Loving these stories so much!

I'm actually 14.5 years younger than hubs. But I'm no trophy, unless it's thanks to YLF!

It's funny - at first we used to notice the age difference quite a lot, but it matters less and less as time goes on. The one thing that has been tricky or that we sometimes feel we miss out on because of our age difference is more "couple" friendships - you know, where you both really like and get on with both members of your friend couple. We have a few of these but we suspect it is tougher to establish those relationships.

this is fun to read... i was out riding my bike with 3 friends and DH was on the side of the road patching a flat tire on his bike. we stopped to ask if he needed any help. DH and i were also both married to different people at that time but became friends and he started cycling with our small club. After we were both separated it took forever for him to ask me on a real date that wasnt just meeting with other friends for a group bike ride.

How fun!
I met my FI at work. I was introduced to him as one of my mentors and was assigned to one of his cases, as a team member. I did not think anything of him, since I was in a very serious relationship at the time, engaged as a matter or fact and in the process of setting a wedding date. Plus, I did not find him attractive at all. As the case progressed, he became a friend and my go to person for all work related questions. One day, we decided to exchange personal phone numbers so we could coordinate work travel but I never called for any reason, until one day, I literally butt dialed him. That ended up being the longest phone conversation I had in my entire life but as fate had it , a couple weeks later, he ends up breaking his wrist in a freak accident at work. He ended up going on medical leave for almost 9 months. I don't even recall hearing anything from him. I might have emailed him once or twice but that was that. During this time, I broke off my engagement.

9 months later he shows up to find out I was single. He did not waste a minute. We ended up going to a hockey game, where we really hit it off and that was that. We still work together.

ETA: We have been together for about 9 years and engaged for about 4.

Suz, those couple relationships are tough for us, too - although we can't blame age for all of it, because we are both have some hermitish leanings. The other half of our band is a miracle!

Sarah and Zap, I am fascinated by these sorts of fated encounters. Not that I have tons of experience, but I've always been forward and an initiator. I literally kicked my first boyfriend in the shins because he would not hurry up and ask me out. Later, online dating was a Mission. I find your storeis so sweet and romantic in comparison!

Suz, I have pretty much always been age-blind; I've adopted many of Alec's friends as mine, and vice versa. (Although 11 years isn't SO much.) A lot of our friendships are based on kids, though - so long as the kids are the same age and like each other, it all works out!

Oh drat, Suz you beat me. I'm 13 years younger than bf. It works because a) we're both childlike (I like to think like Helena Bonham Carter and Tim Burton) or b) my smarts and his age balance each other out.

Or c) he's actually an original slacker... hehe

DH and I worked at neighboring stores in the mall while we were at University. He worked in an arcade, which didn't need much supervision, and would spend most of his time in my store talking with me. But he was so shy and hesitated to ask me out for so long that finally we went out for a drink after work because of a bet (a childish one of who could close their registers out first after closing time).

We've now been married 15 years with three children.

This is so interesting! A lot of people met in university it seems... well I married my professor too, 13 yr my elder, except I ended up divorcing him. The age difference, as well as status and financial differences between us was too great and I suffered from it. Also, people around us had been shocked at our relationship despite the fact that when we started dating it was 3 years after I had graduated. It didn't help.

Then I met my DH, a diplomat, at a book signing. He came to my table and asked me why should he read my novel? Then I thought "No! My novel is not serious enough... " but I kept the conversation going because he was so charming. And so interesting! Still is.

Aww, I love these stories! They make my heart all mushy.

I have no story to share - yet.

Cradle robbers

(whoops did I say that??--LOL)

This is such fun!

I met my DH at a house warming party. We were all flight attendants, but I thought DH was a "ramper" or airline mechanic because of his jeans and cowboy boots! We never really talked at the party, but I remember thinking he was cute. He left early (he still doesn't like late nights).

Two days later I screwed up my trip bid and 'accidentally' wound up on a 4-day trip with DH. I was livid with crew scheduling and was trying to get off the trip on the jetway phone (I had a date with a pilot on day two back in my base)! They forced me to stay on the trip and we all ended up having a great time. Everyone was really junior except for me, and the entire crew went out on every overnight. I still remember the cities we laid over in, NYC, Ottawa and Kalamazoo MI. Nothing happened between me and DH on the trip, but at the end, we all exchanged phone numbers.

