How did you meet your man (or woman-for the guys)??

[Tali]

Date: 5/23/2005 1:52:13 PM
Author: codex57
Is it sad if neither one of us can remember the details exactly? These stories are great and I tried to type my own up (for our wedding website too), but neither one of us seems to remember the details.

I''m with you, Codex. DH and I were good friends for years (maybe 5?) and had done lots of trips (backpacking, canoeing, etc) together before we ever started dating. Neither of us has any recollection of our first time meeting, though we surmise it was likely at one of our local pubs with a big group of friends.

 

[mellyjm]

he will be moving to albuquerque, I have to finish school, then we will probably go back to his beloved phoenix!

 

[researcher]

Reading all of these posts really does make me realize love hits you when you least expect it! From being friends first to love at first sight, I think we''ve got all the bases covered!

Thank you, Everyone, for sharing your stories. This is a really uplifting thread!

 

[marriahlyn]

match.com here too!!

 

[Kaleigh]

Wow it seems lots of people met through online dating services!! Cool!!

 

[Erin]

I love Blueroses'' story - can''t wait til she responds. I love reading everyone else''s stories too. So much more interesting than.....we met in a bar......grandma loved that one.

 

[jaysonsmom]

Sorry guys, I''m giving the long version:

I was working at a nutraceutical company as a QC lab Tech. One of the Ph.D’s was interviewing a guy for a lab tech position when she was suddenly called away on urgent business. The Ph.D asked me if I could finish the interview by giving him a basic experiment to follow to see if he knew correct procedures to measure things etc etc. So, she hands me the experiment, and tells me to watch him work, and give her a full report. I was dating someone seriously for about 4.5 years at the time, so I never even noticed the guy “J” that was interviewing, I was just making sure he knew what to do. Well, "J" told me years later that he was awestruck from the minute he laid eyes on me (according to him, there are not a lot of attractive women in lab coats). Anyways, he said he was praying so hard to get the job because he wanted to get to know me better.
During the 2 years that we were co-workers, I was always unavailable (but miserable in my relationship), so we’d talk, and very often he was literally my shoulder to cry on. The same week that I broke up with my long-term guy, "J" asked me if I wanted to go to a bar with some of his friends, I turned him down. Then a week later he asked me if I wanted to go to a concert…I turned him down again. He was persistent, and asked me the following week if I’d go to an Oktoberfest event with him, I said no again. About 1 month later, “J “ gave notice that he was leaving for another job, and I also realized then that my ex and I weren’t getting back together. So, a few of us planned a going away party for him. The night of the going-away party, he said he’d come pick me up so that we could go together….we talked in the car, and I realized how much we had in common, and how much I was going to miss him, and all my co-workers knew from the look on our faces that night that it wasn’t going to be a good-bye party for us, and it was going to be a new beginning. Four months later we were engaged, and that was 7 years and 2 children ago. We’re celebrating our 5 year wedding anniversary this year….and I couldn’t be happier if I tried.

 

[glaucomflecken]

This is a great thread, Im a sucker for these kind of stories! Here's ours, sorry its kind of long

Back in 2000 I was in my 3rd year of eyeball school, and my classmates and I were choosing our internships for our upcoming 4th year. I ended up getting stuck with my summer 2001 internship at a hospital in West Virginia. Being a true blue Chicago city girl, I was NOT happy about spending 3 months in gasp West Virginia!!! My sister told me that she had a feeling that I would meet "the one" when I was there and it was my destiny to go there. I had gone through break up after break up and was like, "yeah, right. I am SO done with men."

Went there in May 2001 and it was great!!! I LOVED West Virginia!!! Our director at the hospital was friends with this guy J who was doing his college work study in the eye clinic. He was our age, but since he was in the military after HS, he was still in undergrad at the time. He still spoke "military" and was a blast to hang with. He was a bit chubby, had this mop of curly hair and wore these huge glasses, but he was SO funny. We were party buddies but thats about it.

Halfway through the summer, some new residents started and I fell HARD for one of them. Eventually, with J's help, B and I started dating and I was on cloud nine. My sister was right, I had met "the one".

