Oh, hey guys. Remember that time I met a really cute guy over the Internet, and we emailed each other A LOT and then started talking on the phone, and then he decided to fly from New York to Los Angeles to meet me, and it was really crazy but also really exciting because he seemed like an awesome guy and I was a little totally smitten? No? You don't remember that? Oh, that might be because he's actually flying out tomorrow night, so that part hasn't happened yet.
The strangest part, I guess, is that since we met through Lemondrop.com, they've asked us to write about the whole thing. You can read both our sides of the story here.
Okay, now leave your (or your friends) "meeting through the Internet" story in the comments. I'm partial to success, rather than failure stories, obviously, but either are welcome. If a lot of people comment, maybe I'll do one of the of those things where a list randomizer picks a commenter's name and then I send them useless but cute things. Okay???
21 comments:
Those little stories brought a little flutter of nervous expectation with them. Hope it goes well for you...
I technically met Jonah over the internet! After chatting online about zombies, we met for reals at the Cha Cha in early 2006.
I read your post, then read both of your 'sides' of how the (online) relationship developed, and I'm super happy and hopeful for the both of you now! :)
As for me, my online meet-ups, the few that they were, were usually not so great. But again, that was like 10 years ago at least, and so it was a lot harder to find someone cool online. The one that sticks out the most, though, is a girl I met on some chat/forum thing for Everclear (shut up, they were good back then, and i was 18!), talked with for a few weeks, then decided to meet up with at her college dorm room (she was a freshman, i was a senior in high school).
The strange part of the whole thing was this: I had no idea if we were meeting as friends or as a date or hook-up or something, and I couldn't figure out a good way to ask her that question without seeming strange and/or forward. So, I tried to play it cool and play it by ear...but by the time she kicked her roommate out of the room and turned off the lights and jumped on me, I sort of figured out what was going on. But by that time I was more hoping we'd be friends than anything else, so I was trying to figure out how to bring that up without hurting her feelings.
So, yeah, the internet screwed me on that one.
I met my current girlfriend through a site called Blogpod, which now doesn't even exist anymore, back in November of 2003. We chatted online and spoke on the phone almost everyday for a year and the day came where we decided to meet up. It was funny because she lived in Long Island and I lived in Brooklyn then so the meet up date was long overdue.
Anyway, we decided to meet up early at the little alleyway next to KMart on 34th and 8th Av (next to the Penn Station exit) I had gotten there early and when I saw her turn the corner, squinting to see me because she didn't have her glasses on, she smiled and walked my way. Without even thinking about it, the first words out of my mouth were "You're beautiful.." And she rolled her eyes and said, "Shut up.." She believed it and was really happy to hear it, she later told me, but was so nervous to response with a "Thank You". We had already known each other so well but meeting in person had us both a little nervous.
We ended up walking up Broadway, where the nervousness subsided quite a bit, up to Times Square and went into (out of all places) Toys R' Us. I leaned in to kiss her on the escalator and we held each other behind the big T-Rex on display. We were off to Central Park and sat on a rock to kiss and talk and hold hands, staring up at the sky, happy to finally be in each other's company.
We saw Franz Ferdinand at Roseland that night and afterwards, I walked her down 8th Avenue to Penn. We sat down and waited for her train, as I pulled out my sketchbook and she drew in it, writing in the date.
I kissed her goodbye and felt, for the first time in a long time, completely in love. Completely happy.
It's 2008 and we are still together.
I love her dearly and I hope your meeting goes as well as mine went.
Have a good one!
The year was 1996. AOL was still 2.95 an hour, and none of my IRL friends were online yet. Over the past year or so I had used my allotted 1 hour per day (or every other day? I can't remember) to build up a pretty awesome group of online friend in Punk Chat. There was Brian from Torrance, Nelson from the east coast, A guy who ran a sxe label in HB that I forget the name of, Miaramone from the bay area, Karen from Pasadena, Natalie and Marisa, Dave Liberation.. tons of people. We even made a zine called "punk chat scrapbook" where everyone sent in their picture by mail and the one dude with a scanner made the zine and sent it to everyone so we could all put faces to the names.
Anyway, heading into 1997 and AOL goes unlimited and my addiction to the internet really begins. I spent HOURS a day in Punk Chat. I'm sure I'm idealizing it now but it really was an awesome group of people who "knew" each other and not the constant spouting of youtube comment-esque statements you might run across in chat rooms these days. I was online and asked if anyone had seen Avail the night before at showcase theate, one girl named Kristin or "Beezor79" said she was and we switched to IM. Found out she lived in Irvine and ended up meeting when weeks later she picked me up to go to a 4th of July party. It took us a few weeks of hanging out but I finally got the balls to kiss her (it was my first kiss) and we dated for what was an eternity to me at the time (4 months.. breakup .. 3 more months). But I told very few of my friends at the time I had met her online. Over the next year or so EVERYONE I knew was online. I still have friends that I met on AOL back in the day. I've only had one relationship that had nothing to do with the internet. One. Every other friendship / relationship / space ship has at least been helped along with aim/makoutclub/friendster/myspace/facebook etc etc etc. It's kinda creepy. I love the internet.
I met a man online and left LA and moved to Kansas for him (after meeting in person and dating for awhile, of course). It didn't work out. But that's beside the point...
The internet has officially changed relationships forever.
