I worked at a college bar for beer money. Her friends came in all the time, she did not. Then one night she did, and I was literally struck dumb - just like the stories. There was a few months of seeing her here and there, a few conversations - I had never met a woman so amazing. I was a bug, and she a goddess in every way. Imagine my shock when she handed me a napkin with her phone number on it and said “call me sometime.”

You bet your ass I called her the very next day. That was 28 years ago. The crazy part is things got steadily better over the years. Nothing got “boring” it got more exciting. Looks fade, but she’s more beautiful to me today than ever. Kids didn’t drag us down, they made things more fun. Bills and chores and life’s troubles became something we worked through together - teaching us that we can overcome just about anything and be successful. I’d argue all of our success is because we’re a team.

We truly hit the love lottery when both of us were “done” and didn’t believe something like what we have is possible. Put away your baggage, and keep an open mind - your napkin could be handed to you today.

It had an opet beta weekend prior to fully releasing as “A Realm Reborn”

Local gaming store. I joined one of the tabletop rpgs. We talked a lot after this. He had cats which endeared me to him. I met his cats. His cats liked me. He also had a trashcan in the bathroom so I knew he was smart. We’ve been together uhhhh 17 years this December I think.

Ok Cupid (but this was 10+ years ago, I hear it’s gotten shittier since then 🙁)

Her character murdered my character in a MUD.

I walked into Katz’s Delicatessen and ordered the pastrami reuben. One bite later and I knew my life would never be the same.

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She was a direct report at my job.

I worked with her older sister for a couple years, perfectly content being single. One day, randomly blurted out that I hated being single. Her sister asked me to describe what I wanted, I said a few things, and “You just described my sister! Let me introduce you.”

Apparently, she had already thought we would be perfect together. That was 16 years ago, and we’ve been married for almost 13. I could not ask for a more perfect person to have as my wife and dearest friend.

When I was in middle school, the techy kid walked up to me with a piece of metal in his hand and said, hey, did you know you can take out this part of a lighter and use it as a taser? I thought he was cool and immediately took a liking to him. Turns out we took the same train to school, and soon enough we’d share our train rides. Soon after, he started staying over at my place. One day he was chilling on my bed and installed something on his laptop called “Mandriva Linux”. This is the day I met GNU/Linux <3

I was late for work, and I had forgotten to brush my teeth. So I ran into the sundry shop to buy a roll of Lifesavers, and she was behind the counter.

Little did I know at the time, but she would save my life in a lot more ways than just by making my breath smell better.

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In an acting class. I didn’t notice her but she noticed me. Next class she switched from dressing tom boyish to more feminine and I noticed her. 20 years later and we just had our second kid.

My ex-fiancee and ex-girlfriend for 7 years was getting hit on by our boss. She used to brag to me about it. They started texting back and forth until suddenly she wanted to “just be friends” with me (which entitled “benefits”).

This was all about a month before our wedding. So naturally I declined being “friends” and slept with her bride’s maid. We decided the sex was good enough to try dating.

That was 12 years ago now.

I found my waifu in an anime

Online dating, but we met in 2016 and I heard stuff has gone downhill since.

Just under half of the people I dated seriously (eg: not a hookup) as an adult, I met online.