Summer ended, I moved back to Chicago to finish school. On my way home, I went through my cell phone phonebook and came across J's number. "eh, I'll never see him again probably" and deleted his entry.

B and I had a long distance thing that fizzled bad right before graduation. By that time I had been accepted by the residency program at the same hospital in W Va. I was very depressed about B and a lot of other stuff went on with that situation (too painful to explain). I would NEVER find "the one". My sister was wrong, and I had given up on men forever. It just wasnt meant for me.

Four months into the residency, in October, the gang from the hospital went to the horse races in Kentucky for the weekend. J was going to carpool with a friend but his friend's car broke down. I was driving, and they asked if I would drive J. I said yeah, but was so nervous. I'd never been alone with him! What would I say for 2 hours?? He gets in my car and HOLY COW!!! He lost 30 lbs, cut his hair and got contacts to show off THEE most beautiful blue eyes ever!

We talked the entire time. He was SO interesting, all his military and travel stories. We spent a lot of time together that weekend and when we got back, he asked me out and we are now getting married almost 3 years to the day of our first date in October. He said he liked me the whole time he knew me, but I was in love with B and since he cared about me so much and wanted me to be happy, he helped set me and B up that first summer, even though it killed him!!!

My sister was right all along, I did find "the one", it was just a different "one" than I had originally thought!!!

 

[movie zombie]

met him at a film festival, of course! saw him at an opening night party, drank another glass of wine, and then walked up and asked him who he was. turns out we belonged to the same film club!

peace, movie zombie

ps i''ve given you the abbreviated version....i actually had given up re relationships and met three very interesting men at that same film festival. sometimes if you quit looking, what you''re seeking finds you.

 

[tawn]

Movie Zombie,

Isn''t it funny how attractive you seem to become when you''re not "available"!

I forgot to mention that when I met my husband, I was totally on a man-hating thing and was so not interested in any of the male species....and my girlfriend was the one that was interested in him at first! He was nice to her, and she finally told me that I should open up and quit being so bitchy because he was a cutie and that it was obvious that he liked me and not her. I was a little more friendly but still not really interested...and I just had to laugh when he told me that he was going to marry me. He says that it was love at first sight for him...

Also, I noticed someone commented about the "bar" thing, but I love the fact that we met at a bar/club where there were hundreds of people and he singled me out, and didn''t just give up when I just wasn''t into him. He was totally determined and persistant, was still intrigued enough after a platonic night to send me plane tickets to go see him! He knew what he wanted...even if I didn''t!

 

[Islandia]

You guys have been so helpful with my diamond hunting that I guess it must be safe to post here. This is how we met. And hopefully as soon as Rich Sherwood finishes his appraisal I will have her ring in hand

 

[tawn]

Islandia

That''s a fantastic picture...does your proposal have the same theme?

 

[movie zombie]

tawn, i''m with you! islandia, i hope your proposal includes being on the dance floor!

peace, movie zombie

 

[Islandia]

Had to go running before it got too dark outside, but I can explicate a little further on how my SO and I met and my proposal plan now. December 28th, 2003 was a nice lazy Sunday afternoon for me. I was still recovering from overstuffing myself for Christmas, and really had no plans for the evening other than to sit down and read a book and get an early night''s rest. My friend Susan called me because she was having trouble hooking up her new DVD player and I apparently look enough like a tech geek to fit the bill for DVD handyman. I headed over to her house and after a bit, I was able to get her DVD player hooked into her TV and stereo. She is a tango fanatic just like I am so she wanted to go tango dancing that evening, but didn''t want to go by herself. I reluctantly agreed though I wanted nothing more than to head home and go to bed, but since I profited tangibly from going to the dance that evening, I should probably rewrite this portion of history to something like: "I felt a momentary sizzle of electricity on my skin as if sometihng momentous were about to happen, and I eagerly anticipated an evening of blissful and sensuous tango dancing."

