[A card and letter from Shane, written just after we met for the first time, unedited and with only a few comments from the peanut gallery… that would be me.]

Front of card: I want a sensitive man.

Inside of card: One Who’ll Cry When I Hit Him.

Shane’s letter:

I knew this card was you. 🙂 So I got it for you instead of a thank you note. Me, I want a sensitive woman. One who’ll laugh till she cries when I tickle her. 🙂 This is just a little thank you card for Tuesday. It was an incredible day, and you’re an absolutely charming lass IRL. [IRL = In Real Life in dorky 90’s internet-speak. Also, yes, he really wrote “lass.”] I like you better IRL, very much. But I already told you all of that. It was a delightful day, from seeing you stumble around in the dead of night to seeing you teach to badminton to the gardens to just talking and watching you and my personal fave, the climax, in my opinion, our tickle fight. Thank you so much.

I’m sitting here on the porch of the Balsam Mountain Inn, a delightful, charming, quaint place. I kind of like it, but it’s just a little too soft. I feel like I’m living amidst a country craft show, you know? The heads of the beds are made of wood, twigs, and such glued and strung together. It’s the first true inn I’ve been to, run by a family, with a dining room, a gathering hall with a fireplace, even the family’s slightly overweight dog running around.

You know, for school, there’s this book I’ve been having to read, The Rise of Silas Lapham. Story of a man who becomes a millionaire in the industrial explosion just after the Civil War. Not a book I’d recommend at all. Anyway, one of the things that happens is that one of the young men courts Irene, the younger beautiful blonde. However, he falls in love with Penelope, the older, less pretty, quieter, but more witty and funny sister. It’s an odd sort of thing, but if you read it, there’s (to me) a strange similarity between Irene and you, then between Pen and your sister. Not that I, representing the suitor, would fall in love with your sister or anything. It’s like that Indy and Deirdre tale that paralleled us, remember? [No idea. I don’t remember now, even if I did then.] It’s just a weird little thing like that, how the two sisters (who were still very, very close) were like you two. Your sister, so quiet, still lovely, quiet, but witty and lovely when she speaks, the less lovely of the two of you, though not by a terrible lot, with a few more lovely features, like her hair (only slightly, though, I assure you) [gee thanks] ever with an odd eternal sadness, it seems. [If my sister read this, she would roll her eyes, snort, and call Shane a giant jackass, I’m almost sure.] Then you, the more lovely of the two, the more talkative, the more vibrant… I don’t quite know how to say it. Anyway, there you go. Just another terribly odd coincidence.

I would like you to come up sometime. Looks like it shan’t [seriously] be for quite some time, at least. Oh well. We shall just wait and see what God has in store. I think I’m going to try and draw you again, with the picture you gave me. Now that I’ve seen you face to face, and you’re still fresh in my mind (though a face as beautiful as yours I shan’t soon forget), and just naturally gotten better at drawing, I want to draw you again (that and I have no other projects right now 🙂 ).

You know, you’ve really made me reconsider my looks and how I’m not ugly… I know you’d tell me straight, so… I’m still thinking about it. [He totally wasn’t ugly. Like, super not ugly at all.] I haven’t any conclusions yet, though I’ll let you know as soon as I do. I hope you believe me, too, when I say I find you beautiful, or at least consider my words, like I did yours.

I think I also proved I’m the bigger clutz between the two of us. Have you got a bruise from where my nose rammed your cheek when I went to kiss it? 🙂 And then that was a rather awkward hug… anyway, I really appreciated this weekend. Sure meant a lot to me, to have a friend like you, that you let me touch your head and flirt, and you even flirted back… this day really, I think, drew us closer together. Thanks so much. I don’t get to do a lot of stuff, have a lot of friends… thanks. Take care. God bless. Bye!

Love,

Shane