My wife is hard working, dedicated and faithful. I know her to be a loving, warm & caring person and an incredibly passionate lover. Her love can send me into shivering fits even still. She is also someone that I can talk to and get something back. More than just stunningly beautiful, she has an intelligence and wit that I shall never grow tired of.

Last December, I began creating a series of cartoons depicting and honoring the events of our lives, both before and after we were married. “Stickmen” began the cartoon series. Little ’stick men’ figures, with colored backgrounds done with PaintPro and/or PhotoShop image-editing software. Nearly 100 single-frame cartoon cells in gallery form were presented to her as a ‘desktop gallery slideshow’ this past June on our 5^th Wedding Anniversary. With her approval, I have been sharing selected ‘frames’ through Triond, and these have been hosted on Picable. Lacking the progressive direction that is evident in the slideshow, I wish to call piecemeal attention to the series and share selected frames of “Stickman” with you now.

How We Met

I needed someone to write to me, to talk to me, to occupy my lonely times. The pen pals in my life just weren’t quite doing it for me. I needed someone real, tangible, touchable. I needed …her!

We ‘met online’ as the expression goes. I had many pen pals and e-pals (over 100 at any time) that I regularly kept in touch with. I thought that I was close to one or two at various times. Even meeting one or two of them at about one per year intervals, sometimes taking one as a lover for short while but it never really quite ‘worked out’, you know? The sex was good and fun but I still had not quite ‘found love’. I was still searching.

The woman I eventually married had found my profile on Yahoo, and she contacted me. I was immensely flattered to be approached by her instead of me trying to break the ice first as had always been the case in the past. It was a certain photo of herself that proved to be the catalyst causing me to fall in love with her. Parodied in “Stickmen”, here she is in that photo (left frame), and later I cite in a separate frame (right frame, attached here together for brevity) what I would have done had I seen her sitting there that day.

Now, years later, “OMG –YUM!” has became a favorite expression of ours when we see each other in various states of undress. There is a flirty aura about this; usually it is a precursor to sexual intercourse later that same evening (or afternoon!)

A Bicycle Mishap

When bicyclists crash & burn… Recovery, waiting for contact from you.

About two weeks after we first began communicating, I had a tumble on my bike and broke my right arm at the elbow. Unable to get to the computer or phone for several days, she might have thought that I had been frightened away. I was delighted when she tried to reconnect with me after several days of mutual silence. Being ‘on the injured list’ now, doped on painkiller medication and at home for the next few weeks, we spent many hours e-mailing and phoning each other. We started to fall in love. Warm, sweet delicious love!

Our Vacation Together

A month or so after returning to work, I took my pre-scheduled two-week vacation. I invited her to accompany me, and she accepted. We had already met in person by now, and ‘sleeping arrangements’ were not a problem anymore. We had already become lovers, having made several previous secret rendezvouses for companionship, and for sex. So, off to vacation!

We drove to Colorado by way of Missouri, visiting guided tour caves along the way. In Colorado we visited historical sites, more caves, climbed mountain trails and toured National Parks.

The exodus from Colorado towards the end of our vacation was notable because of a raging thunderstorm and over seven hours of non-stop driving through some of the most straight, linear and deserted interstate highway we had ever seen! No rest stops, no gas or service stations, we had just 3/4s of a tank of gasoline to start with and at some point we were becoming fearful of becoming stranded in desolated northeastern part of the state.

Upon crossing the state line into Nebraska, we discovered amenities galore! Food, gas, a place to park for the night; it was all good. Motels, hotels, -that means a place to shower together, towel each other off and of yeah, -to have more hot sex! Yeah, -this was good indeed!

We Decided

She was the best thing that I have ever found and I wanted to spend my life with her. Some months later I bought a ring and begged her to marry me. She agreed, and it was one of the happiest first days of the rest of our lives.

We Became Married!

We took our honeymoon in Mexico the day after the wedding. It was an amazing week!

We climbed the Chichen Itza pyramid, and explored the grounds. Climbing this ziggurat is no longer permitted these days as an unfortunate accident a few years later involving a woman falling and dying has made climbing disallowed. But we were still able to climb at this time, explore and take photos. We got really, really sunburned despite having used sun block liberally. Next time, we use SPRAY-ON sun block. We hurt too much to rub any more one each other.

Many Funny Happenings

We love to laugh. Over these last few years, there have been many occasions to laugh and smile. When our son came along two years later, even more so. My wife’s pregnancy was beautiful, interesting and amusing; I loved it when she would set a small plate upon her swollen tummy and use it as a bench.

And in time’s fullness, the baby came along. Sleepless nights and tiresome days followed. Anyone whom has ever had children already knows about this! Enough said.

As the designated Stay-at-home parent, I used to take my son to an area drop-in center during the mornings. This is a friendly place where stay-at-home parents can bring their children to play with other children, and toys and partake in activities. And the parents of these children can socialize.

One of our funniest and most discussed events centers on this one mom whom would occasionally bring her own hot buttered bagels from a local coffee shop, sit with me and offer me one. I never accepted. -I just wasn’t interested in taking food from strangers I guess. Those hot buttered bagels did look delicious and tempting, however.

My wife saw this in an entirely different light; she felt slightly jealous of this person offering me food and thought that this mom was maybe ‘flirting with me’. -The giving and receiving of delicious hot buttered food often leads to illicit romance, apparently. Nothing could have been farther from the truth in this case. We are just platonic, really! -Although it didn’t help that I had stated that this mom was rather, um, attractive.

In my wife’s fertile imagination, the possibility of ’something between us’ existed. From this, I created the two cartoon frames dealing with the ‘the perception’ and ‘the reality’ of the event (combined here to show.).

Now of course, we laugh and tease each other about the whole ’bagel lady’ thing!

Even More in Love Than Ever

We have been going strong now for just over five years and falling even deeper in love. Our son figures prominently in both our lives first and foremost, and in the “Stickmen” series. A lot of my best stuff comes from things revolving around him.

My wife and I are still writing the story of our lives and even after five years of marriage we are still discovering more love and the sexual pleasures of our union. It is even more exciting and fulfilling than it was the very first time! I love my wife with all my heart.

I started making ‘comic strip’ adventures ‘Stickmen’ for part of our 5^th Anniversary, but I continue to add frames and comics to this day. Here is a recent (end of August ‘08) conversation (hosted on Picable) that we actually had regarding the changing of season.

End of Summer

While I have made about 80 or 90+ ‘frames’ of Stickmen, it is still a work in progress. More cartoons come periodically. I have only shared about half or a bit more of them hosted so far with Triond/Picable. This is mostly due to the constraint of some frames requiring a cell or two of comics to ‘set up’ the gimmick and/or a cell or two more to complete the thought. –The gag doesn’t work if any frame is missed or viewed out of turn. That was the issue with “the end of summer”, so I created an entire ‘digital comic sheet’.

But in any event, no matter how many more “Stickmen” frames I choose to add, I figure that the best possible ending to the story would maybe be this:

She enjoyed the cartoon slideshow/gallery that night and later after wine and food, we had some of the hottest sex yet. That was a special evening, the 5^th Anniversary of the happiest first day of our married lives. I love my wife. And we are far from done loving each other.

And now, go to I Love My Wife / PART II

(All images are original, by me. -thestickman)