How did you meet your SO?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Inspired by this thread.

I’m curious as to how people meet people these days. Did you rescue your lover from impending doom? Slay an attacker of some sort? Have a charming accident where they were forced to nurse you back to health? Get too drunk and decide you weren’t getting any younger?

Indulge me, if you will. How did you meet your Love-Of-All-Loves? Or if you’re single, how’d you meet your last one? Please include your age and length of relationship as well.

I’m 28, and single for the past three or so years (though not completely devoid of sexual contact, nothing any sane person could consider a ‘meaningful’ relationship). My last real girlfriend was a nurse at my doctor’s office. Though utterly worthless to the medical community, she was the stereotypical “hot nurse” so I just grimaced as she mutilated my arm again and again in what would normally be considered a routine blood draw (I mean seriously woman, you could close your eyes and throw the damn syringe at my arm and have a better chance than not hitting a vein). Now, hindsight being what it is, I suppose I could’ve taken this as a sign that she might not be the ideal woman for me but… she was hot.

Like, really hot.

Like, really, seriously, ‘please-be-my-guest-and-repeatedly-skewer-my-arm-until-it’s-nothing-but-a-swolllen-bruised-mass-of-flapping-useless-man flesh-whilst-I-try-to-maintain-a-smile-and-make-charming-small-talk’ hot.

Twenty agonizing minutes later, I asked her what she was doing after work.

We began dating. Much sex was had, mostly by me.

Fast forward two miserable years. To keep this at least relatively brief, I won’t go into details, suffice to say that she also turned out to be ‘act-like-as-much-of-a-smoldering-twatmuffin-for-as-long-as-you-like-because-it-seems-I’ve-the-confidence-of-a-stewed-turnip’ hot as well.

The things we do for decent nookie…

When I’d FINALLY reached my breaking point, we broke up in a very ugly (though morbidly comical) scene involving her children (she had two… from two different dads… one of whom was in jail… :smack:) a hidden coke habit, and a violent assault on yours truly with a largeish glass picture frame.

No trouble drawing blood THAT time…

But that be a story for another thread. :smiley:

2

Hmm…

I met my current SO at a neighborhood bar. We ran into each other there a few times and hung out, and it was nice enough that at some point we started going there hoping to run into each other, and then we started actually planning to spend time together, and somewhere along the line I noticed that I had a boyfriend. This realization didn’t make me break out into hives, but I’m still taking it a day at a time. :smiley:

The last one I met on the subway. He was cute, and he was reading a book I’d just finished, so I parked myself next to him, asked him how he liked it. Chatted for the rest of the ride, and when he offered me a ride home from the train station I suggested a drink across the street instead. We closed down the bar that night, and were together for ten years.

The two before that I met through friends.

The one before that followed me home so I kept him, for a little while. :wink:

3

Not too long ago there was a similar thread about how Dopers met their spouses: How did you meet your spouse? - In My Humble Opinion - Straight Dope Message Board . Plenty of good stories in there!

4

In rehab, 18 years ago tomorrow, I think.

:cool:

5

We sat next to each other in 8th grade Latin and also rode the same bus. Fast forward after 8 years of separation, and Facebook tells us that we work across the street from each other. We realized that we liked each other then, and now we can act on it.

6

So there is. I figured this had to have been done before but I didn’t think it was that recent. My apologies. :slight_smile:

7

We met playing an MMORPG. We started talking because we both named our avatars after characters from the same fantasy book series. This was in 2004; we were just shy of 27 at the time.

We had an online LDR for about three years before he finally relocated and moved in with me in 2007. He’s met my parents, I’m going to meet his parents in 2 weeks, and all is good in the universe.

8

He was (and actually still is) my teacher. Oops.

9

We met the old fashioned way. I picked him up in a bar. Well he kinda picked me up, but I sound less like a slut when I phrase it this way. :wink:

10

My first day at work, when he was setting up my computer.