When I arrived at the dance hall, there weren''t many people there, but there was one very cute young lady sitting with her equally cute sister, and her mom. Of course the sight of the three of them together was intimidating even to someone as bold and intrepid as I am. So I spent the majority of the evening walking back and forth near where they were seated peeking a few glances when I could. Towards the end of the evening, I asked Cathy to dance mostly because I figured the worst she could do was say no. As it turns out, that was the best decision I could have made, because she lived four hours away, and was in Seattle only that one evening to pick up her mom from the airport. But of course I was so nervous that I am sure I was a pretty stiff lead. Apparently she liked my dancing enough though, because in the middle of the song she whispered in my ear "So when are you going to give me your phone number?" I was so taken aback that I said something really stupid like "I thought we were just dancing?" (And again in hindsight when I write about this again that line will read "Being the debonair and suave gentleman that I was, I knew dance etiquette precluded me from answering during the middle of the song, so I gave her a tantalizing smile, and nonchalantly replied "I thought we were just dancing?"). Fortunately we did exchange numbers and emails and the rest is history.

I am planning on proposing in Yosemite (probably at the wedding chapel) where we will be viewing the Half Dome since our other shared passion is rock climbing. I will be bringing the song that we first danced - Desde de Alma by Osvaldo Pugliese (it translates into "From the Soul") on cd so after she says yes (I hope!), I am going to play it and ask her to dance right there in the chapel. Wish me luck!

Steve

 

[tawn]

That sounds like a wonderful proposal that she''s bound to love! Get picutures....

 

[njc]

So much fun to read everyones story! Thanks for sharing.

Freshman year of college I became friends with a girl who was in most of my classes and lived in my dorm. She was a smoker and one evening during the first couple weeks of school, i went and sat outside with her while she smoked. A couple guys walked passed us on the way to their dorm and stopped to talk with us. They ended up inviting us up to their floor to meet the rest of their friends (there was like 20 of them all on this one end of a hall that had become friends). We had a great time that night and quickly became friends with all the guys and FI was one of them. After hanging out a lot and him having to carry me home one night (someone started a little early

), FI kissed me one night during spring semester and we ended up dating till the summer. In the fall, we would see each other every once in a while because we all had the same friends, but that was it.

Jump forward to Junior year and i get an Instant Message from him out of the blue asking if i could help him out, his car had broken down and no one else was around. Being a nice person and thinking of us as still friends, i went and helped him out. As a thank you he said he would take me out one night, and i said okay thinking it would never happen. Two weeks later, he called me up and asked me out to a Slackers concert. I had just turned 21 that week, so i was excited to finally be able to go out to the bars. We had a great time, he took me home and that was that. I guess we both got busy with the end of the semester and it was January before he asked me out again. That night he confessed how much missed me and wished we had never broken up freshman year and how much fun he had when he was with me. That was 4.5 years ago, we still go to Slacker shows when we can and we're getting married in August!

 

[fire&ice]

Such sweet stories! Post more - keep the waterworks going.

 

[codex57]

Date: 5/23/2005 3:11:54 PM
Author: Tali

I''m with you, Codex. DH and I were good friends for years (maybe 5?) and had done lots of trips (backpacking, canoeing, etc) together before we ever started dating. Neither of us has any recollection of our first time meeting, though we surmise it was likely at one of our local pubs with a big group of friends.

Yup. First meeting was with a group of friends. Can''t even remember which group. I remember sparks started to fly during an ice skating outing with, again, a bunch of friends. But, we don''t really have the cool, "Saw them across the room, and made my move" kinda story. Just happened over some time like you.

 

[Morticia]

Another Match.com-er here!

 

[rfath]

I first ''met'' my fiance online when I was in college in Ohio. I had a poor, eccentric laptop that was forever blowing up with the most random problems. I was poor and set out looking to, erm.. ''borrow'' some software to try to repair my machine. There''s a pretty healthy online community for this sort of thing. I was wandering around online trying to find someone who might be able to help me, and stumbled across my fiance''s server. Not many females use this particular program, so he noticed me pretty quickly and struck up a conversation. We exchanged pictures of our dogs

He was seeing someone at the time, but now admits that she wasn''t quite so interesting once he started talking to me. She eventually decided that she needed more space (she was dating several guys at the same time). He was heartbroken, I was a great shoulder... and eventually I flew out to Massachusetts to meet him (my parents were THRILLED). Nothing in our relationship has been ''traditional'', but 7 years later we''re engaged and will hopefully be married in September this year.