I've had one relationship from Nerve and one from myspace (erm) and while they've both gone kaput, they both lasted long enough-- to be able to say it was worth it and I'd totally do it again. I once formed a band on an early internet BBS and we got a rather large writeup on the band's history in Details magazine after we went kaput. Rock on and enjoy yourselves!
I've dated two people who started out as commentors on my blog. Neither one killed me (yet).
Kurt's funny. Still, I think you should have a friend arrange to call you every night and have some sort of code word, like "unicorn" that you can say if he turns out to be a serial killer. And maybe rent a big dog for the weekend.
Still! Fun weekend with nice boy! I've had lots of friends who met great people online, so it can be done!
I'm so excited for you!
I've met a few guys online. While it used to be taboo and I'd hide the fact with something else (the "oh he's a friend of a friend of a friend" works well) now I think the stigma has dropped off.
I'll stick with the good stories:
I met one of my two only loves online in high school. We dated for a year and then I went away for college. We are still the best of friends and confide in each other all the time.
I met a great guy who I was eventually head over heels for but in person there wasn't the same spark. He ended up disappointing me in the boyfriend material department. But that's just a word to the wise: don't idealize him or fantasize about the perfect man, just be positive and enjoy his company.
And I have a date on Friday with a guy from online that seems promising! We've talked on the phone for two weeks and its time. I'll have my fingers crossed for you and me :)
Oh, wow, Georgia,
Good luck! You know my story. I'll send all my good luck vibes your way!
I've done a lot of online dating! I met my college boyfriend on Yahoo Chat in 1999. I was head over heels in love with him. We didn't work out because we really wanted different lifestyles and had different values, but we're still friends today, 9 years later. I also met my ex-fiance on Lavalife. He and I obviously didn't work out and I'm single now, but we had some great times together even though things ended badly.
I also have two close friends who met online and got married last summer :)
And I have a date on Sunday with a guy I met online. I think online dating has just as good a shot of working out as any other method of meeting people... the only thing to be careful of is that by the time you meet in real life, you sometimes want things to work out so badly that it makes it hard to tell if there's chemistry there or not. So watch out for that :) Otherwise, just have a great time!
A friend of a friend met a guy through World of Warcraft.
When she told her mother she was going to meet this guy, she wasnt so impressed.
Her mother said "You don't know this guy, what if he is a rapist!"
Her reponse: "You can't rape the willing"
Oh so you're not coming to Eliza's B-day party Saturday night? Or are you bringing him along?!? JK!
Louise - Thank you!
Lauren - I didn't know you guys met online! How sweet! That makes me feel better, actually.
Chad - Great story, especially the Everclear part (I kid, I kid). I love that she invited you over just to seduce you in her dorm room, of all places. Sounds like the script to a porn. haha
Anonymous - Thank you for that story, I loved it! I can't believe it took you guys an entire year! Really, what a lovely story, and I'm so happy it worked out for you guys!
Ben - Awesome story, especially because I'd forgotten all about those old chat rooms. The more I think about it, I would probably have a lot less friends and close friends if it wasn't for the Internet, so I guess this isn't that wierd. I think it's the "flying from New York" part that's the most odd about it.
Shea - Yay for Kansas!
Hugh - Thanks!
Kurt - You dated commentors??? Why does that seem like teachers dating students to me for some reason? And yeah, I hope I don't get killed...that would totes suck.
Jemima - "Unicorn" isn't a bad idea. Which reminds me that before I went on the first date with a guy who ended up being my boyfriend for five years, I gave his phone number to my best friend in case I was never heard from again. I liked that he was a little weird, but still, you never know. haha
Nicola - The "perfect man" thing is good advice. I'm trying hard not to do that, but, ya know, it's hard not to. Plus I'm like, "yeah but I'M awesome and he's meeting ME, so who's to say HE's not awesome too??" Yeah, I'm good on the confidence front, thanks.
Shinyung - I do know your story, and it makes me happy! Thank you!!!
Laura - Yay! Good luck to us!
Anonymous 2 - World of Warcraft??? That's so awesome and hilarous! My mom would say the same thing about him being a rapist. Eesh.
Leah - Uhhh, yeah. I am totally not bringing him.
one time i met up with this girl i knew from livejournal so i could give her some issues of Heeb that i had and then we became super friends forever! oh wait, THAT WAS GEORGIA!!
I can't read his side; it doesn't seem to be there? And now my nosy side is dyyyyyying.
I met my now ex-boyfriend online (we were together 3 years). I can't decide now if that is a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, I can't really call it a "success" story as such, but it was really not the fault of the internet that we broke up, I suppose. It's sad, but at this point in my life I really can't imagine meeting someone (meaning a boy) not online. But at least the stigma is finally starting to go away.
I'm so excited for you! I met my boyfriend online and we've been together for over a year. Sometimes I don't like telling people how we met, not because I'm embarrassed. Mostly because I feel like saying "we met online" cheapens what we have together. Like it's not legitimate or something in other people's eyes since we met under such contrived circumstances. Then I remember how much more awesome he is than the boys I've met in more "normal" ways and I stop caring about what anyone else thinks.
Sooooooo I feel like we are being kept in suspense...
It's like a cliffhanger on a tv show! What happened! Haha.
honestly, i've been awaiting your next blog entry like it's the season premier of LOST. must! know! what happens! tell us, georgia, please.
I've met a whole number of people through the internet. Sometimes its fun. Other times it turned into an ex-wife. Good luck!! Life's too short not to enjoy a little crazyness!
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