Do you meet up with internet friends in reall life?

[herbgeek]

I'm meeting with a couple of people from this board, one I've met before, and someone completely new. Over the years, I've met a handful of people in real life from various boards. A few have lived in my area, one was passing through evaluating co-housing options, and one I met when I was vacationing in Arizona. I'm not particularly gregarious, so I find it a little awkward at first.

What about you? Have you met internet friends? Have they become real life friends?

[Tussiemussies]

Am hoping to get a gathering together of all the New Jersey people on the board eventually!

Met pony mom recently and she was just the sweetest and funny!

[Jilly]

I have, from a medical site I run, and one of them, although she lives a couple of hours away, has become a good friend. We get together several times each year and talk on the telephone.

Another woman lives on the other side of the country. We talk at least once a month. Three years ago (I think) I organized a weekend and we spent a nice time together. It was so much work and I am hoping to do it again next summer.

One guy turned out to be, well more weird than even me. :D We have stayed in touch and I have come to know his family.

The rest of the people at the weekend get-together are still on-line friends, but aside from our disability there is nothing else to hold us together as friends. Just as in real life, I guess.

[Stella]

Definitely. I've met a few people from this board and would love to meet all of you.

I also have a facebook group I am part of that has started having a monthly playgroup. That was really fun. It's a local thing, so while I hadn't met any of the moms before, we actually did discover some friend-of-friend type connections. Actually, I noticed the other day that one of the moms from that group is facebook friends with someone on this board. Small world.

[Tradd]

I've met several IRL. Others are a plane ride away, but we hope to meet someday. I've got a group of very close online friends. We talk, text, email, and interact on Facebook constantly.

I met one woman last winter who I'd known online for about 8 years. It was wonderful. We just picked up yakking like we'd seen each other just a few weeks before. :) She was in my city for business, so we met for lunch, and I gave a her a bit of a walking tour of the nearby big city, where we had lunch.

[redfox]

Yup! I met some folks from the PNW who are on this board. I also have scores of FB friends that I've not met IRL, but whenever I travel to their regions, I arrange a coffee date. This is an extrovert's definition of fun!

[fidgiegirl]

Just from ICQ in about 1998! And from AOL Instant Messenger! Haha!

Would love to meet some of you!

[goldensmom]

I've never done so but I think I'd enjoy meeting up with some SL-ers.

[cdttmm]

I have several friends that I met online when we were all training for triathlons. I met them IRL several times, once when we all traveled to Oregon to race together. Although our lives have changed dramatically since then, we still keep in touch and see each other occasionally.

I would love to meet people from this board. There are a number of us in New England, and Massachusetts more specifically, and it would be fun to get together. I'd also like to meet the Twin Cities contingent at some point when I'm home in MN to see my family.

[Stella]

I'd be up for that cdttmm. A Twin Cities get-together would be fun.

[CathyA]

I guess I have too low a self-esteem to meet anyone. I have a cyber friend that I am really close to......we've been through alot together and have been emailing for about 10 years now. I know its weird, but I think for both of us, its what we prefer, being sort of socially uncomfortable. Who knows.........maybe in person, we wouldn't even like each other.
I was sort of forced into meeting someone once, that I had only talked to online. We had actually gone to the same high school, although didn't know each other then. Her husband had a job in a city near here and she came to visit him. We met up for lunch, and it was actually very nice. But I haven't talked to her much since. Like ships passing in the night......hahaha

[fidgiegirl]

Yes, we tried one a while back but it never really gelled. We should give it another shot.

[Rosemary]

Twin Cities SLers... Let's plan it and actually set a date this time!

[fidgiegirl]

Ok. Are people too busy in Dec? Shoot for Jan.?

[herbgeek]

It's funny: when I met up with Merski and Cypress today, we were talking about you MN folks, and we thought you all got together regularly!

[fidgiegirl]

It's funny: when I met up with Merski and Cypress today, we were talking about you MN folks, and we thought you all got together regularly!

LOL!

[Mighty Frugal]

I met a bunch of moms I knew from a multiple miscarriage site I used to belong to. We all thankfully became moms after MMC and met in Chicago a few years ago. Women from all over the States and Canada. It was a wonderful 4 days.

I am still very close to one of those moms from Tennessee. We email twice a week and skype and try to coerce each other to visit.

Ive also met a bunch of moms from a Canuck mom site I belong to. These moms are all in the GTA so easy to meet up (no plane ride) first time was super awkward (think arriving late and a bunch of women standing in a circle talking and laughing. I am soooo not a 'circle-breaker')

But the second time was a lot of fun! Less women, I arrived on time and it was for dinner so we were all sitting-equal playing field...easy for me to charm them with my wit and profound thoughts.:~)

[SteveinMN]

Twin Cities: January works better for us, I think...

