We finally meet!
What is your oldest online relationship?
That sounds kind of creepy, doesn’t it?!
This weekend, I finally got to meet Courtney. The triad is now officially complete! Hee hee hee.
Gina, Courtney and I have been communicating with each other since winter of 2006! I’m sure I’ve told this story before, but here we go again. I started my blog just before then to keep in touch with people when I lived in Rome. One of my classmates in Rome had an msn blog, found Gina, and recommended her blog to me because it was about her cat. And derp. I like cats. So I started talking to Gina, and Courtney had an msn blog too (and also had cats), and boom, there you go. United! By cats!
And was so nice to finally meet Courtney! I mean, we have done google hangouts before, but that is not quite the same. Courtney has such a sarcastic sense of humor but lays it out so sneaky and sweet. Muah ha ha ha. I loves* it. I mean, she is sweet too, but I can appreciate some sarcasm.
Back to my original question. I was thinking that might be my longest online relationship, but I wonder if I have been talking to kapgar since fall of 2005. My old hand-coded blog lost all of it comments when the comment app I was using discontinued, so we will have to rely on memory.
And as I mentioned before, I also got to meet a long-time blogging friend when I was in Salt Lake City (SLC) – Marty! Again, not sure on the exact length of our online relationship, but I found him through bloggers I found right away when I started blogging in summer of 2005, so it must be another long one.
Marty’s so easy to talk to! I really enjoyed all of the times I got to see him in SLC – for a run that Thursday, vegan cafe for lunch on Friday, at the race and brunch on Saturday. We had some really good conversations, and I hope I see him again so we get to continue them. He is teasing me about training for the SLC Half Marathon in 2014. I would totally do that race again! I loved running it solo and imagine and would be even more fun with a friend!
And I just have to mention this because it is so bizarro. My mom’s flight to SLC was über delayed. Like, so much that she got there a day late (Thursday instead of Wednesday , and a few minutes after me. And that was after connecting through a completely different airport (due to a snowstorm in the one she was originally supposed to connect in). Blah! Too many details!
Anyways… my mom’s connecting flight ended up being in Dallas. I was connecting in Dallas. Gina was in the Dallas airport with her family for a flight to NYC. My mom’s flight continued to be delayed, so! She finally got to meet Gina and Steve and Luca!!! That is a fun way to spend time in the airport!
My mom is so cute. I talk so much about Gina and her family that my mom thought they had already met before. Muah ha ha. Nope.
So I was thinking of titling this post “Not everyone online is a creep!” but thought that might get me some strange search results. But isn’t it funny how you can make such close relationships with people just through online communication? Even before Skype was popular? Just relying on the written word? That’s pretty neat!
Pssst, I am so slammed right now that you might not see me much online for awhile… but I am trying and will catch up! That’ll be me, commenting on posts that are over a week old…
*Purposeful typo.
Themocracy
<—always commenting a week late 🙂 I love that you can keep a digital relationship going for so long!
Phew! So you understand! I think I still need to read your marathon post… and did you do another this weekend?! 🙂
I have two online friends I met back in the late ’90s on a band’s message board (I was really cool in HS ;)). We used to keep in touch on the message board and ICQ and then eventually on AIM and now on FB, twitter, and Instagram. One of them actually lives in Chicago now! We’ve never met in person and I’ve never skyped before but we still keep in touch.
So very cool you’ve gotten to meet so many of your online friends!
That is so neat! Do you guys have plans to try to meet up?
I guess my oldest connection would be someone I met in college, so 12+ years ago. She saw me on campus with an obscure band t-shirt and posted on their message board/e-mail list about it and we eventually met up! I guess that’s what started it all!
I can relate to this! I met my college BFF randomly through ICQ. We are still friends!!
Ha! That is so cool! Missed Connections!!!
I used to talk with a girl I met through a babysitters club newletter pen-pal thing. We wrote legit letters to each other. Once AIM came around we would chat and then we were connected through our livejournals. Then she got arrested and I never heard from or about her again- weird, right. Yeah.
The person I have known longest online that I currently (sometimes) connect with, is Morgan. We both started our blogs in Feb 2009 and found each other pretty much right away.
HA HA HA. Wait. What did she get arrested for?!
Ahh! What is Morgan’s blog name? I should know!
That is so cool!!! I honestly don’t know, I didn’t really make online relationships until I started my blog this year. I’ve pretty much met everyone who I regularly communicated with. I want an online buddy!!
Creeper.
But yes, I feel like I talk about my Internet friends like IRL friends but then the Internet friends become IRL friends and I get confused. I’m not sure about my longest one. It might have to be Mark since we met on match and I so didn’t want to have to pick that. Pretty sure Bobbi is one of my longest commenting peeps though.
