Although I don't remember exactly, my guess is that after the bad experience of February 2002 I was gunshy of wrestling for a time. I'm not a great wrestler--that's easy to see and fairly easy to admit. At the same time, I enjoy wrestling and like doing it when I can find somebody who is interested in (and able to) back off his intensity and skill levels to match my own. By the time a trip to a mid-Atlantic state in November came up, I was ready to try some more wrestling.

November 2002 found me on the road again and anticipating a wrestling match. Traffic was bad around the major southern cities along the I-95 corridor, and I was running late to get to the hotel, where I was to meet my "opponent"--call him "Chris"--later that evening. When I finally arrived and checked in, I was afraid the evening had grown too late for him to leave his home several miles away and meet me.

But I called, and he came. I've been in the congested area through which he drove several times, and I'm pleased that he agreed to get out of the house and come meet me. We've been good friends ever since. He's the only wrestler I've ever visited overnight, and I always feel welcome in his spare room. When I'm in his city, which is at least once a year, we rarely fail to get together. Half the time we don't even wrestle, just get together for dinner and conversation. Over the years since November 2002, I've spent more time with him than with any other wrestler.

When we wrestle, we have a great time. Chris is a skilled and tough wrestler. I outweigh him by 50 pounds, but if he wanted to wreck me in a match, he could. But he also has great fun wrestling, so we have a great time. That first night in my hotel room, we wrestled fairly easily due to a lack of space. Still, we got our good holds in. He was more than patient with my head scissors passion, and he indulged me by submitting to my various versions of the hold and by applying a series of good strong head scissors to me. I can tell when wrestling Chris that he can get intense, and sometimes we've ventured into that area. But he's always in control and willing to engage in the play of wrestling as well as the competition of it.

Since that evening in the hotel, we've wrestled several times in his wrestling space at home. We've watched wrestling videos together. One of my favorite things that go along with wrestling Chris is that he always lets me wear a pair of pro wrestling boots that he has. They're plain black and made of great leather. He bought them off of eBay, where they were advertised as being once the boots of the great Bobo Brazil. Regardless of my wrestling skill, I feel like a real old-time wrestler in my black trunks, black mask and Chris's black boots. One of these days, I'll try to talk him into selling the pair to me.