How did you meet??

[suzyq111]

Guys, keep the stories COMING!!! I'm LOVING them!!!! TOTALLY "awwwwwwwwwwwwww" moments in there!! KEEP IT UP!!!!

[Tim T]

I met my wife in high school during my sophomore year. We started dating our Jr. year and went to the prom together. Ended up in college together and got married two weeks after I graduated and 1 week before I started working in Indianapolis, IN. I have dragged her around the country for my job living in Los Angeles, back to Indy, to northern Indiana, Raleigh NC and now SE of Houston. Next week is our 25th anniversary and I love her more than the day that I married her and she is still my best friend.

[Joanna]

My husband and I met during high school when we went to the same church, but neither of us was single at the time. I asked him to my prom a few years later after finding out he was single again. I'd always had a crush on him, though, which he found amusing and cute when one of my friends blabbed it the first time she met him. We moved to San Antonio for school, moved in together, got engaged last April and just got married on May 6th of this year.

[Boomer]

We met on a blind date. I had a friend in summer school - his best friend's wife was in the same class.

They sat next to each other one day & started chatting, "My husband's friend just returned from overseas and is looking for someone to date . . ." "Well, I have a girlfriend who just ended a relationship . . ."

The rest, as they say, is history. Thirty five ( ! ) years, two amazing kids, four moves and lots of laughter later we're still going strong. And believe me, I've got the better end of this deal - he's terrific.

[Bella]

My husband and I met online . . in a video game. He lived in Atlanta at the time, I was in Houston. We had been chatting online (both in-game and through IMs) for 8-10 months before we started talking on the phone. Our phone calls continued for several more months, all the while I was resisting a relationship, partially because of the distance, mostly because of his age! (he's 12 years younger than I am, and I have 3 kids, two of them teenagers)

In May of 2004, he decided he was ready for a life change, so he moved here. I told him there were no promises, no guarantees. He said, "I'll just come for six months, then I can leave, or stay, depending on how I like it." He moved to Houston July 26, and our first real "date" . .. our first face to face meeting . .was at Sonic. LOL

Over the next few months he romanced the living daylights out of me! My kids didn't meet him til Thanksgiving of that year, but once they did, they thought he was "awesome!". Obviously, he was not going to leave when the six months were up!

In January, while at the mall, he pulled me into a jewellry store. We started looking at engagement rings and I pointed out a few that I liked. Over the next couple of weeks, he asked me about how I'd want to be proposed to . . and I really didn't have any suggestions. A couple of days after that, he called me at work, said he was going to have lunch with my parents, and could he stop by after that (my office was 5 minutes from my parents house). I said sure.

He walked in about two hours later, dressed in a suit, carrying a dozen red roses, got down on one knee and said "I realized the important thing wasn't *how* I asked, but *that* I asked. Will you marry me?"

I started crying and said yes! And my boss gave me the rest of the day off . .LOL. I found out that lunch was to ask for my parents permission, and the night before, he'd coralled my kids and asked for theirs as well! We got married in March 2005 and as I have told my friends who tease me about how's married life this time around . .. this is how it's supposed to be. He's my best friend, my biggest supporter, and best of all, he still romances me all the time.

-Cindy

[Paulo]

Awh, I'm really late on this response. Hope you're feeling better, Suzy!

Hmmm. Great topic:
I was working multiple jobs and had recently ended a very unhealthy 1 1/2 year relationship. As a way to start out fresh, I removed myself completely from the area and found work with the county that actually paid more than the 3 jobs I was working combined (and my ex- was my supervisor in one of those jobs). Oh yeah, fresh start!

