstate NY. He went to school in Indiana and I went to school and college in upstate NY. The chances of us meeting were quite probably one in a million, and we all know what that means.I should digress here for a moment. There were some factors in my meeting of Andy which I should note. If it wasn't for
blackgryphon I probably would never have read Anne McCaffrey's Pern novels, and I certainly would not have read them in the summer of 1992. If I hadn't been dragged onto PernMUSH kicking and screaming by Todd (I wish I knew where he was nowadays) in the fall of 1992, I wouldn't have met Andy's character, and without the folks at Ista both impressing us to the best blues in the world, we almost certainly would never have become as close as we did. As much as I might cringe at some of the things Anne McCaffrey has done/said, I have to thank her for inventing the dragon/rider bond which captured enough imaginations for MUDs to be themed after them.Andy's parents also deserve a note of thanks, for giving him life and for getting him into Sycamore before public schools killed or crushed him. A lot of friends, many who are reading this by default and some who may be reading it without my knowing (if so, create a journal already so I can friend you ;), helped out more than I could ever state. For that I am more than grateful; and anyone who has Andy's friendship is genuinely fortunate, because he is the best friend anyone could have: compassionate, loyal, and with a devastatingly funny sense of humor.
In a lot of ways I don't deserve someone as wonderful as he is. I'm a slob; I procrastinate; I hurt his feelings without meaning to but with the same results. I find it continually incredible that someone like him would even deign to spend time with me, let alone spend his life with me. And I am elated that twenty-eight years ago the one in a million occurred, making one of many into the (future) best husband in the world.
If you think there were a lot of superlatives in this, you are absolutely correct.
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Date: 2003-09-02 03:30 pm (UTC)Actually, I'm 28 and grew up and went to school in Indiana. If Andy's degree is in engineering, it might be from Purdue? My degree is from Indiana University, but hubby's is in Electrical Engineering at Purdue. I wonder if they crossed paths?
Heh. I was also an avid Pern fan at one time, and I founded this collaborative fiction world inspired by it. (Woo... looking at the writing sample they're using now on the main page, sometimes more inspired than others.) It was designed to be a Pern-like framework where the writers created the details of the world. Some details converged, others diverged. After a while, we started discouraging any more convergent details as we became more aware of legal dangers.
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Date: 2003-09-02 03:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-02 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2003-09-02 03:46 pm (UTC)I remember The Brain Game. I was on the team for my school when I lived in Ohio. We came in 2nd.
One of my best friends, also 28, went to Perry Meridian. If they met, tho, I'm not sure I'd want to use that as a reference to Andy. He (my friend) was VERY obnoxious back then :).