We have a great discussion going on about the stigma about (around? of? surrounding?) Online dating. There was some talking (fighting? name-calling?) about having a story to how you met that special someone.
So what about those great stories of how you met that person? What’s the story of how you met your best friend? What’s the lie you tell your parents because Latex Night at The Spankatorium just raises too many questions?
LemonVibe 
[At my last job, there were a few coworker friends of mine who had a drinking spot they went to together every weekend. I was under the legal drinking age (but in college and over the age of consent) when they decided that they were going to try and get me into the bar. It didn’t prove too difficult.
One of my coworkers had a second job at a hospital, and she had invited all of her work friends from her 2nd job to the bar too. They were talking about some new guy at their job that was super cute, and when he showed up I agreed that he was pretty attractive (although significantly older than me). I told my friend this, so she made it her goal to see how many times she could awkwardly push the two of us together during the night. “Oh, Margaret, come sit by me. Whaaat? There’s no chair? That’s okay, sit on my lap. Oh, wait, you’re sliding off. Here, I’ll just transfer you to [now boyfriend]’s lap.”
I went home (alone) that night, and didn’t see the new guy for a couple more months. I kept hearing stories about him through the grapevine, about how he hooked up with one of my coworkers after a night of drinking, but neither of them were actually interested in each other. And I was so jealous when I heard that. It sounds cheesy, but I just couldn’t get him out of my mind. I kept wondering about what would happen if I were actually bold enough to make a move. I thought that a relationship was completely out of the question since there was such an age difference, and I told myself that the most I could get from him was a one-night stand. But I was such a goody two shoes (getting into a bar while underage was the most scandalous thing I had done in my entire life) that I had little faith in my ability to actually follow through with it.
So a few months later when they went back to the bars and he was there, I sat next to him and we talked most of the night. I was staying with a coworker that night, but all of my work friends were leaving to go to another bar that there was no way I could get into. New guy offered to give me a ride to where I was staying, and I accepted. I pulled aside my coworker friend that had hooked up with him, and made sure she was okay if anything happened between us (I didn’t want to completely shun the “girl code”). She told me to go for it.
We got in the car, I suggested we take a detour to his house (so bold!). We banged. I was elated. He dropped me off at where I was staying, and I was prepared to never see him again and have little more than a fond memory of a one-night stand to remember him by.
Obviously, that didn’t happen. We’ve been together for 2 1/2 years now.
So when people ask me, “Oh, how did you meet your boyfriend?” I brush it off with a simple, “Oh, we met through a mutual friend.”
[I met my wife in high school when I joined the musical with the specific intent to meet girls. It worked perfectly. She was a make-up girl. I played the bartender with a couple lines; I even learned how to dance and sing a bit. We started dating at the end of the production (despite some misgivings she had; apparently her friends thought I was a bit of a dangerous character, which I really should thank them for. Girls never like rebels, right? Even better was the fact that it wasn’t true at all; I liked to books, video games, and quiet. We’ve been together ever since.
[I love my “how we met” story. He showed up at my house with a friend of mine. I was hammered and couldn’t figure out why his name was familiar and I convinced myself he must be some obscure actor from the 90’s. I guess he thought that was endearing?
I told my mom we met through a mutual friend at a concert. That way when I say I had had a few drinks, it doesn’t come off alcoholic-y.
[Here’s how I met one of my best friends:
My friend Ethan and I were discussing plans for my birthday party in a club in high school. We were talking about getting together and playing video games, staying up all night, and the like. Another person that neither of us had ever met before (but was a member of the same club) walked up to us and asked if we were getting together to hang out or something. We told him that, yes, we were but it was my birthday party and only my friends were going to be there.
His response was: “Well there’s no reason we can’t be friends then is there? Besides, I love video games. Mind if I come along?”
Ethan and I shared a confused look, shrugged, and said sure, why not. I mean we were kind of discussing it in front of the guy after all, and we felt bad about talking about something that he though was going to be really fun that he couldn’t go to.
Long story short, he came to my party and really hit it off with me and my friends. He’s been one of my best friends ever since, and it was pure happenstance that I even got to hang out with the guy.
[I have no great stories for how exes and I met, but the one about my best friend and I is kind of funny.
We met in English class our freshman year of high school, and didn’t really like each other. There were two cynics in the classroom, and clearly there was only room for one. I won that battle, but later in the year when we were forced to work together on a group project, we eventually found common ground—we both thought the other guy’s ideas were stupid—and became friends.
We didn’t start hanging out until the next year, but once the school year started and we realized we were the only people in our English class we knew, we instantaneously hooked onto each other, and have been inseparable ever since. We even made it to rumored lesbian couple status our junior and senior years.
[I met my current (5 years so far and I expect I should be looking for a ring soon) through my roommate. See, his younger sister had car problems and needed a ride stat. Turns out the radiator was leaking worse than a runny nose in allergy season and that of course caused the rest of the engine to think it was in the fiery pits of hell. My friend didn’t have a car, but being the kind of friends we are, he knew he could count on me, so I started giving them both rides to work while they tried to fix her car.
I knew of my friend’s sis from before, but we never really had a chance to talk before now. I’d listen as they chatted about life, the universe and everything while I paid attention to the road, adding quips in where I could.
