Good-bye to Catstevens.com

Six years ago (next week) I was curious to find out some information about Cat Stevens. My dad had a couple of his albums, and I was interested in finding out about his music career since the 70's. My curiosity lead me to find a few things. 1) www.catstevens.com, 2) that Cat doesn't perform anymore, and 3) the love of my life (in that order).

Over the course of my first year visiting the site I made a lot of "cyber friends", which sounds pretty cheesy, but was all in all a great experience. I still keep in touch with many of them from time to time, and I know that I probably will for a long time to come. It was almost a year to the day of registering at the site that I was in the chat room (instead of doing homework, as per usual). I recieved a message from a member named pablo, which went pretty much like this: "hey starkey, is that your wedding picture in your profile?"
At the time, I had the following picture of myself in my profile:

Of course it's not me at my wedding. I'm not married -yet, and I'm pretty sure I was only 19 when the picture was taken which, for me, is a tad young to walk down the isle. Actually, the pic is of me and a friend at my highschool formal (and as pablo didn't pick up on, the dress is yellow-not white).
So this is how pablo (Paul) and starkey (I) first started chatting. We talked a lot for almost a year before we finally met in person and began a relationship together. We've been going now for four years and two months strong:)

So nearly 5 years to the day that the fates brought Paul and me into the same chat room (holy crap that sounds corny) the fates are taking the chat room away.

A few months ago Yusuf Islam himself (formerly Cat) bought the rights to the website, and this week he will be unveiling the new design. It seems really insignificant, in some ways, that the website is undergoing a redesign and transformation, since that's what tends to happen on the internet, but in so many other ways it's really sort of sad. The look and feel of the site that brought me to Paul, the man I know I'll spend the rest of my life with, will be changed and lost. I guess I am feeling a little nostalgic for what used to be, and for the circumstances and people that allowed Paul and me to come together.

So this is my formal farewell to the old cs.com. Thanks for the memories, the love, and the rest of my life.