Quiet moments

Some of my favourite times in Second Life are when nothing in particular is happening, maybe just friends hanging around and chatting. Even though we can IM to each other no matter where we are, there's something about a quiet place that's just more conducive to real conversation.

Bailey

I've met some of the people whose blogs I have provided links to. Patrice, of course, is my SL wife, lover, and best friend. Patrice did a terraforming job for Cheyenne, which is how I met her. It was her blog that got me started writing my own—and look what happened! I have IMed with Mordecai but have not yet met him or Melissa, although I would like to. I have met Sorcha at her wonderful treehouse, and also went to the Bubblegum once when she was hosting. And yesterday, I met Bailey Toland.

I got an IM in my e-mail from Bailey that said she was kind of at loose ends, so I went in world, and we met up at my counselling office. That took a bit of doing. I didn't realize that the landmark on my classified ad was out of date! I couldn't just send a teleport to Bailey (not sure why), so I had her use that LM, and she materialized down on the ground. After several false starts, I finally got her up to the sky-office and fixed that landmark as well.

I should have got a better picture, but this will have to do. Bailey claimed that she usually wears more clothes. I claimed that I usually don't look so preppy. LOL! I liked her ink, though, so I'm not sad that I got to see it.

We ended up sitting on the floor cushions in my counselling room and chatting. Patrice joined us after a short while, having finished work for the day. Bailey is a delightful person, as you might imagine if you've read her blog. She's very excited about the impending adoption with her friend as co-parent. I quite enjoyed her company, so hopefully we'll be able to meet up again soon, despite a nine-hour time difference. Meanwhile, I will certainly keep reading about her adventures.

Night radio

On Friday and Saturday evenings, I'm usually doing First Life things with my SO (Bon Cop, Bad Cop on DVD last night, great fun, especially for hockey fans), so I didn't log in last night until fairly late. Patrice was at the Velvet, along with a few stragglers. Illya, bless her, was DJing for those of us who wanted to keep dancing. Patrice was planning on getting a reasonable amount of sleep (she can't sleep in on Saturday mornings), but that didn't happen. I think it was nearly 11, 2 a.m. for her, when she took off from the club. I hung around for a little while longer, but things were truly dying down. So when I saw Patrice come back online, I TPed home.

I disrobed and lay on the bed with her in our spooning position. She had changed the music stream back to "Radio Patrice," a stream of her favourite music. The server she runs it on is a bit lacking of bandwidth, so the signal is more compressed than what you would normally hear at a club. It was odd when I first heard it. Now, I find it strangely comforting, especially when it's dark out. It feels like driving on a highway, late at night, listening to AM radio. And it's a personal connection to Patrice.

As we lay there, still chatting, "our" song came on the stream—"Lullaby" by the Dixie Chicks. "How long do you want to be loved / Is forever enough, is forever enough." We listened, quietly. I could imagine her holding me, feeling her skin against mine. Finally, so late in her time zone, Patrice was ready to fade. And in the end, I lay there alone, just for a minute, before I too went offline and off to dreamland.