Author Topic: How exactly did you meet your SO  (Read 25811 times)

lifejoy

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #50 on: November 12, 2014, 07:54:29 AM »
I made an OkC profile because a friend of mine met her now-DH on there. She was engaged and so happy, and I was like, well - what the hell? Signed up.

Long story short, my DH had messaged me on OkC but it never turned into a meetup. BUT it certainly gave him the confidence to say hello when we ran into each other at a party! Pretty awesome :)

Non-stop hangouts turned into dates which turned into moving across the country together and three years later, getting married. Awwww <3

LibrarIan

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #51 on: November 12, 2014, 08:01:02 AM »
Met my wife back in kindergarten. We ended up at the same school again in middle school, and then between our sophomore and junior year we started 'officially' dating. We got married two years ago. Life is good.

tmac

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #52 on: November 12, 2014, 08:34:27 AM »
TL;DR version: Met at work, I was married to someone else.

I was recruited for a job by a friend of mine. The first day, they had me go to a local photographer to get my headshot for the local paper, and my now-DH was there.* He was also recruited by my friend, and we were starting work on the same day. He was sitting there, reading the paper and he looked up at me -- hazel eyes, prematurely grey hair, big smile, so cute. I ducked into the back to fix my hair (I'm always a mess) and the photographer asked if I was ready. I was running late for another meeting, so I asked DH if he'd mind if I went first. [His version of the story is that I shoved past him and insisted on going first, but he didn't mind because I was so hot.]

Our mutual friend and DH used to play music together, so they were starting up a band. They needed a drummer and our friend asked me if I'd like to learn. It sounded like fun, but mostly my marriage wasn't going well and I needed a distraction and an excuse to get out of the house. We'd been in therapy for a year and it wasn't working. I knew I'd have to leave, but hadn't gotten up the nerve yet.

So we started rehearsing at DH's house a couple of times a week. I fell hard for him. I used to stick around afterwards and have a beer, and we'd talk. [Apparently, he was falling for me too, but our mutual friend insisted that I was happily married. Um, no.]

A month later, we were still pretending that we didn't have feelings for each other, but we drove together to a company outing -- the county fair -- with his 3-year-old son from his first marriage. We drove in his old Volvo 240 wagon. He bought me a hot dog. I bought him a beer. We held hands. On the way home, his son fell asleep in the back seat, and we talked all the way home about how we were in such trouble.

A week later, I told my then-H I didn't want to be married anymore, and I moved out. DH helped me move into my own place, and we talked about how long we'd have to wait to get married. We were most concerned about his son and getting him used to the idea.

This was all in October. In a single conversation, I told my parents about my separation from then-H and asked if I could bring now-DH to Thanksgiving. They were very dubious, but after meeting him, they agreed that he was perfect for me and that he was just as wonderful as I thought he was.

I moved in with DH after 6 months, and a year later we were married. We have three kids, and we just celebrated the 14th anniversary of that county fair. :)


* Because we met at the photographer's studio, we have pictures of practically the very moment we first met. :)

frugalnacho

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #53 on: November 12, 2014, 08:36:10 AM »
Myspace.  I messaged her, we talked a bit, and then went on a date.  Been together about 6 1/2 years now.  Been married about 1 1/2 years.  We also went to the same university (couple years apart, and in different programs, so we never crossed paths).

I went to a commuter university though, so I think it's a different subset of students (lots of adults, and parents, and people rushing back home to family).  Plus i'm a shy , awkward introvert so I wouldn't have met someone anyway.  Thank god for the internet.

cynthia1848

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #54 on: November 12, 2014, 09:08:08 AM »
Match dot com!  But this was back in 2001, the dark days of the interwebz.  :)

My siblings both met their spouses in college.

Dezrah

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #55 on: November 12, 2014, 09:33:56 AM »
Love this thread.  So romantic.

My own story is not useful (met in high school, dated long distance through college, got married after college), but some of the best advice I heard for meeting someone came from a radio show psychologist.  This was her advice:

Tell everyone you know that you are looking for someone to marry (yes, be that blatant), and by everyone I mean your friends, family, coworkers, dentist, regular customers, and basically anyone who might know your name and how to reach you.  This had the added benefit of pre-screening crazies, married persons, and other mutually incompatible persons.  The radio host herself literally went on hundreds of blind dates before her landlady set up the now married couple on a blind date.  She also always emphasized that dating is a numbers game, so don't be discouraged if you have even years of "failed" dates.