I've met people from other sites IRL. It's always been interesting and most of the friendships have stuck for years. In fact, on the trip we were planning to make around Thanksgiving, one stop was going to be a guy I "met" 15+ years ago on a specific computer site; we've been friends for years, but we've never actually met. Someday in the not-too-distant future, I hope!

[pony mom]

Tussiemussies and I had a really nice evening out. It was great to talk to someone who actually "gets" this whole Simple Living thing. And she doesn't think I'm weird for washing my hair with baking soda.

We emailed back and forth before meeting and it turns out that we lived about 5 miles apart when we lived in our previous homes! Small world.

C'mon other NJ members! Let's meet up! How about western PA near route 80? You're not that far from us.

[Float On]

I've met quite a few people and really enjoyed it, none from this board though.

[Stella]

January would work better for me too for the Twin Cities gathering. Suggestions on where to meet?

[SteveinMN]

January would work better for me too for the Twin Cities gathering. Suggestions on where to meet?
Well, we probably need a little time for others to chime in (cdttmn [sp?], heydude, whoever), but I know Kelli and are on the east side of the metro; you're on the westerly side. Would we be thinking coffee or a restaurant meal or a pot-luck (my choice) or ... ?? January, unfortunately, knocks out meeting in a park or such, though I suppose we could try someplace like Edinborough in Edina (indoor park).

[Blackdog Lin]

One time only have I met someone I corresponded with online.....but it turned out kinda memorable.

We were fortunate enough to get to travel to the Caribbean in '06, and I had researched it extensively, and had joined a forum specific to our destination, to ask questions from. One lady was going to be in the islands the same time period as us and mentioned we should get together, but we never made any concrete plans.

Lo and behold, on one of our day-trips to a neighboring island, we get settled on our georgous beach in front of a "famous" beach bar and I pull out my beer-bottle coozie that I had purchased from the forum (with their logo on it) from my backpack.....and a lady in the middle of a raucous group of people came over and said "you're not Lin, are you? I saw your coozie, and I think we corresponded online." And I said "Barb?" and she says yes and darned if her whole family/group didn't take us under their wing for the day and treated us like family, and we played beach games and ate wonderful beach-shack food and drank way too much beer and in all had one of our most memorable and fun days of that vacation.

Basically though, I'm much too shy and introverted to try to get together with online acquaintances.

[CathyA]

Wow......that's pretty amazing Blackdog Lin!

This is a bit different, but when I and my boyfriend (in l972) were in the train station in Oslo, Norway, we ran into people from our town. Pretty amazing.
Sounds like you had a great experience meeting a SLN fellow member! Have you kept in touch? Is she still around here?

[shadowmoss]

Back in the day I met Jonathan and his wife at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair, seems like maybe 2 different years. I've met several people from my on-line life IRL. Not too disappointed ever. Some folks who are great writers are quiet IRL. With Jonathan I felt that I wasn't as clever IRL as I must have seemed back then on the board. I keep trying to meet Iris Lilly, but when I go through her area I'm usually on a mission and/or have my Mom with me.

[citrine]

I would love to have NJ meetup!

[decemberlov]

I'm a big Dave Matthews fan and have met a few people that I chat with on that forum. We setup a camping trip in Pittsburgh and went to a concert together this past summer. It was tons of fun!!

[jennipurrr]

Back in the late 90s when I was 17 I met a guy I knew virtually. We weren't romantically involved just liked the same music and were the same age and had connected through that and "chatted" a lot. He was coming through my town on a cross country trip with his dad. My parents were very freaked out. I'm pretty sure his dad was freaked out too. My boyfriend at the time came with me and once we established none of us were axe murders in real life, we had a fun evening together. We ate dinner, went to a creepy cemetary nearby with unmarked graves and drank some crappy alcohol. I guess that was the best tour my 17 year old self could think to give. We lost touch over the years but I had a good experience meeting someone online. Its always weird when I hear stories about people being completely different than their online personas. What's the point? Well I guess I know the point, but me and this dude had fun being ourselves.

I've never met anyone from this board. Its always interesting to see peoples pictures so I can put a face with a "username"

[SteveinMN]

Its always interesting to see peoples pictures so I can put a face with a "username"
Says the lady with a cat for an avatar. :welcome:

[treehugger]

I haven't met any from this board, but I do have 5 life-long "heart" friends who all live in the Bay Area, and who I have traveled with (and will travel with again). We would never have met if not for an online book club that started way back in 2001. We get together about once a month and I can't wait to see them again! Next month is our annual holiday tea at one member's house in Yountville (Napa Valley).

Kara

[Gregg]

Next month is our annual holiday tea at one member's house in Yountville (Napa Valley).


We love Yountville, such a cool little town. We make an annual trip there just to have dinner at our favorite restaurant. Well, we see some friends, too.