 

[MissAva]

rfath you story is soo cute

 

[blueroses]

Aw, thanks Erin!!

Umm...I will do the long version, b/c it''s going to be long either way. After graduating from college in 1996 I went to work for the Olympics in Atlanta. Throughout the games, when I had to go to certain venues, there was alwas one MARTA stop where I''d park and ride...don''t remember the name anymore. So the night of Closing Ceremonies, I had a ticket and got to go just as a spectator and wasn''t working--yay! (Of course, I still wore all of my accredidation badges and stuff b/c I could get through various security areas.) Anyway, I go to my usual MARTA stop and can''t find a parking place

So I have to drive to the next one, which was Decatur--which meant I had to park several blocks away which was fine in the afternoon but in the back of my head I realized I''d have a scary walk in the wee hours that night. So I go to Closing Ceremonies--it''s amazing, it''s the Olympics, world peace and camraderie, yadayada. At the end when all the ahtletes storm the field and it''s one big party, I get on the field too b/c of my badges and see Summer Sanders (the swimmer) getting propsed to like 4 feet in front of me by her Olympian boyfriend. Just one of those whirlwind fun once-in-a-lifetime evenings. I was alone but in a sea of thousands and just feeling good! (Single at the time, btw and not really looking.)

It must have been 1 or 2 in the morning by the time I got on the MARTA train headed north--the whole area was PACKED and it was this whole Olympics-utopian-I-love-everyone feeling. Everyone''s talking to strangers and trading Olympic pins, etc. I sit down on the train and there''s like, a Press guy from Uganda across from me and we trade a pin or 2. I notice that the guy who sits next to me is REALLY cute in my peripheral vision. Kind of looks like the hot South African swimmer dude from Muriel''s Wedding. He claims that the first thing I ever said to him was either sorry or excuse me b/c I bumped him w/ my backpack, but what I remember is saying excuse me, this is totally random, but have you seen Muriel''s Wedding? He said he had (liar!) and we started chatting. He was w/ NBC and had been down there working for the games, blahblahblah. We had both graduated from college on the same day that Spring (less than 2 hours apart in NC) and actually had some mutual acquaintances. We just shot the breeze, and it was your usual small-world, huh, I click w/ this stranger chat. I realize at some point that I still have a creepy walk ahead of me, and ask where he''s getting off. He says Decatur. I say me too. Now, in hindsight, maybe this was silly or naive but a) Olympics and b) we knew some of the same people, so....anyway, I ask if he''d mind walking me to my car. He says sure, would I mind giving him a ride to his dorm? (Press people were staying in dorms at Agnes Scott college) So we get off at Decatur and I''m just having so much fun talking to this guy--we realize we''re both big Conan fans (not quite as cool in 96!!) and he''s w/ NBC so he even knows what''s going on w/ my soap. Very silly. He''s from NY, I''d just been there for a job interview the last week, blahblahblah. We get to my car, I drive him to the dorm, shake hands, great to meet you, take care. (No exchange of numbers, last names...he was going back to NY the next day and this was certainly pre-e-mail too, so...)

And that was that! It''s like 2AM and I pull out my massive bag-car-phone and call my roommate to tell her that "I just met this really cute guy!!!.....and I didn''t get his number!!!"

A few weeks later I go home to CA to visit my parents. I should add that I''d kind of thought of this guy in the interim and wished I''d gotten his info and halfheartedly considered calling his school''s alumni office and then forgot about it. My sister says, oh yeah, this envelope came for you a couple weeks ago. I open this little envelope--which has my address spelled slightly wrong--and it''s his card!!

with a little note that says something like "give me a call if you''re ever in NY, good luck w/ the job search, and keep watching Conan!"

I was totally excited and freaked--I had no idea how he''d tracked me down, but I was unreasonably excited about it--it was this tiny business card and note and I was bouncing off the ceiling! (Other circumstances, I suppose it could have been stalker-y, but I was psyched.)