Good luck, OP.

rocksinmyhead

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #56 on: November 12, 2014, 12:50:32 PM »
Love this thread.  So romantic.

My own story is not useful (met in high school, dated long distance through college, got married after college), but some of the best advice I heard for meeting someone came from a radio show psychologist.  This was her advice:

Tell everyone you know that you are looking for someone to marry (yes, be that blatant), and by everyone I mean your friends, family, coworkers, dentist, regular customers, and basically anyone who might know your name and how to reach you.  This had the added benefit of pre-screening crazies, married persons, and other mutually incompatible persons.  The radio host herself literally went on hundreds of blind dates before her landlady set up the now married couple on a blind date.  She also always emphasized that dating is a numbers game, so don't be discouraged if you have even years of "failed" dates.

Good luck, OP.

IIRC, most people marry friends of their friends. You generally don't marry a friend because if you wanted to date them, you already would be. But your friends probably have similar taste in people and know people who might be compatible. My husband and I meet at the apartment of a girl he knew from theater and I had freshman Italian with. Later, when I went through his Facebook, I was astounded we hadn't gotten together sooner. He was close friends with my study abroad roommate, lived across the hall from one of the first friends I made in college, we used to work for the same department, etc...

I've found friends this way too. Elaine (who used to be active on the forum here) and I hit it off in person, only to later discover that my husband and I went to school with her BFF and she used to spend weekends on campus when we were all students there. I met another close friend of mine through a mutual friend when we all shared the same hobby. If you are like most people, there are several hundred people within a degree of separation and odds are great that you'll hit it off with several of them.

This all totally makes sense to me, too. Incidentally my parents met on a blind date (my mom worked with my dad's sister, they went to a hockey game) and they've been married for 29 years next month.

wtjbatman

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #57 on: November 12, 2014, 04:48:31 PM »
I made an OkC profile because a friend of mine met her now-DH on there. She was engaged and so happy, and I was like, well - what the hell? Signed up.

Long story short, my DH had messaged me on OkC but it never turned into a meetup. BUT it certainly gave him the confidence to say hello when we ran into each other at a party! Pretty awesome :)

Non-stop hangouts turned into dates which turned into moving across the country together and three years later, getting married. Awwww <3

libraryjoy also held my hand (figuratively!) while I was going through the process of considering proposing to my now-fiance, looking/shopping for an engagement ring, gave me courage, and other such helpful things. I have the PM's to prove it. So, big thank you to libraryjoy! :)

lifejoy

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #58 on: November 13, 2014, 12:11:10 PM »

I made an OkC profile because a friend of mine met her now-DH on there. She was engaged and so happy, and I was like, well - what the hell? Signed up.

Long story short, my DH had messaged me on OkC but it never turned into a meetup. BUT it certainly gave him the confidence to say hello when we ran into each other at a party! Pretty awesome :)

Non-stop hangouts turned into dates which turned into moving across the country together and three years later, getting married. Awwww <3

libraryjoy also held my hand (figuratively!) while I was going through the process of considering proposing to my now-fiance, looking/shopping for an engagement ring, gave me courage, and other such helpful things. I have the PM's to prove it. So, big thank you to libraryjoy! :)

Thanks, I needed this. I've been doubting myself lately, and this was just the boost I needed :) So happy for you and your fiancé!!!

studentdoc2

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #59 on: November 13, 2014, 04:54:32 PM »
OKCupid. He instant messaged me, which I usually hate to do with strangers, but we ended up talking for 2 hours that night. We texted and emailed and went on our first date a week later (split the bill evenly -- I refuse to date anyone who has some paternalistic reluctance to let the woman pay half on a first date). He says he knew from that first meeting that he wanted to marry me, but I was pretty reticent to become too emotionally entangled in a serious relationship (I referred to him as "Door #2" to family and friends for the first 2 months of our relationship)... But he was stubborn and patient and gave me as much space as I demanded while being utterly charming and reliable. It's been 3 years since our first date and 8 months since our wedding, and I'm so happy with the partner I've found.

ender

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #60 on: November 13, 2014, 06:33:25 PM »
Good friend told me fairly seriously I was going to marry his sister (who I had not met).