Now I knew it’s typically bad form (guy code-wise amongst my friends at least) to take an interest in a friend’s siblings, but I couldn’t stop if I wanted to. She and I drew to each other like magnets and we kept spending more and more time together. After admitting to each other and then to the rest of our friends (including her brother/my roommate) that, “sorry, it’s going to happen,” we settled in to ride the storm because it was worth it.
After a bit of grumbling and cold shoulders, we convinced them that this was for real and I got the best of both worlds out of it. I got to keep my girl and keep one of my best friends (her brother) as well!
I almost feel sorry for those of our friends that bet against us staying together, but if I had known of the betting pool, I’d be a much richer man from it!
[I met my boyfriend through a friend I went to law school with – the two guys went to college together – and when our mutual friend was in town visiting, he texted me to come out and meet up with him and his friend (who I’d heard about from other people). So, I met up with them and we all went drinking. There were karaoke, shots, ridiculous dancing, I won a jagermeister hat (which is awesome, by the way), and over the course of the night I went from thinking “eh” to “this guy is awesome and I’m having such a good time with him.” And then we slept together. And it was amazing. The next day, I was kind of like, “that was so fun and if nothing comes of it, I had a great time and I don’t regret any of it.” But, I ended up seeing him again right away because I TOTALLY unintentionally left both my earrings and my jager hat at his house. And I swear to god it was unintentional. Anyway, we’ve been being weird together ever since!
[P and I met in high school when he was a senior and I was a freshman. I used to sit by myself in the corner of the cafeteria listening to my walkman and writing in my journal. P sat at the table with my best friend, some other seniors, and his then-girlfriend. He came over, sat down next to me and asked “What’s your bio?” Everyone from his table was staring, and I thought they sent him over on a dare to talk to the weird angsty girl, so I was kind of bitchy to him. Turns out he just thought I looked interesting.
We didn’t talk again until a few weeks later when my best friend enlisted me to play a really complicated prank on him involving actual cult activity that he was obsessed with investigating. He had spent about four years investigating the cult and finding mutilated animals throughout the woods, and I told him that earlier in the year I had been abducted and drugged by the cult and then forced to mutilate a young pig. It was a really mean prank, but it instantly started the best friendship I’ve ever had…. which later turned into a relationship that I couldn’t possibly improve if I wanted to.
[I met my significant other at work. We worked in a grocery store in two different department- him in the pizza department and me on the front end as a cashier. I always knew there was something special about him but I wasn’t sure what. Eventually our store closed and we were transferred to two different stores in the chain. I never thought I’d see him again, so I gave it no thought.
Then one night I’m out at the bar sitting around the pool table, and I hear a familiar voice. “Hey, I know you… we used to work together at Wegmans.” And I turn around and there’s my old co-worker. After that it was kinda like fate. We began talking and hanging out, and eventually he ended up asking me to be his girlfriend. This was about 2 years ago but it took like 6 months before we started dating.
[I arrived at a New Years Eve party around 11pm. At the same party a friend brought a friend who had just gotten dumped before Christmas. She was telling our friend that it sucked not having anybody to kiss at midnight.
Enter my drunk sister-in-law who not even knowing this girl, grabs me by the arm and drags me over announcing, “you can kiss him! He’s single”. We talked and flirted throughout the night, but I was chicken shit and frankly out of my league and didn’t really make a move. She left with her friend around 2.
Enter my drunk sister-in-law, who asks me, “did you get her number?”
I sheepishly said, “no”
She shows me her arm with the digits drunkenly scrolled in black sharpie. “i did!”
This girl is now my wife.
[I met my hubby while doing promotions at the gym he works at. When I met him I asked, “What’s your position?” to which he replied, “Manager.” I then stated, “Oh, I would have assumed doggy style.” He blushed and got very uncomfortable…but then he laughed. We became good friends and it grew from there. To this day he will ever so romantically say, “You had me at doggy style.”
[I love these stories!
My boyfriend and I met through my cousin. When I was in college, my best friend and I road tripped to visit with my family. When we showed up, my cousin was in his basement with some of his friends (most of which I knew already) playing hacky sack. (don’t judge)
Anyway, I had a major crush on one of his friends at the time, and I had never met my now-boyfriend before then. My friend thought he was cute so I encouraged them to hook up. That night ended in a slightly awkward foursome on my bed… by foursome I meant the two couples sort of hooking up, not all four together… ANYWAY. Things didn’t work out with my hookup even if we are still great friends now. And for whatever reason, MJ didn’t really feel it with my friend either, even though they kept in touch for a little while after we got back to school.
I left school and moved to be near my family, and MJ and I became best friends. Like – platonic best friends – for three years. He was my bestest buddy. Then on his 21st birthday we were at his company Christmas party and we got drunk and I climbed on top of him and started making out when we got back to my house. It was kind of awkward since we were just friends and we agreed to forget about it. 6 months later, we were at a huge party camping out. I was walking across to the bluff overlooking the valley, he turned and looked at me… and the look in his eyes gave me the flutters and I knew then that we could never “just be friends”. We started hooking up in secret for a few weeks, then when we finally slept together I said we should probably tell our friends. We got a lot of “I told you so’s” and the rest is history.
We’ve been together 14 years now. 🙂