My oldest online relationship is from 1999! We met on a message board when I was just a freshman in college. She was from the UK, but spending a semester at a school in Virginia, so we talked on the phone while she was still in the US, but stopped when she went back home b/c it would’ve been too expensive (is that even an issue anymore?), so we kept in touch via mail (also old-school), email and AIM, and eventually Facebook. She ended up moving to Wisconsin several years ago, but we’ve still never met in person 14 years later!
I remember when I got a cell phone in high school and paid for it myself so I could call a friend who moved away to college… like 45 miles away. Times have changed!
Wow! She lives in WI and you still have not met?!
I just had to remind myself that you’re a few years younger than me – cell phones weren’t really around when I was in high school, so I was confused for a minute 🙂
I was just THAT high tech and sophisticated… riiiiight
My best running friend and best friend, I met online through Dailymile. When I joined Daily mile, I saw other runners from my town and I saw this girl. I became her friend through daily mile and then convinced her to come out to my running group. its so funny we met online! But now we are best friends!
Oh my gosh! I did not realize that is how you two met! Awesome!
(I met all my besties online too :))
I feel like if I hung out with my blogger friends in person I’d get along with some of them better than I’d get along with some of my friends I’ve met in person. Bloggers be good people. Glad you had a great time meeting your blogging friends face to face!
You probably would! I hope I get to meet up with you one of these days 🙂
How fun! I swear that 90% of my Seattle friends came from on line. I’m so grateful! I have very rarely had a bad meet up experience with someone I met on line (excluding on line dating, different bag).
I have a large group of women I have known since planning my wedding in 2003/04. We have a private message board, used to do huge get togethers even after we had kiddos. So those are probably my longest online relationships. Some of those I have never met in person.
🙁 And I won’t be in WI on Saturday. Hip hurts to much. Got the credit for next year though!
That is so totes awesome your momma even got to meet Gina! I love how you are able to make friends every place you go 🙂 my “online” friends are relatively new- basically since starting the blog and moving to Chicago. If it weren’t for the blog/twitter, I wouldn’t know anyone here!!! Yay for online “dating!”
When I was in high school my sis and I posted on this message board called Roxydoll and actually met a few of the girls on there when I was in college. It was kinda weird but we still keep in touch with a few of them to this day.
Aside from that, I have met so many great people through the blog in the last two years – including you!
I was blogging on another site in 2001. I am still in touch with many of those peeps today. Many of us have had kids/gotten married, etc.
I also have a group of moms I met in a preggo forum. We’ve been together over 8 years now. We had a group trip where we met for the first time when the kids were a year old. Since then we’ve had many girls’ trips around the country. Many, many great friendships are forged online. Creepers unite!
2005 could be right. I’d have to check my comments and see when my first from you came through. As for my oldest, they’d be you, Dave, SJ, and Johnkneesee. I’m at 50%.
I will be getting that shirt “I hate pushups”.
I hope that isn’t weird.
I hope one day we meet too!!!! I’m a bit sarcastic, well okay, a lot sarcastic….but I think we’d get along great!
It is not weird at all! Did you find it?!
We would get along so great, it would probably be scary.
P.S. At first I spelled great as “grate.” Sigh. What a Monday.
Yay! That’s so great that you finally got meet Courtney in person. Seems crazy to think you’d known each other for that long but hadn’t met IRL, right?
I don’t really keep in that great of touch with the people I first started meeting online back in 2001/2002 or so. Most of us are at such different points in our lives that we have sort of grown apart. I’m always impressed when people can stay close for so long!
Lol, that shirt still cracks me up. I’m glad you like it!
I think you, Kapgar, Dave2, Karl and Winterheart are all blogs I started reading back in 2006.
As for online relationships, there is someone I met online back in 1998 that I still talk to today (met on a tech chat room on Yahoo).
As for meeting you, I thought it was cool we got to hang out each day you were here. Thank you for the kind thoughts. I’m glad that I’m easy to talk to and get along with.
And I’m serious about the 2014 SLC 1/2 Marathon. For me to get into the ultimate shape and build up my stamina over the next 11 months would be great for me, but it will give me a chance to run with a seasoned expert. 🙂
I wonder if they have released the dates for the half marathon yet! We should put it on our calendars once they do! How has your running been lately? 🙂 Thanks for thinking of me as a “seasoned expert” 😉
It looks like registration is open. It’s now on my calendar.
http://www.active.com/running/salt-lake-city-ut/salt-lake-city-marathon-half-marathon-5k-bike-tour-and-kids-marathon-1k-2014
My running and gym visits for May were interrupted by allergies and a week in Cabo San Lucas. So June is a refocus month.
I put it on my calendar too! We can discuss more at the beginning of 2014! Woo hoo!
Start to refocus now! 🙂