How did you meet?

[Veronik 19]

Awesome stories! It`s so uplifting to read these!

[antda 13]

(I posted this before on VJ a long time ago...But I thought I would post in again here too...)

Hi Everyone,

What an interesting post, indeed! Thanks for sharing all of your meeting stories, to those who have posted already. And to those who have yet to post, feel free to share your story, too.

Now here is our (Ant+D+BabyA's story), as told through my (Ant's) presepctive:

"Big City Canadian Girl Meets Small Town American Boy..."

Our story begins about 10 years ago, where we met each other online in a "writing group" on yahoo groups . The funny thing is that this group doesn't exist anymore, so as to the exact name of the online group where we met, who knows...(or at least I can't remember at the moment)...

Besides our common interest in writing, during that time, we also found out that we had similar medical conditions, so privately, we talked more about that, through yahoo messenger, e-mails, and heck, even through my online diary (by the way, that doesn't exist anymore either). We understood each other, and remained good online friends. So you would think that we would meet in-person then, right? But....

I was under-aged at the time and my husband was over-aged by many years...And that would be a legal no-no...

So we parted our separate ways, as he focused on his life and I focused on mine...

Ok, jump ahead 4 years later, and at this time, we were both legal adults, and had both hit a low point in our lives. I was cleaning out my yahoo messenger list and found his name still on the list. And likewise, he was cleaning out his list, and found my name on the list too. Weird, that we would have each other's name on our lists, but deleted everyone else from it...So we continued from where we left off, and chatted through yahoo messenger and by e-mail as friends, but after awhile decided that we were more than just friends and decided to be boyfriend/girlfriend instead...

It wasn't until several months later, that we decided to meet each other in-person. It turns out that we only lived 300 miles/600 km from each other close to the border, with me being in Toronto, Canada and he being in Rural NYS, USA. So we decided to meet in Canada (as I felt safer meeting where I was), and he drove all the way up to meet me then. Lol...that first meeting was very awkward socially for the both of us (aren't all first meetings awkward anways?), but we still had a good time together. So we decided to meet again and felt more comfortable with each other as we met with each other more often in Canada. Eventually we ended up living with each other part-time for several weeks at a time this way. We continued meeting each other this way for several years, since I had other obligations and could not visit and/or move the USA right away to see him.

Ok, jump ahead another 2 years later, and we joked around the idea about getting married. But....

There was one catch: I had to visit him in the USA...

So several months later, as also mentioned in my former VJ timeline:

2006 Visited: Ant travelled from Canada to see long-term boyfriend D in the USA. Ant and D being harassed at the USA/Canada border (POE: Rainbow Bridge, Niagara Falls) for 2 hours was 'not a picnic in the park' for them. The Immigration Officer then made Ant get a B2 Visitor's Visa Passport Stamp and I-94 Arrival-Departure Card to visit for two weeks, even though Canadians are exempt from such requirements. However, what originally was a short visit was instead a 'rainbow crossing over' into a 'lifelong visit' for Ant and D in the USA.

2006 Married: Ant and D had a small garden/park spontaneous elopement in the Niagara County Region NYS USA on 2006-04-28. A memorable and lovely occasion, on the eve of D's milestone birthday. D and Ant, as Husband and Wife, happily married and living in the USA. Together Forever!

Now jump ahead another 3-4 years, to where we are now.....

2009: We have a Baby (Baby A)....

2009: Ant has US citizenship.....Goodbye USCIS!......

The Journey Continues, Our Story Continues.....

"And the Americans (Ant+D+BabyA) live happily ever after, in the rural contryside of NYS!"

Anyways, thanks for reading our "How did we meet?" story! Hope you all liked it and found it entertaining....

Ant (The Journey Continues, Our Story Continues...)

[Sprailenes 47]

Can I have the coles notes version?

[FireKari 4]

Ray and I met through an online game called EverQuest 2 back in 2005.

[which is slightly similar to world of warcraft]

[Kukolka 8]

Ooh, now I don't feel so badly about writing a long story. I enjoy reading these threads, too.

Over the summer of 2007, the coworkers I ate lunch with started getting really into this MMORPG called Rappelz, talking about almost nothing else. So in August I finally decided to try it out, but I soon discovered a 10GB HDD wasn't big enough for both the game and WinXP (all my other computers were running Linux). But I'd already gotten it in my head to try Rappelz--just try, mind you; I had no idea whether I'd like an MMORPG. Being extremely stubborn, I went out and bought a 160GB HDD.