Anyway, we started writing each other letters. With each letter, I''m like "this guy has my sense of humor! This guy has my writing style!" Turns out HE had called my college''s alumni office and gotten my mailing address. He''d seen my last name on my Olympic accredidation badges--very 007!! We exchanged letters for a couple of months and he mentioned that he was going to be taking a road trip to Atlanta (where I still lived) and he''d call. So he called, and we talked for seven and a half hours--literally all night.

He came down for the weekend and stayed for the week and that was that. From the moment he got to my apartment door, that was pretty much it and we had our first kiss that night--October 25, 1996--and we''ve been together ever since. We''ve been bicoastal a few times w/ me in CA him in NY, me in NY him in CA, both in CA, both in NY, and now both in CA again. It is a looooong courtship, and I''m a longtime LIW, but hopefully there will be something to report before long.

We watched one of those TLC wedding specials the other day, and the minister said something like "If anyone here knows any reason why these two should not be wed.......you''ve had 8 years to say so." And we thought that was funny and sadly true!

That''s the long story. The short story is, we were sitting next to each other on the subway and the rest was kismet

 

[lilyinct]

Much like sjz- he''s a doctor, I''m a nurse-we met when he was a first year resident in the Emergency Room. After working together and goofing off (don''t worry- no patients were harmed) for a string of night shifts, a group of us went out to breakfast...and then breakfast again the next day...we began talking on the phone and hanging out as friends. Unfortunately, I was dating another man, and he another woman....but slowly things dissipated in both relationships, and after a couple of months we were both single.

After going out on our first date, I called my mother and told her I was going to marry him. 8 months later, we moved in together. 8 months after that, we were engaged, and now in August (another "8") we are getting married.

My cup runneth over...

 

[dietvanillacoke]

i love these stories! oh my gosh. here's mine. (this is gonna be LONG! because i am LONG WINDED)

when i was a sophomore in college i befriended this totally adorable and lovable freshman guy, brian, and was kind of like his "older sister". i bought him food, brought him to church, gave him school advice, etc. when my acapella group was going to cornell for a concert, he told me to look out for his big brother rob, who sang for the group who was hosting the concert. he claimed that rob was just like him, but taller and more good looking and smarter. hehe. so when my group got to cornell i met him and we chatted a bit about brian. he says i couldn't stop talking about how much they look alike (they do!!). the concert was a blast and i went back home to boston. the next night he called my dorm room! i was shocked to get a call from him, but turns out that he was just calling all the leaders of all the groups to make sure they got home safely and thank them for coming. BUT he had asked his brother to look up my number on the student directory. after that we talked online a bit, maybe for a few months, but eventually our contact fizzled and i even deleted him off my buddy list, thinking "eh i'll never talk to this guy again" (much like punchnpie's story!!).

flash forward to the summer before senior year and i decide to go to NY on an internship. i talk to brian about it since he's originally from NY and loves it there. he says, oh hey you remember my brother rob, he's gonna be in the city for a month or so, you should call him up! so i get his screen name again from his brother and we start talking and make plans to meet up in NY. when i get to NY, i call him up on a thursday and we make plans to meet the next monday after i'm done with my internship to meet for dinner. he says, oh i'll take a train into the city and call you to let you know where to meet me.

monday comes and i get all spiffed up in a skirt and cute heels because i'm a little excited about meeting him. at this point we didn't really know each other well at all, but i thought he was cute and a good guy, and in all fairness, i REALLY wanted a boyfriend at the time. (hadn't really had a real boyfriend until him!) so it gets to 5pm and he still hasn't called. 5:30 rolls around, no call. i call him, it goes straight to voicemail. 6pm, i start walking toward the ferry i need to take to get back to NJ where i was living. 6:30, and i grab a hot dog at a street stand and wonder where the heck he is. by 8pm i'm on the ferry and pretty piping mad. by 10pm that night he still hasn't called. at this point i've called him a whole bunch of times, but it goes straight to voicemail. all night long.