Eventually, I drove a few hours to go on a date with her.

Turns out he was right.

RapmasterD

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #61 on: November 13, 2014, 07:26:43 PM »
Work.

We were on the same team at work. I met her on my first day -- she had been there all of two weeks.

Ummm...on one of my accounts she reported to me.

It was a slow boil -- took quite a few months for us to become even friendly, about nine months for us to "cross over," (our first kiss was in front of a nasty assed liquor store) and about seven additional months for our managers to find out and pull us off the same account.

Later, in a different office in another part of the country we were intentionally put on the same account because we work so well together.

Married 16 years + 2 months + 2 weeks.

Best thing that's ever happened in my life by a wide mile.

themagicman

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #62 on: November 13, 2014, 07:33:57 PM »
On a cruise! A group of my friends and me went on it and next door to us was a group of her friends and her. It turned out that we only lived 30 min away!

stripey

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #63 on: November 14, 2014, 03:29:51 AM »
He was doing a jazz gig with my younger brother (he broke all the rules!!! You NEVER date a band member's sister!)

enigmaT120

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #64 on: November 14, 2014, 11:07:40 AM »
Interesting thread, I hadn't seen it before.

To answer the question, I was dating her daughter.


ketchup

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #65 on: November 14, 2014, 11:08:32 AM »
I guess we'll go with the long version.

I was in my first semester of college.  I had put off studying for my chemistry exam, so in true college fashion I decided to try a Monster energy drink for the first (and last) time to help me stay up all night to study.  I had no caffeine tolerance at ALL at the time, so it blasted me awake and made me jittery to the point that I felt like I was on drugs.  I got through my studying, and was still wide awake at 5pm the following day to take the exam.  I took the exam (and conquered it), got back to my dorm room, was mentally exhausted and wanted to crash, but I couldn't.  I was still physically very very awake and sleep was not going to happen.

I started killing time online, tried to watch an episode of some show but just could not enjoy it, and after lots of fairy mindless clicking, I found myself on Omegle.com around 11pm.  It's a site where it puts you in a one-on-one anonymous text-only conversation (instant messenger style) with another user of the site.  At the time, it was fun to mess around on there and troll/talk to random people.  (Nowadays, it still exists, but it's a bunch of spam, horny people, fake hot singles in your area, etc.  Back then it was still interesting and had real people.)  So I had a few short conversations with people, nothing too terribly interesting, so I decided to start opening conversations with quotes from The Simpsons, for fun and to sniff out Simpsons fans.

"Don't you hate carpet stores that charge extra for the underpadding?" was the first sentence I ever said to her.  We went back and forth, being increasingly very silly and fully expecting the other to disconnect and move on.  Eventually that collapsed under its own weight, we became instant friends, and had a real conversation that lasted an hour or two.  We then established a more permanent form of communication via email, Yahoo messenger, and Facebook, as we both realized we wanted to be more than "single-serving" friends.  So we became real friends.  She was in Arizona; I was in Illinois.

She quickly became one of my closest friends and we helped each other through tough times.  Just under two years later, I went to a concert in Chicago, and got back home around 1am and instead of going to sleep like a sane person, I jumped online to talk to her.  One thing led to another, and we expressed our romantic feelings for each other.

Three weeks later I hop on a plane to Phoenix.  It was a very surreal experience actually being on that plane, knowing I was actually going to finally see her in person.  I got out into the airport and out to the curb.  Somehow I had it in my mind that I was waiting for a black Kia.  I stood there, looking down the mass of cars, scanning for a black Kia as the cars all went by.  Then right in front of my face, a BLUE Kia loudly honks its horn at me and I whipped my head around and made eye contact with her for the first time.  We went back to her place, and her sister's dog barked in my face for half an hour.  We watched Hot Fuzz and played Apples to Apples with her sister and her friends.  She and I shared a bed that night.

Five months later, we bought our first house together (at 19 and 20), and she moved across the country.

We have lived together for almost three years now.  Everything is wonderful.  Life is good.

"We met online but it wasn't a dating site." is usually the short version we tell people.