Left to myself, I would've made a healer first, but my coworkers needed a tank in their parties, so my first char was a Knight. A month or so later, I made her little sister, a Cleric; Kukolka. One day when level 20-something Kuko was farming just outside town, I recognised the name of the Chaos Mage riding by as someone my coworkers had mentioned, who used to be in the guild my chars were in at the time. Bartuc was kind of famous for being one of the highest level chars on the server, so when I said hi, I didn't really expect him to acknowledge some random noob. But he turned around and came back to buff me. I was impressed. :}

I think the next time we talked was when I saw his photo on the player picture thread on the Rappelz forum. I thought, "dang, he's hot!" and messaged him in-game, "Wow, you look like an Asura irl :-o" (Asura is the race of his char, they look like goths. All chars in this game are built like swimsuit models, so it was a compliment without being too obvious.) In January 2008, he confided in me, and I said if he ever needed to talk, I'd listen. This was still all in-game chat.

In March 2008 I made a video of Rappelz. A player who liked my video invited me on his guild's Ventrilo (voice chat) server. Who else was on vent? Bartuc aka Dave! =D He didn't talk much (mysterious silent type, lol), but I kept talking to him and trying to get him to talk. I liked Dave a lot, but convinced myself it was just that my character had a crush on his character. One day while driving and listening to Emily Autumn's "Shalott", the idea for a video came to me, the complete video from start to finish, featuring Bart and Kuko. I was sooo nervous to ask him to help me film, but he was happy to help. As a bonus, I got to spend time with him in his private vent channel. After that we talked every day, often alone.

I was planning to move from New York to California in May and wanted to meet Dave before I left, but that didn't work out. So I moved, and over the next three months we became best friends. Sometimes I thought about what would happen if he quit the game. Would I ever hear from him again? The thought that he might just disappear from my life made me very sad. In August 2008, Dave told me he was thinking of quitting. I asked if he would help me with one last quest before he left. He asked what quest? and I typed out a quest given by the "ghost" of my Cleric, for resurrecting her, in the style of the quests in the game. Bartuc completed the objective of the quest, and I completed my objective: convincing Dave not to quit.

A well-meaning mutual friend thought Dave and I wouldn't work as a couple, and told me I shouldn't try. Have I mentioned I'm stubborn..?

Since this isn't a "chronicle our entire relationship" thread, fast forward through becoming a couple in June 2009, to the first time we were able to meet irl, in October 2009. We met in the baggage claim of SFO Airport. My first impression was, he was adorable; taller than I'd pictured; and *very quiet*. I thought, "Does he always speak this softly? I've always had his volume turned way up in vent..." It turns out that was just a side-effect of the noise of the airplane, and we had a good laugh about that later. At first I was also worried he wouldn't like me enough to want to stay the whole week. We got lost trying to leave the airport, then went to Chipotle Mexican Grill for lunch. Within half an hour we were so comfortable, we felt like we'd known each other in real life for years.

[Kayleigh+Kyle 0]

Like so many on VJ, my husband and I met on the internet. But I'll back up to give the full story.

My freshman year of college, I went to school just under an hour away from home. I absolutely loved it there. It was a decent sized school, not too big, not too small. My roommate, my classes, and my friends were all amazing. So I did the only logical thing - I transferred to a monstrous university in my hometown. I still don't really know to this day WHY I left the school I was attending. My excuse since I graduated was that the first school I went to didn't have my program, but I hadn't chosen my program at the time I left, so I don't really know. But before I could go to said monstrous, I had to move back home while waiting for my term at the new school to begin in winter quarter. Many of my friends had left home, so I didn't have many people to hang out with, so I started going into Yahoo! hockey chat rooms (I am a HUGE hockey fan).

I started going to the chat room in September of '05, and I got to the point where I was going in there on a nightly basis. There was maybe 10-12 of us who would come in nightly, or at least a few times a week. We got to the point of comfort that we would come in, chat about the days events in hockey, watch hockey and simultaneously chat about the games we were watching. Then, after we'd exhausted the hockey conversation, we would talk about ourselves. Sometimes we would play Jeopardy or other silly things (this was a voice chat room, so we could actually talk to one another).

This pattern continued once I moved to the dorms on campus. I was in the chat room less than before, but I'd still say I was in there 2-3 times a week. It was April 28th, and the NHL playoffs had just began. A friend of mine in the room was using the chat feature to play an old Columbus Blue Jackets vs Vancouver Canucks game over the speakers (he and I are both Jackets fans). Kyle comes into the room, hears the game, and being the good Canadian boy that he is, says "Go Vancouver!" So I decided to send him a PM to explain to him that it was an old game and that my friend was just replaying the game because we were bored and we were both Jackets fans. So we spent the rest of the evening talking about hockey. We talked the next night, and we talked about ourselves and got to know one another. This was the first time that we used our webcams (his typing went to hell when he saw me - he thought I was cute and his fingers couldn't function properly ). A week after we first started talking was my birthday, and he wanted to send me flowers. I gave him the address to my dorm's desk, and that day he sent me a dozen roses! It was the first time any man (other than my dad) had sent me flowers! My roommate (who probably thought I was weird for talking to people on the internet instead of going out and partying) was even impressed.

