We met August 15, 1999. I have a friend from high school, Dawnna Salisbury,
who is in the Coast Guard Academy in Connecticut. During June of last year,Dawwna
was stationed on a Coast Guard boat in Key West, Florida. On this boat for30 days, she became close friends with a guy named Chris and his best friend Phil. Chris
and Phil were going to be getting off the boat in August, and then going to school for two months in Petaluma, California - my hometown. Dawnna was coming to visit me for a week in August, so she gave Phil my phone number and told him to call her when she was visiting me. As it turned out, Phil never called when Dawnna was here, he called the day after she left. (Keep in mind, I have never met Phil before and only know that he was an acquaintance of my friend Dawnna) We talked a bit on the phone the day he called. We made plans to meet and hang out some time before his school ended. We actually ended up going bowling the same night, August 15th. I went with two of my best friends and he went with a couple of his friends. It was a good game, I beat his friends, as well as him. I later adapted the nickname, with his whole class as "bowling girl."
Well bowling girl and Phil started talking on the phone EVERY night and hanging out quite a bit. Always had a really great time, doing anything and everything; bowling, movies, ping-pong, pool, Six Flags-Marine World, putt-putt (miniature golf), trying to win things in Grab Machines.....and the list goes on. Although we talked on the phone EVERY single night AND Phil always made the call AND I always awaited the call, we never talked about anything productive. Another words, when we talked, we never talked about anything really interesting, never talked about ourselves in order to learn things about one another....NONE OF THAT. We just talked and talked and talked, and we needed and wanted to do just that!? The question was: did we like each other? There were a few times when we got close, and I thought we were going to kiss, but our unsureness got in the way. It turned out that we were both felt the same way, but who knew? Nevertheless, we still had the best time together, and made quite a lot of memories (some I will never ever forget) and shared the same favorite songs which have had great impact on our lives. It would seem obvious that Phil and I liked each other, but our funny ways of hiding ourfeelings, made us blind. It was one week before Phil had to leave California for Virginia, that we became close. Neither one of us knew what was going to happen from there. I was hoping we would at least keep in touch here and there. E-mail each other every once in awhile, call each other sometimes, and if I was lucky fly over to the East Coast some day to visit. After he left for Virginia, we talked two or three times that week. I e-mailed him a couple times and when he finally responded, it was never ending.

We discovered that when he worked the night shifts (mid-watch) two nights a week, wecould talk on the Internet ALL night. I was feeling really good about not losing touch with him. It ended up that we started talking on the phone again EVERY night for hours
on end, despite the long distance charges. We gradually discussed things
about "us." He decided that if we were going to see each other again, then he could not see anyone else because it would ruin things between us. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. I never imagined that he or I would be willing to have a Long Distance
Relationship. BUT it is obvious that there was something within us that would not let go. So here it is November, and we don't have plans to see each other until April.....SIX
MONTHS away!!! Much to our own surprise we became closer than we imagined any two souls to be. Learned, shared, discovered, discussed ANYTHING and EVERYTHING about one another. In the six months we were apart, we disclosed our true selves to each other, came to love one another and discovered what a true best friend really is......a
SOULMATE.