Anyway, prior to me being hired into the department, my now-wife, was recently transfered to the group a month prior because they down-sized her department. When we first met, I thought she was very beautiful(still do) but we didn't exactly hit it off right away. She was very reserved and took a while before she actually had a conversation with me. Being I was just out of a relationship, the last thing I was looking for was to start a new one right away but once we got to know one another, she became a really good friend. Both of us came from fairly traditional families. Her family is originally from Mexico and mine are from the Philippines. So about 8-9 months of talking and innocent lunch breaks, I started testing the waters regarding the idea of us getting together outside of work. Since nothing is ever easy for me, that didn't quite work out the way I had hoped. BUT we continued to be friends, talked, etc...And I would try again a month later...again...3 months later...again...8 months later...and then I just stopped trying. Untill one day, about 12-13 months after my very first try, I found out she had gotten a new job and would be leaving the company. Well, we were still talking on and off a few month prior but not like before but when I realized that this may be my last opportunity to ever see her again. I figured I'll give it one last shot... If she says "no" again this time, then I would just accept that it really wasn't meant to be...........Fortunately(& surprisingly), she said "yes". It's actually funny because I was so use to her saying "no" that my automatic 1st response was..."Well, that's ok may some other...wh-wait...did you say 'yes'?
Looking back, our first day seems pretty lame now but we both still remember it. We met each other at LOEW's Cinema on I-10/Silber to watch the movie "Raindeer Games". Besides it being our first date, it's was especially memorable because it was such an awful movie to us but I got to hold her hand for the very first time... We ended the evening after the movie with a hug (no kiss)...I called her the day after and scheduled our next date 2 1/2 weeks later. She was going to Spain for a 1 1/2 week long school trip and I was leaving to visit my parents for a few days about 1 day before she would be back in town. We kept our dates pretty simple, dinner/walking around The Strand in Galveston...Visiting the museums in Houston. The funny thing about it all was she would always just meet me at or near the place. She would never have me pick her up from her home. We did this for almost a year before I finally got to meet her parents for the first time at her home. Like I mentioned earlier...nothing was ever easy....

Anyway, we both hit it off immediately with each other's families. That was so important to us. We dated for almost 5 years before I decided to propose to her on her birthday on Dec 2004... The proposal date was crazy as well. So weird to me that I wrote it down to share with my family and friends that could not attend:

From: Ortega, Paulo A
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 9:47 AM
To:
Subject: FW: December 22, 2004 engagement (The Story)


Hello clan. Just wanted to share the great story of December 22nd to those that could not make it. You all are sooo great. Thank you to those that were able to make it....

After almost 5 years of courtship, I've finally gathered the finances and courage to ask Marisela, my sweetheart, to marry me. On Wednesday, December 22, 2004, dinner arrangements for two were made at a wonderful Latin venue called Americas located on Post Oak near the Galleria. Great lengths were taken to ensure that Marisela was aware that we were only going there to celebrate her birthday. After some planning and what seemed like 100's of emails and phones calls between friends, family, and restaurant manager, everything was set.
I left my apartment, dressed in my best attire with the ring box, greeting card and rose in my pocket. After arriving at her home, I decided that the bulkiness of the ring box was too noticeable. Already nervous, I decided not to take the ring out of the box to avoid losing it but instead, concealed the box within my left sock just below my calf. It was very uncomfortable but the plan worked. Once we left her home, ring box wedged in my left sock, the rose thorns in my coat pocket stabbing my chest since I forgot to remove them, I began our romantic evening by accidentally running into the steel grill guard of a parked SUV as I was parking at the restaurant. The thought of "Why didn't I just valet" came to mind but it was too late. Fortunately, it was a full size Tahoe and I was in a 1999 Nissan Altima so, of course, no damage occurred except to my poor old license plate cover. Not quite what I had in mind to start the evening but we survived. Next, we were kindly greeted by the hostess of the restaurant and immediately seated in a great corner table away from most of the dinning traffic. The service was wonderful as expected since it was a great place and I had secretly informed them of my proposal plan prior to that evening. After enjoying a lovely appetizer, with the ring box still firmly wedged against my skin within my sock, the rose still stabbing me with it's thorns and me struggling to ensure my discomfort and nervousness was concealed from Marisela, it came time to order our entrees. Conducting my best attempts to small talk strictly about us being there for her birthday and how special she was to me as to not give away my true intent for that evening, our entrees came out much sooner than I anticipated. However, the more surprising event to both of us was my younger brother, apparently misunderstanding the TIME and LOCATION of the surprise, comes walking up to our table just as we were about to eat. Now, you can imagine our shock and horror, as well as his, as what I thought the ruin of all my hard work in planning. Luckily, he only said hello in a surprised manner and I managed to blurt out to Marisela that he was here to meet a friend for dinner because earlier in the week, he heard me going on and on about how wonderful this place was. With the look of shock still on my sweetheart's face, I quickly excused myself and 'kindly' walked my brother away from the table by the back of his neck. As I was leading him to the stairwell, constantly reminding myself in my mind over and over again how much I really love my kid brother and killing him right then would truly take the romanticism out of the evening, I spoke to him in our native language, tagalog, that the communication I secretly sent out to him and the rest of our family & close friends called for everyone to meet at the BAR on the FIRST LEVEL at 9:30pm and NOT at OUR TABLE on the SECOND LEVEL of the restaurant at 9pm. His embarrassment for himself and me was very apparent so it only took a few seconds for me to accept it was an accident and my forgiveness came immediately. After returning to my horrified but very near future fiancé, I explained the extremely ironic situation of him being at the same restaurant at the same time as when we were dinning. Since she was so worried that an emergency regarding my parents has occurred, she was very relieved to hear my explanation of nightmare that just happened. In light of it all, I guess I should be thankful because that whole situation actually gave me some relief that the ring box was still wedge against my skin, within my left sock and the rose still digging in my chest.

