#11: Bringing me in line with Lisa's account.

With our relationship still very much in its infancy, yet showing a great deal of potential, came the arrival of Christmas. Both Lisa and I had plans to visit our respective families over the festive period, and in my case, this meant a fortnight with only the most basic of internet connections; SL was out of the question.

Relationships within Second Life are ephemeral; without experiencing this very artificial environment for yourself, it is hard to appreciate how people have a tendency to find a new circle of friends, or someone just disappears altogether if you absent yourself for a week. Both Lisa and I realized that this seemingly brief separation was a far greater test of our friendship than it probably appears to outsiders; you must realize that at this stage, I didn't even know Lisa's real name.

Prior to my leaving, I received an email from Lisa that touched upon the possibility that we may have reached the stage where we each take our separate paths. A new year beckoned, and our friendship had only the flimsiest of foundations. We both looked forward to more of the same SL fun, but there were no guarantees that real life commitments wouldn't bring our gameplay to an abrupt end.

It was easy for me to send a strong rebuke via email, but I knew that a week down the line, Lisa could easily stumble upon somebody wittier, more charming or more intelligent than me within SL. Lisa's friendship was too important to me to just allow it to end in this fashion. I needed a plan of action, and that is where I hit upon the idea for the birthday gift video of myself.

The video was always going to be a gamble. There was the distinct possibility that I was about to make a complete fool of myself and bring about the end of the friendship that I was trying to strengthen. I'm not exactly noted for making a positive impression on women in real life, and I could see a video of a bumbling buffoon singing in a park may frighten Lisa into severing all links with me. This was a make or break decision, and right up to the point of sending the link to the subsequent video, I was hesitant about going through with it.

The video itself was a rushed affair; my time was limited, and the process of uploading was daunting. Within 24 hours of coming up with the idea, there was a video of me singing Happy Birthday Pied on YouTube.

And on the very same day, Lisa sent me an email and revealed her real name........

Andrew