(at this point i want to mention that this was teh summer i was determined to get my first real boyfriend. by the time i was supposed to meet up with rob i had had 3, count them 3, pseudo dates with guys that i was sure were at least a little interested in me. all three didn't offer to pay for dinner. not that i'm a princess or anything, i always go dutch especially on the first date, but they didn't even offer. one guy picked up the bill, dropped a $10 bill on the table, and went to the bathroom!! needless to say, i was pretty pissed off at guys this summer. ok back to the story.)

tuesday goes by. no call. no email. no IM.

wednesday goes by. no call. no email. no IM.

wednesday night at 11pm he gets online. doesn't IM me. i IM him, saying "hey, what's up?" and he IMs back as if nothing's wrong. i IM him, silently fuming, saying "hey, weren't we supposed to meet up last monday?" and he says "oh yeah, sorry about that, i had to tutor a kid for his SAT, he was really stresed out, oh and my phone ran out of battery and i don't have a charger.. sorry!" on top of that, he says "i just came back from the bus station, i missed the last bus back up to cornell so i'm gonna sleep and get on the first bus up tomorrow morning."

he stood me up!

he didn't even have that good of an excuse!!

he didn't even contact me to apologize!!!

he was going to go back to cornell (5 hour drive from NYC) for the rest of the summer without contacting me at all!!!!


!(*@&*@#&$%^*&%@#&!!!!

he said that after that he called a few times to chat, but i was always very "cold and distant". well, wouldn't you be??

well, turns out later that fall we start IMing again, i mention the incident (which he completely forgot about) and end up forgiving him, by winter we're talking every day on the phone and by January of the next year we were together. we were long distance for 6 months (the 8 hour drive from ithaca to boston SUCKS!!) and he came to boston after we graduated. a year and a half later we were engaged and we're getting married this fall.

in all fairness to him, that summer was pretty sucky for him and he wasn't feeling very social. but i love the story.. i can certifiably hang it over his head that he stood me up and i forgave him. hehe. sort of.

so yes! give these stupid boys second chances! not that they deserve it or anything

 

[tawn]

Anyone else have the horrific phone bills? We had over $700 in the first month that we met! Granted, it was Canada/US calling...so it added up quickly!

 

[rfath]

erm.. um... over $100 the first month... then we realized that someone had written the an internet phone program and started using that instead. MUCH cheaper, but my roommates in my dorm thought I was totally off my rocker...

.. okay, I''m not arguing that at all.

 

[abbott]

My husband actually fired me.... He was the VP for a group of companies and my company preformed pre-employment physicals... Each company required a different physical... DOT, drug screen, back x-ray, etc. Needless to say, my employees could not keep the physicals straight, BECAUSE his new hires never knew which division of the company they were going to work for..... So naturally my employees always did the "elite" physical.... Needless to say... he fired my company.. took his physicals (major account) to my major competition

I lost my best client.. but gained a wonderful husband... We have been married 13 years. Abbott

 

[tawn]

Abbott

Do you still bug him about it?

 

[Shay]

we met at a club for under 18''s when I was 13 and he was 14. He fell for my gorgeous half chinese friend, I fell for his brutish, thug friend. Those relationships lasted all of 2 months. Strangely when our separate relationships fell apart we kept in contact and saw each other all the time.

Fast forward to my prom (he was my date). He''s moving 700 km''s away the next day but the chemistry is amazing. I spend the night dancing in his arms. We are lying on a couch at the after party and he tries to kiss me. I decide to avoid the heartbreak of long distance relationship and pretend to be asleep. We hold hands at breakfast the next day and have a very sad hug goodbye.

A year later he comes back, only to find that I have moved 980 kms away to go to university!

We keep in contact, meeting each others partners, being great friends.

about a year and a half ago he came to see my new flat, we were drinking beer, probably more than was good for us. We ended up playing atomic bomberman on the PC which turned into drinking atomic bomberman and then truth or dare atomic bomberman.

erm Long story short the next day we declared our undying love for each other and he moved in a week later

It took us 8 years to get together, but we have such a solid relationship because of it.

We now own a house together and are the proud parents of 2 kitty''s.

The End

 

[abbott]

Oh yes, I enjoy telling people how we met... When they ask, my first response is "He fired me!!!".... and he just rolls his eyes...ABBOTT