Dan and I met on ICQ in July 1998.

 

I was about to move out of my parents house and was showing my best-friend how to install and use ICQ so we could "chat" while I was away.

 

I only had people on my list that I knew personally, I never searched for random people or wanted random people to find me. I thought Internet dating was for losers! But lo and behold, she wanted to search for a random person and start talking. So she searched through a few people's descriptions that came up, and the 3rd one (a charm of course) said "Male, 21 Physics major, likes running, lifting weights, computers" etc.

 

She started "talking" to him. I sat in the room reading a book or something, and occasionally she'd say "Hey, he goes to school at XYZ. Don't you know someone who goes to school there?" I just blew it off and said "uh huh". After an hour of talking with him she got bored, so I talked to him for a few minutes and cut it off.

 

The next day I was home (packing) and he was home sick from work and school and we "talked" online for 8 hours.

 

The rest, as they say, is history :)

 

We met a few times by the end of the year.  In January 1999 we were living together in another state (another state for BOTH of us), and we were married in Sept 2000.

 

Now, of course, I see the validity in "meeting" someone online. Neither of us is the ideal physical type that we were attracted to (prior to meeting each other anyway) and while we both find each other "cute," if we had seen each other in another setting we probably wouldn't have even said "hi". By not having an awkward physical barrier we were able to talk about feelings, thoughts, and ideas which comprise the true spirit of a person - and isn't love about that and not how tall or short someone is?

 

Gretchen