47. Didn’t. Stopped looking. If they exist they’re going to have to walk in to me physically and be very obvious because I’m not even looking for signs any more.

Met my wife at a dungeon. Shot my shot at two women at the same time and the fool who thought it was charming even managed to get tricked into marriage.

Met my best friends by answering an ad looking for other lesbians to play d&d during the pandemic. Those of us who showed up and stayed wound up forming extremely strong friendships.

My cat: Shelter. He came right up on my lap purring, never did it again. Con artist.

My wife: art gallery

Fucking Facebook. We went to different high schools on opposite sides of town so we were completely unaware of each others’ existence despite attended the same church and having overlapping friend groups. A few years after high school we were both fresh out of bad relationships and living back home with our respective parents, we happened to start talking in the comments on a mutual acquaintance’s post, compared notes and found that we were very similar people in very similar places in our lives and decided to meet up to get baked and commiserate. The first night we met in person I was planning to hang out for an hour or two then go to work, third shift loading trailers for Fedex. I ended up calling out of work, we sat up all night together just talking, parted at sunrise with the observation that both of us had a good feeling about this. Within 3 months we had moved in together and were also coworkers. That was 12 years ago, other than a 6 month break a few years in we’ve been up each others’ asses nonstop ever since.

We were at 6th form college together (UK 16-18). We began seeing each other when we were 18. That was 26 years ago.

Married 20 years almost

Semi-blind date. We were setup by a friend of mine that worked with her.

At the time, I was not in a good place and really was not interested in dating. My plan was to meet her, go to dinner, go to a movie then disappear. Why didn’t I just say “No” to the date? My friend is a former Navy SEAL and is not one to give up… Ever. It was just easier for me to say “yes” to the date, go, then go back to my life.

Life had other plans. We met at Newport on the Levee, which is an entertainment/ Shopping complex located right on the Ohio river in Newport, KY. This was in 2004 and the complex was brand new and very popular. So when we exited the restaurant we discovered the line for the movie theater was literally out the door and that was on top of a back and forth line near the box office. So we decided to go to the Barnes and Nobles and get hot chocolate. Neither of us like coffee. We sat down and talked… For THREE hours. It was the best conversation I’ve ever had with another human being.

We’ve been together ever since and that was in 2004. We have two boys and live 400 miles away from the Cincinnati area now.

OK Cupid 10 years ago next week.

In the local pub. I was in my mid-30s. Now married with kids, mortgage and a dog. All I ever wanted tbh.

Say what you want about pubs and alcohol, but I’ll take that encounter over a swipe on an app any day.

She hired me.

Cats: went to the cat shelter and chose them.

Though to be fair, only one of my cats chose me. The other I just fell in love with and had to take him even though he was hissing and scared and shit. He’s since turned into a cuddle bug

She lived in an entirely different city across the country (Europe, so like two hours of train ride).

She saw me on Facebook, based on photos from a goth festival in our city, so I got a message on Messanger from a profile without a profile picture and no mutual friends. We talked for a bit, I was single at the time, and we eventually decided to meet. I had no idea how she looks like, and I kind of found this idea of a blind date funny - either it works, or I’ll get a good story out of it.

We decided to meet and go to a local goth scene hangout, and not only she was really pretty, she also brought two bottles of mead. We managed to drink both of them before even getting to the hangout, where it turned out that she was actually not only a classmate of my best friend (a long time ago), but also used to be part of the scene around 5 years ago (before I joined it), before she went no-contact and changed her nickname due to a relationship (that eventually turned out really terrible). So, she knew most of my friends.

That was 7 years ago. At the time she was living in a small flat, after just getting out of a 7 y.o terrible relationship that she couldn’t leave due to having a mortgage, but she managed to save enough on a minimal wage to leave when she found out he was cheating. Her grandma was living with her in her small flat, and she was really a terrible person, even had her aunt with the most entitled child move in, and they were even worse. Always arguing, screaming, being rude, and just acting like dicks. She let them live with her, just because they had nowhere to go, even though she was earning a minimal wage. Them saying that “If we don’t like it, we should move out”, or that “I shouldn’t argue, because I don’t live here”, while I was actually helping her with rent they weren’t doing anything for was insane.

I kept visiting her almost daily, spending time in the one small 5x5m room she had for herself, even though it was two hour train ride. During covid, I was mostly staying at her place, and since she loved animals (her mother worked at a zoo, before cancer got her), we discussed what we want to get, and pet racoon was high on the list. And when she said that we will get a racoon once we live together, I immediately found a flat in my city, and we moved in together around 5 years ago. We stole the ashes of her mother and went no-contact with the people living at her old flat. They can burn in hell.

Unfortunately, racoons are not easily legal to own, but we got a lot of different animals instead. She also helped me with starting to make our own goth events, DJ, and help local promoters, and now we’re responsible for more than half of goth events that happen in our city. She’s now earning more that I do (and I work in IT), and I’m really happy how did everything turned out. We have no idea how did the rest of her familly end up, but we don’t really care.

We are kind of planning a wedding, with only witnesses, but so far what’s stopping is that I can’t find my birth certificate, and that it looks like it’s not possible for both of us to have both surnames (the options are one of us keeps theirs, and the other get’s both, or we choose one only, and we both want to have both), so we kind of didn’t want to bother with it for a while.

Although we are not formally engaged, we’ve been in love for a long time. We met each other in middle school on the telegram group of a YouTuber. It’s been 10 years now

“Insane asylum”, you know what i mean.

Dog 1 - followed me home while walking late at night with who I thought would be my forever person

Dog 2 - gifted by who I thought would be my forever person after talking about starting a family

Dog 3 - daughter to Dog 2…little rascal started his own family

I met my wife on IRC. She was attracted to the fact that I could spell. That was 25 years ago.