I decided that I wanted to fly to Calgary (it's the nearest big city to where he lived) and meet him after school was out for the summer. I didn't have anyone to go with me, though. Round trip international flights aren't exactly cheap. But I decided I was going to go for it anyway. I'm actually surprised my parents didn't try to talk me out of it. I flew up there June 8th. I was so nervous to meet him. I was afraid that he wasn't going to like me irl, and I didn't know what I was going to do for the whole week if he didn't. I went through customs, got my bags, and couldn't figure out where to leave to find him, I was so flustered! I finally found the sliding doors, and when they opened, there he was, wearing a Rick Nash (he's the star player of the Blue Jackets) jersey. We had an awkward hug, left the airport, and got lost in the rain while trying to find our hotel. After one night, we drove back to his hometown, about 3 hours away and spent the rest of the week there. The trip back home after that week was one of the most miserable experience I've had. I flew back up in August, though and spent a month with him at his parents place in BC (he had moved there to save up money since my visit to see him).

[transer 0]

We met on eHarmony. I joined the same month his subscription was ending and he wasn't going to renew it. Talk about timing! We emailed and chatted for about a month before talking on the phone for 3 weeks then meeting. He drove 10 hours down to southern Oregon to see me and it was a great first weekend. So he did it again 2 weeks later, then me 3 weeks later up to BC and then we each made the trip every other month. After a year of that I made the move up to northern WA - as close to the Canadian border as I could get.

We had almost the same timing...I joined eHarmony just as Laura was about to give up on it. She was the first person who actually seemed interesting on that site. We emailed for about a month, then she drove the two hours here to visit me. We've been seeing each other every couple weekends for the last couple years, but I have to admit, I'm not going to miss the drive!

[jken 2]

I thoroughly enjoy these storeis too - it's uplifting to say the least and fun!

Ken and I met in a chat room. I was going through a very diffciult time in my life - my marriage was a failure and after 22 years 9 i think at the time was 22...) i finally had the guts to end it...my now x husband had hurt me and betrayed me in every way possible. Ken had recently lost his wife of 30+ years to cancer and he was trying to cope with his own pain. When we first starting talking, summer of 2007, we shared alot of feelings and I found that I admired this man who had loved his wife so very much. The chatroom where we met I really had only been in a few times when i net him...new to the whole scene, i just googled a chat room. Quickly i started to develop feelings for him and that was diffciult and confusing as one just doesn't know how to deal with it all - never knowing what if anything could surface in the area of a real relationship. We talked endlessly on yahoo messenger and eventually phone. I was devastated one day when he told me that he needed to move on basically and that he had found/met someone there and was going to pursue it. I backed off, unwillingly i admit, because i knew and felt deep in my heart that there really was something there. I tried to convince myself that it was for the best and i was happy forhim because he deserved what everyone does. This lasted about 4 months...New Years of 2008, I sent him a happy new years e card wishing him the best for 2008 - he replied shocked i had contacted him, because he knew how i felt and he didnt think i would talk to him after what had happened. In short he wanted to pursue us as he never stopped thinking of me and he had to meet me to know once and for all, if what we felt would materialize for real. We talked all winter and spring and grew much closer, deciding to meet in July of 2008 , in Bangor Maine. We spent an amazing week together and not only was 'it' there when we met, but we both felt like we had found what we had been searching for. That summer was multple visits back n forth to maine and he came up to canada in the fall. Ken proposed, Novemeber of 2009, the same day my divorce was finalized!

Now...here we are...hopefully within months we will finally be married and together and not having to leave each other anymore!

[Veronik 19]

On August 23rd, it`ll be the one year anniversary of the death of my fiance`s brother. It was such a rough time, and still is for his family, but I know he is looking down on us, and I`m sure he had a lot to do with this process being so smooth for us. The whole thing brought Chris and I closer, but I still wish he was here to be Chris` best man.

Wish you were here Justin!

[The Earmuffs 0]

My husband and I met online on a site for NASCAR fans called "The Pits Online"

epic

[Wishing 1]

My fiance was born in US but also lived overseas. We met in high school although at the time his family was only supposed to be staying in town for one year as his Dad was on a government contract. They ended up living here for 5 years. He wasn't even supposed to have gone to my high school, the only reasons he ended up there was the other school his parents had planned for him was full! He also skipped a grade to my grade upon arrival. So we were classmates and the rest is history:)