[IceMaiden]

I have met three people off gD but AM was the only one I travelled to and had to take more steps to make sure I was safe. We spoke about if for quite a while before we went ahead with it and we had been together over a year before we did, speaking every day for at least 10 hours a day.

I was so freaking nervous when my train pulled in!!! He actually called me to see where I was and I told him I am hiding round the corner smoking! I felt sick and anxious and I was visibly shaking and I wanted to throw up, run away and hide all at once! The entire train ride down to him I was thinking oh my god what if he doesn't like me in person, what if he hates me?! And when I finally popped up from round the corner and walked over to him I thought I might collapse my legs were shaking so much.

Some safety precautions I took were:

*I had to message my cousin every morning and night with a codeword so she knew I was safe.

*I turned on location services on facebook so my cousin could see where I was when I sent her the codeword and any other time she wanted to check. AM only recently found out what the codeword was, after a year since it was used. It will be a different one next time.

*My mother knew the hotel I was staying at, when I was due to arrive there and back home and I was to call or text daily to let her know everything was going okay.

*AM booked the hotel but secured it with my debit card. I didn't worry too much over this as I was staying there and AM was staying at home overnight. Butterfly's tip about this is a good one if you both plan to stay there at all times.

*My mother knew his full address. This will be a surprise to AM as I never mentioned that until now. But if he was going to murder me, he was going to jail!

*My cousin had his number, which she deleted as soon as I got home. This will also be a surprise to AM.


My experience was amazing I wish we had the financial means to do it every week!!! I wont go into too much detail here as both AM and I blogged about it quite a lot at the time. What I wasn't prepared for was how much it would hurt going back to skype, cam and calls from in person. That truly sucked donkey balls. I knew it wouldn't be the same of course but I didn't expect it to be THAT different.

If you are planning to meet someone for the first time I would say make sure you tell someone where you are going, who with, when you will be home. Share with at least one person what information you can such as phone numbers, pictures, location etc. Agree on a codeword you need to send either at set times or a minimum number of times. It's too easy for someone to pretend to be you and message "I'm okay!" with your phone which is why a codeword works better. Don't rush into it!! It's exciting and scary and new and normal to want it to happen fast but use your head and common sense before your heart.