Have Netbook. Will Blog.

So, I'm sitting in Midway Airport, waiting for my flight to be called. I have an hour or so before take off, so instead of playing 20 games of Free Cell, I thought I would fire up the netbook, and start a blog post.

I know. Go figure.

It's dawned on me that as I enter this new phase of my life, many of you are somewhat new (or somewhat forgetful), and maybe don't know a lot of my back story. It may help to appreciate where I'm going if you know where I've been.

The name's 'Eric'. I real life, Cora calls me 'Eric', too. But, 'Scope' is a nickname / pen name that I've used for about 25 years now. (Heck, it's on my car's plates.) There are also non-blogger people out there who call me 'Scope', too.

I grew up on a farm, 2.5 miles outside of a town of 250 people in central Illinois. Never was much into farming, and my dad never pushed me into it (Thanks DAD!), but I did bale my share of hay, cut hogs, and dehorned calves. Was into basketball & track in high school. Was never popular, but never really unpopular. Never really dated much in high school.

After high school, the most formative period of my life began. Mac Murray College, Jacksonville, IL. Most of my closest friends are college friends. The minister @ my wedding? College. Best man? College. We just gelled at that small little college, and life ling bonds were formed. I also started writing for the college's daily newspaper (usually one sheet of legal paper folded into 4 "pages") as 'Scope' in rambling commentary that is generally not all that different than the blog I write now. Didn't date a whole lot in college, except for my senior year when I had a single room.

After graduation, I moved off the farm and got a job in downtown Chicago. I loved it. I got a job doing financial reports for a BIG accounting firm. I held that job for over 13 years before we closed up shop in the whole "Enron" thing. (I still miss the Andersen days.) More 'data-ing' than 'dating'.

(Note: Boarded and in flight somewhere over western Illinois.)

I spent the next year (53 weeks) unemployed. I trained for and ran a marathon, and started a new job working IT at a law firm. For the same manager as Andersen. Was there for a few years, then moved to another law firm. Still reporting to the same manager. It so is "Who you know."

One day, two summers ago, a friend of mine had a backyard party. At this party, I ran into a fabulous, spunky, smart, cute, sassy broad, Gwen , from Everything I Like Causes Cancer. She introduced me to 'Blog-World' and I spend the next few months commenting around and getting to know the likes of Candy, Dr. Zibbs, and MJenks, before firing up Scope-Tech. And then one day, over at Zibb's place, I read a comment from a gal, teasing a story about showering naked with nurses. Cora. I kept checking back, and finally, I left her my first comment on her blog. Something about wanting to put a hidden camera in her house so I could watch her work out on a stripper pole. I remember being nervous to see how she would react (go figure).

But, she played along.

Blog flirting led to emails.

Emails led to phone calls.

Phone calls led to plane flights.

Plane flights led to me dropping to me knee last October.

And now here we are, ready to start a whole new series of adventures.

And I can hardly wait.

[Editor's Note: And I just realized I basically did this post LAST NOVEMBER. So go HERE for links that I am too lazy to reproduce here.

Also, I have been on the ground now for about 36 hours, and that countdown clock doesn't bother me in the least bit.]