When I got home, I was doing laundry and cleaning my apartment with deep conditioner in my hair and a mask on my face. On a lark, I called DH just to talk. He said, "I'm heading out the door right now to happy hour at the Marriott. Tell me where you live and I'll come get you!" I back-pedaled really fast and told him I was a mess and really had just called to visit with him while I cleaned. We argued for a few minutes and but was SO persistent! Finally I gave in and gave him my address.

After that night (yes, he kissed me!) I dropped my seniority to his and we flew ALL our trips together. A year to the day later, he proposed to me in the first class galley of a 737 as we were landing at sunset in Myrtle Beach. It was really pretty romantic! *sigh* We married 6 months later and just celebrated our 20 year anniversary last September. Did I answer your question? Oh, and even though I had been at the airline longer than him, he's 8 years older than me.

ETA: Pic of us, moments after landing, telling our folks the news. Pardon my hair. It was early 1990.

I have been following this thread all day long. Such great stories! And after Clearlyclaire's airplane adventure, here is another one. I met my husband on a plane 24 years ago. I flew from Switzerland to the United States (first time) to teach French at a university, for just one year. Since my entire family lives in Switzerland, I was determined to go back after one year. My DH came from India to the States (also first time) for his Ph. D. in Aerospace, after which he was also determined to go back. Well, that was that. We met before even landing and our plans to go back vanished very quickly after that. We decided that the US were neutral ground for us, no one having the home advantage, and stayed. Our 2 kids have flown around the world just to keep up with our families on three continents.

These stories are so interesting and fun to read. I met DH after living in Israel for about 2 years. We worked at the same internet start up and he was about to leave to go to a new job. He was supposed to train me to do some of his job. What a joke! He is a software engineer and I am not. Anyway, every time someone left this start up we would all go out for drinks, so I still saw DH plenty, but it took us a long time to start dating. But here we are 3 kids and 12 years of marriage later.

This is so much fun to read. Claire, you were so cute, I can hardly stand it!:-)
I was 20 and at university. We have planned a short cross country ski backpacking trip to celebrate New Year with friends. Valery was the only person in our group I have never met before: by that time he has already graduated and worked as a teacher. We all spent 3 or 4 wonderful days skiing, laughing and yakking in the forest and decorating the most miserable little spruce tree for New Year Eve eve though the forest was full of beautiful and magnificent trees. I did not give Valery more thought that anybody else in the group though until we got back into the city. We all stayed the night in one of the girl's room in the residence because our train arrived very late and we could not got home. Somehow while everybody else was sleeping Valery and I got talking into the dawn and both of us were struck how similar we are in tastes, interests and thoughts. It was like we were ending each other thoughts.
Next day he found me at the university, we went for a walk after my classes and this is how it all started in January. He proposed in February, I was thinking for 2 more months (remember, I was only 20!) , said "Yes" in April and we were married in July - and it will be 24 years this July!

We met in college as well. We've been together for over 12 years, nearly 6 of it married. The funny thing is, my parents met in college as well (and so did hubby's) so I kind of always assumed that's the norm. It is interesting to read all of your stories.

have absolutely nothing to contribute, but this has been a very fun thread to read! Keep the stories coming!

Awww this was such a sweet read! I really am enjoying reading everyone's stories ^^

Well, I think I'm the only one who got together with mine in high school so far? We got together senior year; I knew who he was all the way back to middle school (didn't like him at ALL back then!), though he didn't know me. We had a mutual friend who never introduced us but he would rave about how cool my hubby was (he's still super cool!). So when we had a shared class, I simply introduced myself The rest is history as they say! We dated 7 years, got married on our 7-year anniversary, and have been married for 6.5 years <3

I met my fiancé in my hometown (Silicon Valley), while he was on a business trip there. We connected through an Internet personals ad. It was summertime and I was bored; and he was bored after his work meetings while his peers were out drinking (he does not drink.) So we met up for coffee one night, and really hit it off. He was in town for 5 days and I saw him every day. When he left to go back home, I thought that was the end of it.

We ended up talking on the phone and AIM constantly, and we decided that I would visit him in his hometown of Chicago (much to the chagrin of my terrified mother). I spent a couple wonderful days in Chicago, then came home, and he asked me to be his girlfriend through AIM. This started our long distance relationship.

