Oddest place you met someone you later went out with

In My Humble Opinion (IMHO)
#1

OK, as a single middle-aged man, I get a lot of books and articles sent to me on how to meet “the one.” Usually at Christmas. Today someone sent me a link and I skimmed it (hey, you never know what you’ll learn.) One thing that the article said was that you should be looking to meet women everywhere, not just when you are “out.” Look for them at the supermarket, at the library at the museum, etc. Basically the theory is, you have less compitition there and less pressure.

OK, I’m skeptical. Do people really meet and then go out at the supermarket?

What odd places have you met someone (who later you went out with, even if only once.)

#2

I suppose the strangest place I ever met someone I went out with was at a sorority at Wellesley College. (I was there for a concert; they’d moved all the furniture out of the largest room and people were just sitting around on the floor. Maybe 6 guys in the whole place.)

I’m a single, middle-aged man. Who’s sending you all these books and articles? I don’t get any; have my family and friends given up on me?

#3

Mental health facility. Out of necessity, we ended up moving in together about 8 years after we first met.

#4

Met my husband at the family holiday dinner table. He was married to the ex’s sister. Nothing ensued until after they divorced and the Ex and I split up. The Ex died and I’m best friends with my husband’s ex wife. Stuff can work out just fine.

#5

I get a book every year from the same couple for Christmas. I suppose it may be a gag gift - I guess so anyway, since everyone always laughs. I don’t get that many articles, but got one today. I guess they mean well, but I always figure if I really wanted to buy such things, I would buy it for myself - I spend a ton on all kinds of other books.

#6

I met a man at a funeral.

Of course, I’d known him before, but only as a friend of a friend sort of thing. We’d never had any interaction of our own, but I ended up sitting next to him at the funeral of a (different) mutual friend.

I was floored when he called me a few days later to ask me out. We dated for a while, but ultimately didn’t suit each other. Not because of the funeral thing, although that was weird.

#7

Right here on the Dope.

#8

Through a BBS. The marriage is going strong after 7+ years.

And we’re both geeks. :smiley:

#9

Supermarket, check. Library, check. Museum, check. Even dated a guy I met in a hospital waiting room.

I used to take the bulk mail from my office to the post office every week. I ended up dating the bulk mail clerk for several months. He was later one of the ushers at my wedding.

I met one guy because he was my boss’s cousin, and used to stop by our office once a week or so. Dated him for a couple of years, off and on, without the boss ever knowing.

I once picked up a guy in an MSN chat room. Married him. (I never really dated him, though – just met him, moved in, and now we’re married. Not much of a romantic story to tell our kids.)

#10

Telephone operator. As a wild college party was simmering down we called the operator basically to harass her and she was the friendly type, so friendly she gave me her phone number. Turned out it was the number of the police and they did not appreciate prank calls, but that was in 79 and here we are in 06!

#11

Well, not the geek part, but I met my dh on a BBS, too (try explaining to a young whipper-snapper today that yes, it was on a computer, just not on the Internet! :slight_smile: )

We “met” in '92, married in '94. Still going strong 12 years later!

(and to answer the OP, the strangest place I met a guy I later dated was in a bathroom at a club - we never did remember who was in the wrong one!)

#12

I did the BBS thing, the Lavalife thing. But the most interesting was the time I met a fellow in the elevator of my apartment building. We chatted, and the next day I posted a note on his floor, saying:

“To the charming gentleman who chatted with me in the elevator last night at 1:30am, here’s my e-mail.”

Only one date, he was a bit…weird, but I was proud of myself.

#13

I was at the California Highway Patrol office in 1982 to take my final School Bus Driver exam. The officer overseeing the exam was a fine looking young lady. We started talking, found out we were both single, so I asked her to dinner that night.

“Sorry, I can’t,” she said. “I’m going to a movie with my parents.”

OK. Nice brush-off. No big deal. I’ll never hear from her again.

One week later I come home to the following on my answering machine:

"Rico? Hi, this is Officer Jones (name changed, of course…) at the CHP. Just calling to tell you you’re all set with your school bus endorsement, you should be receiving the paperwork in the next few days.

“And if that dinner invitation is still open, I’d love to take you up on that. I really wasn’t lying about the movie with my parents - we do that once a month and you caught me on the one night! Call me tonight, my home number is 555-xxxx.”

We ended up together for almost 2 years.

So does a CHP office qualify?

#14

I met one girlfriend on a C64-based BBS called “The Crunchy Frog” in the eighties. I didn’t think that was too weird.

I met another (very long-term) girlfriend at Vancouver’s longest-running experimental radio program, for a “Valentine’s Day” themed show. Sounds sweet, doesn’t it? The longest presentation was a tape made by the inimitable GX Jupitter-Larsen of him whipping the bejesus out of a woman while she wailed away. My own contribution was titled Orgasm En Masse: The Jism Mechanism and was a multitrack pastiche of suggestive-sounding (but innocent) found audio that sounded positively obscene in aggregate.

I briefly went out with one girl that I met in a laundromat. The first thing she ever said to me was that she enjoyed sitting on the washer during the spin cycle.

My ex-girlfriend Larissa (Larry & Larissa! How cute! :rolleyes: ) is probably the one that I met in the weirdest place, though. We met for the first time and got to know each other while stripped naked, blindfolded and hoodwinked, bound at the wrists and ankles, tied back-to-back, and left alone in a small room for somewhere between forty-five minutes and an hour. Long story.

#15

C’mon, you can’t just leave it at that! You know we have to ask!

As for the oddest place for me, nowhere all that odd. I dated several guys I met at various LARP’s when I was more into that scene (wouldn’t mind getting into it again, met a lot of nice guys there), a co-worker of a friend and one of my co-workers, summer camp and chat rooms.

#16

I can’t top **Larry Mudd’s ** stripped and bound story (if we ever get to hear the rest of the story) but I met my spouse over a corpse during medical school anatomy class. We now have two kids and a mortgage and all the trappings.

#17

Shoot, getting married to the operator seems really lame at this point…

#18

Sorry. It was an initiation of a sort. I will just leave it at that.

#19

I worked at the college library while in RN school and I dated several men I met there. I met one man I dated 2 or 3 times, in a grocery store—he was the cheese rep for DairyFresh. I had dinner with a man I met at the mall—just walked up to me while I sat outside of OldNavy and we talked and talked and had something at Red Robin. I met several men at Bible Study classes. I went for coffee with a man I met while in Barnes and Noble and I met my husband off a Yahoo Personals ad.

#20

Well, I certainly can’t top Larry’s story, but I’ll contribute what I can.

Me: On stage, cracking jokes before singing lead in the company charity band at a Friday-night talent show fundraiser.

She: One of about 400 to 500 members of the audience.

She called my company the following Monday and asked to speak to the guy who fronted the band. The receptionist knew that was me and put her through. We started talking.

And we’ve yet to stop. We’ve been together eight years now. Of those eight, we’ve been married for six.