FLBiker

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #66 on: November 14, 2014, 11:44:49 AM »
We met at work.  We've been married for 4.5 years.

More info: she caught my eye as soon as I started working here, but I crossed her off as a potential romantic partner because 1) she was in a long term relationship and 2) her partner was a woman (I'm not).  They broke up, and we hung out a few times.  To be honest, I think the fact that I thought she was totally not interested was helpful.  Instead of being nervous or trying to impress her or whatever, I was just myself.  After hanging out a few times, she "casually" mentioned that she was bi (I had assumed she was a lesbian).  It still took us another couple of months to actually begin dating.  We were both a little scared -- we both felt that, if we started to date, this was likely going to be "it".  Plus, we worked together and were leery of what might happen if things went bad.  Fortunately, everything worked out great.

Good friend told me fairly seriously I was going to marry his sister (who I had not met).

Eventually, I drove a few hours to go on a date with her.

Turns out he was right.

I love this!

Dr. Doom

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #67 on: November 14, 2014, 03:15:05 PM »
Relatively short version:

University.  Mrs. Doom shared the same major as me (Computer Science), so she was in a few of my classes.   In one class we had a semester-long 2-person project and I asked her to be my teammate because I thought she was cute.  Blam!  A couple of months in and the details of our assignments seemed.... less important somehow...

She later told me that in a class of about 20 guys that over half of them also asked her to be their partner.  (Makes sense... women are a scarce resource in my field.)  Really no idea why she picked me.  Probably assigned digits to each man and ran a modulized random number generator.

Radagast

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #68 on: November 14, 2014, 04:58:32 PM »
I graduated from engineering school and got an engineering job and was bored out of my mind. I was connected to a job teaching English at a Chinese college and jumped at it. Perhaps unusually for a single male in that position I wasn't there to pick up chicks; unlike some of my college friends I wasn't into Asian women. I was just bored out of my mind.

She was one of my students. Fortunately for ethics we didn't have anything to do with each other. I would walk into class and say "good morning" and she would say something very loudly in Chinese, and then she and the entire class would bust up laughing. Something like this happened every week. I thought she was irritating (when I told her this a few years later she was hurt). However, during one of the holidays she asked me to visit her family's house, and I somewhat reluctantly shortened my Tai Shan climbing trip with some of my other students and friends and stopped by for an awkward two days. The next semester I started teaching at a university in a different province. For some reason we continued to meet up in different Chinese cities during every holiday. Eventually we realized we were dating. A little later I realized getting an engineering job back in the States was more respectable and much higher paying, but I saved up every day of my vacation time for a return trip to China. On that trip we realized we had to be together. We have now been together for five years and married for two, and we are still closer with every passing month.

The whole thing seems so unlikely I barely believe it. I was always bad in romantic settings and never did anything along those lines. We are complete opposites of our cultural stereotypes; I am a quiet engineer who likes spreadsheets while she is loud, charismatic, outgoing, and doesn't have a Chinese accent. Even the Chinese zoological calendar says we shouldn't be together. I feel strongly I that I could not have met a better person in university, online, or the entire world (I have seen enough of it to have an idea). If I could find the most perfect person against all odds in such an improbable way, it should be a cake walk for everyone else!

mozar

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #69 on: November 14, 2014, 09:29:31 PM »
I appreciate the long version of the stories.

FLBiker- what do you mean you were worried this might be "it"? Also was it tough for your partner to go from being perceived as a lesbian to being perceived as straight? I am looking to date people who are the opposite gender of what I usually date.

It seems like approaching people in social settings is the way for me to go. I'm working on that. I haven't gotten much (any) traction online.

Sunnymo

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #70 on: November 15, 2014, 03:40:22 AM »
I did a very old fashioned thing and married the boy next door (well, across the driveway anyway)!

I lived in an apartment block for five years while saving to buy a home. From my balcony I could see the townhouse complex next door and they looked about what I was looking for and I obviously knew the area.

I actually signed a contract to buy a place about 20 minutes away and when I got home there was a For Sale signing front of the townhouses. I contacted the agent, saw the place and had a accepted offer three days later, withdrew from the first contract and settled on the townhouse. I did what I thought would be the shortest distance house move ever.