Moving on...

After that subsided and we were back in our romantic dinner mode, I was faced with the situation of how I was going to do this. Knowing that I was going to be too nervous that evening to truly express my love for her, I decided to write my proposal in a poem format 2 weeks prior. A poem that I was quite proud of. As my stress continued to increase on how to perfectly present everything to her, she politely excused herself from our table to use the washroom. Relieved, I thought to myself "God still love me!!!" This was perfect. Once she was out of sight, I pulled out everything except the ring box and set it on the table facing her, a beautiful while rose and the card containing my poem. I confirmed downstairs that all our friends and family were ready and removed all the thorns from the rose. As I was waiting for her to return, the seconds started to feel like hours and I just couldn't sit still for very long. Luckily, our waiter was nearby and knew what I was about to do so he came by and patted me on my shoulder and quietly reassure me " You're doing great, sir. You're doing great...". That helped. Only a few seconds passed after him stepping away, my sweetheart returned to our table. Seeing the card and rose, she automatically assumed it was a birthday card. Not saying anything, she opened the card and found that I had taped a pair of movie ticket stubs from our very first date as well as a dried up flower from the very first flower arrangement I gave her. All of which I had saved for almost five years in anticipation for this evening. Then she sees the poem I wrote and proceeds to silently read it to herself. Not wanting the true intent of the poem to be immediately evident, I had taped a piece of paper over that important question. As she peeled the paper off, I was able to walk up right beside her unnoticed, ring box open in my hand and get down on one knee just as she looked up after read those words "Will you marry me?". Oh how wonderful it was to have her first of responses be....."Are you kidding me?"....."Are you serious?"....."Is that (ring) for real?".....and finally... " Yes! Yes! I will marry you." Beautiful words that I will never forget. We were then treated by the staff with complementary champagne and I closed out our bill. As we left our table to head downstairs to our awaiting loved ones, it occurred to me that I completely forgot to work out a signal of when we were heading down. Fortunately, the entire time Marisela and I were there, the hostess of the bar on the first level and the hostess in the restaurant on the second level had been communicating the entire event to everyone downstairs via two-way radios. As we descended down that stairs, we were greeted with numerous cheers and applause and everyone enjoyed complimentary glasses of champagne again.

It was indeed an extremely nerve-racking and wonderful experience.


Sincerely,
Paul Ortega

And the rest is history.... 18 months into our marriage and my sun still rises and sets in her eyes....

And on that note, I will now leave my "MAN" card at the door....

[suzyq111]

Paulo, thats adorable!!
Cindy, you got a big ol AWWWWWWWW from me!!!!

Ya'll these stories are great!! :) love that i'm getting to know ya'll better!!! YAY!!!!

[boomerd35]

We met my first week of college. I'll just share this little story. We talked a couple of times that week, and she mentioned she was going to the movie showing at the student center one night. I was going to the movie anyway, and her dorm was on the way to the student center. So I tried to time my walk to the movie hoping that I would walk past her dorm at the same time she might be walking out. Wouldn't you know, perfect timing. "Hey, what a coincidence! I"m going to the movie too." I still believe that if I was a half step slower or faster that night, my life would have been completely different.

Where's your story, Suzy?

[zach-e2]

Needless to say, there's much hope in reading stories like these! The youth of the world, but moreso America, need to find themselves reading these.

[bjarrell]

I was transfered to Venezuela in 1991 by my company. Gery was working in the procurement department. I asked a friend if he could introduce me. For about 2 weeks I asked her to lunch almost every day, but she kept giving me some excuse. Well, one day she told me she had brought her lunch, so I went to the local german restaurant. As I was sitting there, in walks Gery. I guess she was so embarrassed about getting caught lying, that she sat down with me. My charm must have worked it's magic, because she agreed to go out with me that night. We went to dinner, then to a jazz club around the corner. We got married a year later in Venezuela and have been inseparable for the last 15 years.

Thank god Venezuela doesn't have any stalking laws!

[studiocygnet]

Originally Posted by zach-e2

Needless to say, there's much hope in reading stories like these! The youth of the world, but moreso America, need to find themselves reading these.

Yeah, these are great stories. I thought I was unusual being married 22+ years, but there are a lot of long relationships storied here.