11

In our university’s Student Union Building.
Both our laptops were running on low/dead battery, and we plugged into the same wall socket. Led to a nice chit-chat about my ECON homework, then the lack of plug-ins in the building. Also some gaming bits and bobs, music, math, ya know, typical small talk… well, typical small talk for a couple of nerds. :cool:
Funny thing is, I was really into another guy at the time, and he basically pursued me for a week and a half before I came to my senses. :smack:
[And I am ever so glad I did :D]

12

During a drinking game at a college frat party. I was singing that funny little song about a goblin while downing brews, and she took one look and thought, “now, that’s husband material”.

13

We got sued together. (Awwww.)

We had a friend in common who started up a project and roped us into helping. At the time we were both in long term relationships. The lawsuit followed (it’s since been dropped).

A few years later I found myself single and I started going to this weekly event (that he also attended, with his friends; he was also single by then) in the hopes of getting laid. Of course I am quite shy and no good at chatting up strangers, so instead of trying to get laid I’d hang out with him instead.

One day I made a stupid date with a weird guy from Craigslist, and after that I went to the weekly event, kicking myself for dating idiots online and wishing there was an easier way to get laid. I never thought of dating him because at the time I was looking for sex, not love. But at that point I thought “Why can’t I find guys like this to date?” then I asked myself “why can’t I date THIS guy?” Only then did I realize that he seemed to fancy me too.

He wasn’t what I was looking for, but he is exactly what I wanted.

14

My wife and I are the result of the only known blind-date match-making endeavor.

I was single, poor and young. I did, however, have a car. My coworker needed a ride to the fire station after work one day. His pitch was simple; give me a lift and my girlfriend will hook you up with free Chinese food. Seriously, I didn’t even have to think about this. After dropping off my coworker, I made a bee-line to the food.

Once I’m there, my coworkers girlfriend indicates that she is trying to hook me up with more than just food. I look around the restaurant and see the hottest Chinese girl behind the counter. I decide it is time for me to play it cool. So I flip the charming switch and order some dumplings from the waitress. The hot chick behind the counter disappears. She is shy, I get it. So I figure that I had better make a good impression on the waitress, since they are probably talking about me in the back in Chinese. I decide to offer the waitress one of my dumplings. After a little goading she eats one. At this point the hot chick is back behind the counter stifling a laugh. “I’m in like Flynn” I thought. After I’m done eating, I offer to pay anyway, but my coworkers girlfriend takes care of it. I thank her and she mentions that she is inviting the waitress to a party we are all attending that weekend.

That’s when it hit me. They weren’t hooking me up with the hot chick behind the counter, they were trying to hook me up with the waitress! The weekend rolls around and at the party we ended up hanging out together since everyone else there had a SO. After that weekend the waitress & I ended up spending all our free time together. We were married 4 months after we met and will have been married 11 years next month. The couple that hooked us up didn’t even last to our first anniversary.

15

Well then my husband and I would be the only known example of a working Vegas marriage. He won me in a bet.

16

She sat behind me in 11th grade US history. I was new in the school system. She was cute, and she talked to me.

That was in 1973.

17

At a Dopefest - my first. It’ll be five years on 13th March, and we got married in July.

18

My husband and I met “online” so long ago that it counted as a “cute meet” story for a number of years until the world caught up with us and now everyone does it that way.

We were both 18 and it was 1987 on a college intranet system called PARTI (did anyone else have that?) and now that I think about it…IT WAS EXACTLY LIKE THE STRAIGHT DOPE! No wonder I felt like I’d come home when I found this place.

Anyway, we got to know each other by our clever, witty, intelligent postings, began messaging and eventually met up IRL so he could help me with a paper on Romantic Poetry. The sparks flew on first sight, but we had already halfway fallen in love with just our minds. It took almost a year to get to proper dating since we were both dating other people when we met (I was dating the guy who showed me how to use the college’s online computer system) and it took awhile to sort out and admit our feelings, but we’ve been together 20 years, married for 15.

19

Freshman orientation of college. We were both 18.

I just turned 26, which means I’ve known him for over 8 years.

20

We did likewise about a year later, which I think says just about everything you need to know about us. I was actually dating someone else at the time that we met, but that relationship was already doomed. A couple months after we called it off, Owls asked me out and I, against my better judgment, said yes.

He’s the best thing that ever happened to me.