Two months after moving in I was on my way out but had to wait while a car came out of the garage opposite mine. There was a person guiding the car out and afterwards he apologised for delaying me. We introduced ourselves, spent a few hours chatting and got takeaway pizza for dinner. I cooked him dinner the next night and our relationship just developed from there.

Eighteen months later he proposed and we got married five months after that. I did an even shorter house move, setting my own personal record by moving across a driveway. We have now been together four years.

If it had not been for our real estate agent (the same one sold both of us our homes) and his grandparents who were his visitors that day we may have never met.

shelfins

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #71 on: November 15, 2014, 09:29:10 PM »
We met at a climbing gym. I was puzzling through how to get up a bouldering problem, and he gave me a suggestion for how to try climbing it differently. That started us chatting (this is what bouldering gyms are like...you try a route, then you sit around and recover, and people are often there by themselves since it's the one form of climbing that doesn't require a partner, so everyone is pretty friendly and chatty talking about the routes), and since we both went to the gym a lot, when we saw each other, we'd usually say hi and talk some. I thought he was pretty cute and charming, so eventually, I started inviting him out to eat afterwards with my group of climbing friends, then to a couple of other non-climbing outings we were doing around town. After that, he asked me out on a date, I said yes, and the rest, as they say, is history...

big_owl

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #72 on: November 16, 2014, 03:36:52 AM »
Apparently little_owl had the hots for me starting in 7th grade when she saw an 8th grade picture of me in the yearbook that year running CC.  I didn't learn of her existence until my senior (her junior) year of HS when I sat in front of her in physics class that year.  Still nothing happened other than being lab partners a few times...I thought she was too much of a partier to even consider her a romantic interest and she actually thought I was a little pompous in class.  Nonetheless, I guess her feelings persisted and she convinced my sister (a sophomore) to get me to ask her to my senior prom.  I did, and that was our real first date.

I went to college the next year and we continued to see each other - I would drive home every few weekends to visit her since she was then a senior in HS and lived with her parents, of course.  That was the start of our long-distance relationship.  The next year she went to college, about 80 miles form my school, so we saw each other on and off on the weekends.  Eventually her sophomore year of college she dumped me in search of greener pastures.  I remember the months leading up to that inevitable day and it was a train wreck I knew was going to happen.  She broke my heart and I was devastated.  About 1.5 years later, we started talking again and it was clear whatever she was hoping to find had been a complete failure and she really wanted to get back together.

I was hesitant and had other relationship options as I was working full time at that point in the Detroit area with a lot of new friends.  She eventually graduated college and moved to the DC area but kept after me.  Eventually one day back home in Ann Arbor at Mongolian BBQ, "Foreigner - I want to know what love is" came on the radio and it was like lightning hit and I knew that she was the one.  It took me yet another year to find a job in the DC area, but I finally moved down there and the rest is history.

One thing, I'm so fucking over long-distance relationships.  I hate them, they suck, and I never want to go back to that again.  I'm in Indonesia for work for the past three weeks and the ache I feel being apart reminds me of the olden days.  I fucking hate it.  Only a few more days to go though...

pipercat

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #73 on: November 16, 2014, 06:51:53 AM »
At a party in college.  He gave me a fake name, and we argued about the upcoming Presidential election.  Then he and his friend gave my friend and me a ride to another party.  The two guys supported Ross Perot, and they kept calling us two girls "Clintonites".  Dang I'm old :)

BPA

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #74 on: November 16, 2014, 08:12:51 AM »
I met my partner at work.  We were work friends for about two years during which time his wife cheated on him and he came to me for support because he knew my ex had done the same thing to me.  We discussed our dating stories/nightmares and the challenges of single parenting.  After many discussions, I thought, "Huh.  Too bad there is this age difference, because we think alike."  At the time he was 26 and I was 39. 

Six months after they split, we decided to hang out as friends and went to see a movie together.  Later on my couch we'd had about three bottles of wine and as the cliche goes, one thing led to another. 

We took things slowly and really didn't expect things to last, but here we are seven and a half years later. 

As far as living frugally goes, he's not too spendy, but I'm glad we don't live together.  We plan to continue in this relationship living apart and as long as we are happy.  The fact that our kids only get along for no longer than a day and a half makes this essential for our happiness. 

As for the eye contact thing, I think that's pretty important.  My son does not make eye contact when he feels intimidated and I've wondered if that will impact his dating life some day.

