How did you meet?

He's still the funny, kind, and giving man I met 2 years ago and not the axe murderer all my friends at home assumed him to be!

Every once in a while, I wonder how many of my family and friends thought that of Mr. K at first.  And to be honest, if a friend had been one of the first of my group to meet someone online I would have been supportive, but privately wondering at the wisdom of it all. 

People are still people.  You can meet as many loons in person as you can on-line.  You just need to be smart about it!

People are still people.  You can meet as many loons in person as you can on-line.  You just need to be smart about it! 

This!  I figure there are all kinds of ways to meet people - online is just one more way that modern life has given us.  I like hearing the how-you-met stories regardless of whether it was the 'old-fashioned way' or online.  What I don't like is when people suggest in a roundabout way (no one on here has) that because you met online, it's somehow less real, less authentic, or something.  There aren't any points awarded for one or the other.  Just different strokes! 

BF and I met the old fashioned way--when we were both on vacation in Spain back in 2003 we had a very debaucherous few nights after which we never expected to see each other again--but developed our relationship the new-fangled way, via the internet when we got back in touch via facebook several years later and only actually started chatting again in October 2009. 

Hmmm, I'n quite boring... I was living in the UK for about 5 months, was bored with the guys I was meeting out and about and in the pubs, decided to try match.co.uk for a while, chatted/emailed/went on a few first dates, no one was working out... spent 4 months doing this... in September of that year, J winked at me, we emailed for a week, went out on a Sunday morning for coffee, spent a good 5 hours on that first date, and 2 years later, ups and downs and everything in between which would have ended most people, we're still here, still dating, definitely not living together, but definitely happy 

I had an online friend from Northern Ireland who I spoke to on and off for a few years and he constantly told me, "I have to introduce you to my friend. You two are so much alike!" By 'alike' he meant that we both corrected his horrible grammar all of the time. Of course, "introducing" was all of having BF join an online conversation about apostrophes.

We continued to talk for a year and a half and then I did a semester abroad in the UK. His uni was in Paris, but he decided to come to Leicester one weekend to meet me and see a band that we both liked. So we technically met in a train station, as we often tell some of our elderly relatives who don't know what the internet is.

Needless to say, the first meeting went well and I ended up spending the majority of my semester in Paris rather than Leicester! After my semester abroad ended, we spent the next year and and a half visiting each other in either France or the US as we finished our undergrad degrees. And now we're living together in London just about to finish our master's.

DH and I also met the old fashioned way too We met while we were travelling on the same tour of Australia, we were actaully on the same tour bus for 2 weeks but didnt talk to each other until the last couple of days. After the tour ended we were both in Sydney for a couple of days before my friend and I were headed to Uluru

We spent about a week together in total and i thought i would never see him again. Once back from our trips in Jan we had limited contact on FB and MSN for a few weeks and then he flew to Florida to spend spring break with some friends and everything seemed to change. He sent me loads of messages saying he missed me and we MSN'd every day. He told me he loved me after a couple more weeks  and we made arrangements to meet up in Vancouver in August to meet some mutual friends from the same tour. I've never looked back.

Twitter. Turns out you can have real conversations in 140 characters or less 

Noirem- that's super cool. Never heard of that before. 

I have loved hearing all about your stories!
   I met my soon to be hubby on a vacation I took to London and Liverpool (Beatles! Yeah!)
However, we had been talking for about a year over myspace when I joined a Red Dwarf lovers group.  I think his first message to me was actually "What's a hot yankee bird like you, watching Red Dwarf for.."  We conversed and shared our lives, and I honestly liked him very much, though I think for him I was just a good friend abroad.  It wasn't till we actually met in person that we seriously started being flirty and realized we had a real connection.  Several flights back and forth later and here I am-  In England, engaged and expecting our first child together.  It really has been a fairy tale.  Who knew the perfect man for me was 8 hours in the future!

Another old-fashioned type who met my man in person! I always knew I wanted to come to this side of the pond, though initially I studied a summer in France and visited the UK for a week. I then came to do a summer research project in a lab in St. Andrews. I came back the following autumn (2003) to start my Ph.D. in that lab. The summer before I moved I dated a guy I had fancied throughout my undergraduate years, and he even moved to Glasgow for a masters, though he claimed it wasn't for me. He then panicked, and when he came to visit me in St. Andrews said that he didn't want to be in a relationship. I was sad for exactly one day, then got excited about my freedom to date Scottish boys! The next day I went to the Societies Fair at the union to see what groups I wanted to join.

Now this is where fate comes in. During my last year of undergrad, my 2 closest girlfriends decided that we were going to be wenches for Halloween, and sewed our costumes. Then in the summer we wore them to the Ohio Ren Fest, and while there we also talked ourselves into buying proper (and expensive!) leather bodices for them. So when I moved to Scotland, I brought my wench outfit with me, thinking I'd find some use for it there. I was never into re-enactment or anything, so I had no idea where I'd wear it! Well, at the Societies Fair, there were some people dressed in funny clothes, the mediaeval re-enactment society! I thought, 'Why not? I have an expensive leather bodice I need to justify!' and went to the first feast. It was fun, so a few weeks later I went along on their castle trip (visiting some local castles). That day I noticed a very hot Scottish guy with long hair and a delicious accent. We chatted a wee bit and he gave me a conker (he doesn't remember this!). A few days later another member had a mini-feast at his house; I ran into the guy the day of the feast in Semi-Chem or something and he asked if I was coming. At the last minute I decided to go, and spent the evening sitting next to the hot Scot, who I learned was named Gary. I also learned that he was actually a couple of years older than I am despite being a final year undergraduate; he had started university when he was 22. I actually thought he was a bit of a man-whore, but oh so attractive! Maybe good for a fling...

A few days after that was Tavern Night. It was a low turn-out, but that ended up being good because we all chatted a lot and had a really great time. Gary and  I ended up exchanging the cloven orange a lot (progressing from innocent pecks to swapping the clove *cough*), and then eventually we just skipped the orange and were making out in the courtyard of the hall! He came home with me, and we decided to have a bit of a fling until he graduated. Fun!

Except it didn't turn out that way. Along the way we somehow became really good friends, and slipped so easily into a relationship. Before we knew it, we really were in a relationship and had fallen for each other. However, the way our relationship started and many other complications meant that for the first 2 years of our relationship there was a LOT of drama, and we actually split up 3 times in the first year. But we just couldn't stay apart, and after nearly 3 years of craziness, we settled into living together and letting ourselves fall deeper in love. For a while we were afraid that what kept us together was actually the excitement and adrenaline of the drama, but now we find that we have something even greater and deeper than that first flush of passion ever was. It's been nearly 7 years now since that first Tavern Night, and he still makes me feel all squishy inside. Sometimes we see each other unplanned in town, and my heart just skips a beat at seeing his face unexpectedly. He really is my best friend and my everything.  

Our meeting was sort of a hybrid.  We were 'absolutely, definitley, not set-up' by a mutual, real-life friend.  So, though we technically met online, it was orchestrated off-line.