The year was 2021.
I was freshly-moved back into my little apartment, after separating from my (now ex-)wife for the second time. Everyone was still wearing masks, except me when I was cycling on the seaside bike lane, which I was doing every morning with a friend from work. I was generally feeling down but getting slowly better.
The 1st of May arrived - a Saturday, one month since I'd moved out. I don't remember anything at all about the day, but at some point in the early evening, I got a DM on Twitter. Today known as The DM.
And so started the rest of my life.
Alejandra was another artist who I'd met on Twitter. We had interacted a few times, briefly, and a few months before this, I saw her piece "Perhaps..." on my timeline and for the first time in my life, felt what it felt like to HAVE to have a piece of art.
We ended up doing an art-swap: her "Perhaps..." for my "Didn't Planet".
Our conversation that night was light and fun. I was not a little moved that she had messaged me only because she wanted to know how I was doing after our previous brief exchange two weeks earlier. (I had told her I wasn't in the best place after my break-up).
I opened a bottle of wine and invited her to join me. She didn't have wine but promised to have some for the next time. We talked about Studio Ghibli movies and listened to music (one of my playlists if I remember right). It was a wonderful few hours and I found myself smiling after we'd said goodbye.
The next evening, we watched a movie together (Mank). And essentially, from that moment on, not a single day passed without us spending some time together.
After only the 2nd or 3rd night of talking, I knew that she was special. There was a part of me that was suspicious of myself - I had sworn after separating from my ex that I would give myself time to just be by myself for a while - I was looking forward to it, even - but Alejandra was just too wonderful.
A fellow artist... Refreshingly intelligent... A music lover... A crypto-enthusiast... Enjoys reading and writing... And an atheist... And more things I won't mention! =) ... It honestly felt too good to be true.
But it was true. Incredibly, gloriously true. I had met the love of my life.
We have passed through some crazy adventures these last 4 years and perhaps I'll tell those stories here sometime, but that is not what this post is for.
This is only to make you aware: Be careful which seemingly menial interaction you disregard as unimportant. It may, after all, be magic.