Eventually I decided to finish university in Chicago and to be near him. I transferred schools, packed up and moved. My family thought I had completely lost my mind...

We've been together 5 years and are getting married this August.

Oooh. LOVE these stories. Claire, that picture made me smile so wide I almost cried.

IK, yeah, I am (we are) pretty age blind, too (that is how you get into these relationships in the first place, I guess!) and half my own personal friends are a lot older than me and half younger. And the "couple friends" we have do tend to be people with kids around the age of our daughter, though not exclusively so. In some cases it is people who share one or both of our work lives.

Most of the time I think it is a great advantage to be slightly different ages. We really enrich each others' frames of reference.

OK guys, this ad selection process is hilarious. I'm getting an ad for "BF Naughty, meet local singles". What tha????? I guess it is due to the content of this thread. Check this out:

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but my husband and I met playing a text adventure game way back in the dark ages of the internet. Apparently he had a thing for saucy wenches who carried claymores.

I no longer carry the sword, but he's stuck around...14 years, 2 children and a fish later.

Oh, and while I'm getting all my embarrassing personal oddities out there...yes, I do like Star Trek, have been known to do calculus for fun and programmed parts of the aforementioned game. I'm a nerd.

So's my husband.

We also did the up all night talking thing too--sitting in my car--talking.
(We're nerds to Amy)

Online dating. I liked his picture

I had promised myself I would go on a number of first dates. I had been single for a while but I wanted to learn to date around, and not get into a new relationship immediately.

I had a great first date with DH, a mediocre first date with someone else, a great second date with DH, a mediocre first date with someone else, a great 3rd date with DH, etc. Finally he convinced me I should stop dating around, and accept we were really good together.
I still find it hard to believe how good we are together.

Suz, I can see why couples tend to notice age differences less as they go along, because the age difference *is* less as you go along! A smaller fraction of your life, I mean.

It's interesting and romantic to hear the "how we met" stories of so many couples with a fairly large age discrepancy. I know very, very few couples IRL who have an age gap of more than two or three years, and I'm not sure why that is. It's not just couples in my own age bracket. My own parents, for example, were born in the same year, and my husband's were in fact high school sweethearts (although he was 15 and she was 13 when they started dating).

Although I have no experience with age discrepancies in romantic relationships, I can comment on them in friendships. It's definitely true that the older you are, the less age matters! At 20, all my friends were about my age. Now the age range spans 20 years on either side. It's funny how that happens! I think if two friends are in similar "life stages" -- like, if you're both mothers of young children -- you have some common ground, regardless of your respective ages.

Even though my DH is 5 years older than me, I have always seemed older lol. He tells me I was born going on 30 though. Most of our friends are in a huge range of ages - from 40 to 60 and it keeps things interesting. We did have kids older so the kids friends parents tend to be younger than us but after 30 or so, it seems to matter less.

I accepted a transfer to DC. Don't ask me why a company would transfer a lowly research assistant who was making barely over minimum wage, but they did! His best friend was an artist, and the junior (young adult) spin-off of an ethnic (not his ethnicity) political organization was holding a fundraiser with an Asian American women's group by selling artwork of young Asian American artists. A college friend interning on Capitol Hill had learned of this fundraiser, and I wanted to connect with the women's group, so I went. I certainly didn't have any money for art. Or a car.

So I met this guy who seemed to have a lot of friends (so a good way to meet others!) and had a car. Public transportation after commuting time is not always the best. *Everyone* was going out for ice cream at Baskin-Robbins after the fundraiser. Okay, sounds good. We would be meeting up with over a dozen, maybe close to two dozen folks, mostly artists and their SOs my age. So off we sped from Capitol Hill to Georgetown. We went to the only Baskin-Robbins I knew about, and he didn't think to ask which one. Well, we were one place, and everyone else went to the one at the opposite end of DC! We kept telling the manager to keep the place open because a crowd was going to arrive any minute. That was over 30 years ago, and we have been married over 26 of them. They still haven't arrived.

My grandpa was the youngest of 12 kids, and married my grandma, who was one of his nieces friends. He was in his late 20s and met her when he accidentally crashed a high school sleepover when he went to visit his sister! They've been married 50 years this year, and keep each other young-- actually my grandma rather enjoys her friendships with my grandfather's brothers kids, who are mostly her age or older.