Exprezchef

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #75 on: November 16, 2014, 09:14:31 AM »
I was living in Hawaii and on a two week vacation traveled to Seattle to stay with an old friend for a week. I was then scheduled to fly down to southern California to stay with another friend for the second week. While flying to SoCal, I had planned a 24 hour layover in San Francisco to see the sights. I was traveling alone and my Seattle friends' girlfriend suggested she get in touch with an old girlfriend of hers in San Francisco and she could play tour guide for the day. I really had no interest and did not want to impose. My friends' girlfriend in San Francisco had the same response. Reluctantly, it was set up anyway and she picked me up at the airport. We immediately hit it off and I ended up staying in San Francisco with her for the second week instead of traveling down to SoCal. With me living in Hawaii and she in San Francisco we did the long distance relationship thing and were married just over a year later. We just celebrated our 20 year wedding anniversary this past June.   

kaetana

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #76 on: November 16, 2014, 10:16:12 AM »
"We met online but it wasn't a dating site." is usually the short version we tell people.

+1! Here's my long version:

We met in a Yahoo chat room about an unusual interest we shared. We were both 'regulars' but never really spoke to each other for various reasons:
- We lived in different continents and different time zones.
- We came from different cultures.
- I was 18, and he was 46.
- He was married with four kids.

One night, I wanted to talk to start a private voice chat with someone else in the chat room and mistakenly clicked on his name instead. It almost ended there, but we went on talking for hours. It was just SO easy to talk to him, and I always loved his Australian accent. Still, because of the issues mentioned above we remained only friends for two years, talking through big events in our lives (like his divorce and my solo move to another country for uni). Then, quite suddenly, we weren't just friends.

He hemmed and hawed because I was so much younger, but I was (am) stubborn and wanted to meet him IRL. Unfortunately, as a poor student, I couldn't really afford to. Then, by chance, my father mentioned that his company was going to send him to Australia for some work there. I jumped at the chance and got him to agree to let me crash in his hotel room, but he refused to give me the money for my plane ticket. I thought all was lost until I coincidentally won a contest with a cash prize --- JUST enough for the cheapest, low-frills, budget, economy airfare to Australia.

What was supposed to be one week of crashing on my now-husband's couch (he had actually made it for me on my first night there - but by then I had no intention of staying there) turned into two, and then every summer and school vacation after that. Then a visit to meet his kids. Finally, two years later, I graduated, but I skipped my graduation ceremony to leave everything behind and move in with him and his kids in Australia.

There are so many reasons why we should never have worked, much less continue to work, but it's been ten years since that fateful misdirected voice chat request. We are so different in so many ways that I think we could only ever have met online, but we've found our personalities are complementary rather than contradicting. Our age difference, which seemed like such an imposing obstacle in the beginning, seems smaller every happy year we spend together.

stripey

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #77 on: November 16, 2014, 11:55:09 PM »
"We met online but it wasn't a dating site." is usually the short version we tell people.
Our age difference, which seemed like such an imposing obstacle in the beginning, seems smaller every happy year we spend together.

Yep- I'd agree that has been my experience (but in my case the age gap is only 17 years, LOL).

Spondulix

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Re: How exactly did you meet your SO
« Reply #78 on: November 17, 2014, 12:08:21 AM »

IIRC, most people marry friends of their friends. You generally don't marry a friend because if you wanted to date them, you already would be. But your friends probably have similar taste in people and know people who might be compatible. My husband and I meet at the apartment of a girl he knew from theater and I had freshman Italian with. Later, when I went through his Facebook, I was astounded we hadn't gotten together sooner. He was close friends with my study abroad roommate, lived across the hall from one of the first friends I made in college, we used to work for the same department, etc...

I've found friends this way too. Elaine (who used to be active on the forum here) and I hit it off in person, only to later discover that my husband and I went to school with her BFF and she used to spend weekends on campus when we were all students there. I met another close friend of mine through a mutual friend when we all shared the same hobby. If you are like most people, there are several hundred people within a degree of separation and odds are great that you'll hit it off with several of them.
Twice last week single friends were talking to me about dating, and I was reminded of what you said in this post and shared it with them. It's so true, but so easy to forget.