Likewise, I have a good friend who is 22 who has a SO that is 36? I think. They do seem to be a good pair though-- she is more mature than most, has two children, he is mature but didn't date a ton in his youth because of health problems, adores kids and is really good with them but can't have any of his own.

I'm not at the marrying stage, but I met the man I'm currently seeing online. In our area it still isn't a very respectable thing to do (no judgement, but if you met your SO online you hide it from the older set around here), but I was under threat of bad set ups and between jobs . . . or waiting for things to come through so I wasn't going out much. I had tried it before and ended up mainly with men older than my father or on work release from prison (true story-- white supremacist to boot!, which was beyond awkward since the first I heard of this was a mention of having beautiful white babies with me-- unpure, un-Aryan me-- being pale gets me every time), but I thought it would shut my friend up . . . she though 2.5 years was too long to go without a date.

I got stood up, a couple times and then pretty much gave up even finding a hiking buddy. Then the guy I am seeing emailed me. He was under the assumption he knew where I worked. I now believe he wanted to give me a hard time, since he works for the municipality that runs the museum he thought I worked for and had frequently been called in to fix a common employee screw up there. Of course, he was wrong. He played it off at the time that he thought the museum was beautiful and was interested in what I did, although I'm not so sure that was why he emailed. From that exchange I figured out who he worked for. Turns out he was a coworker of a friend of mine (and one of his friends dates another friend of mine, small town).

I'm glad I knew who he was and could verify he wasn't a psycho, because I probably wouldn't have gone on a second date with him-- not because I didn't like him, but because his profile did not represent him accurately (not in lying ways, but in completely weird ways--- it is my theory that someone else wrote it, but I haven't been ballsy enough to ask). We went to lunch and talked for hours. On our second date he took me to the DMV to get my license renewed after I had my wallet stolen. Who knows?

Love the stories in this thread!

We were classmates in college. He overheard me talking with friends and liked my sense of humor. He asked me out, but I was seeing someone else at the time so turned him down.

Later, I asked him out! I'd never done that before, but didn't want to miss out on such a good opportunity

I have loved reading everyone's stories! I am seriously jealous that IK got to study art in Florence!

My story is that I divorced my first husband of 17 years and moved from Seattle to Boise to live with my twinnie who was also divorced. I started doing temp computer work at the City of Boise and met my future husband there. He and I started "timing" things so that we bumped into each other a lot and after a few weeks and a couple of work lunches together, he asked me out. That was pretty much it. We have been together for 18 years and 11 of those as a married couple.

Oh, I love these stories! Too fun.

I met Jamie when I was 32, and my longest relationship prior to that had been two years. Yep, I'd dated a lot (the serial monogamist!) and even though I can count many of my exes as friends now, I was fairly skeptical of finding someone I would actually settle down with.

We met 24 hours after my previous relationship had broken up, so I was definitely *not* looking! I was sad and when I left work the day after the breakup, but i didnt want to go home, where I knew I would be alone to sulk and cry. I forced myself instead to go to a little local cafe/bookstore in Baltimore (which is sadly now closed). I had a good book to read, and I figured being out in public would keep me from sinking into feeling depressed.

I ordered some dinner and sat down to eat, and soon enough, I was engrossed in my book. There were some funny parts that made me chuckle out loud, and I became aware that a guy sitting nearby looked up when I laughed. He finally asked me what was so funny, and the passage I had just read was a tall person's clever response to people's never-ending inane questions about their height. Little did I know, because Jamie was sitting at the time, he was 6'6" so he could appreciate the joke!

We started chatting about everything from travel to music to Rilke and basically closed the place. He asked for my number, but we got together a few times before I was even sure what we were doing was "dating." He was a year out of his second marriage, with two kids, had quit his corporate job and was living on a boat, writing songs and playing in local clubs, so I'm sure that it looked like disaster in the making to some of my friends and family! But we took things slowly and talked very honestly about where we'd both been, relationship-wise, and we were both determined to approach this relationship in a different way than we'd done in the past.

After a year of dating, he moved in with me (I'd never done that before), and we were married after six years. This year will be our 9th wedding anniversary, and 15th year since we met. At the risk of sounding disgustingly happy, we are more in love now than ever, and count our blessings every single day.