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I met my wife on New Year's Day, 2003 playing Dance Dance Revolution at a movie theatre.

Now, at the time, my buddy and I were huge fans of the webcomic MEGATOKYO, to the point I was wearing my NINJ4 hoodie from it. In it, one of the main characters becomes a teacher in Japan... somehow.

We wanted to do this.

My wife to be had come back from Japan for Christmas and was a teacher there.

Before I knew any of this, my buddy (who had a girlfriend; I had never even gone on a date and I was 20) leaned over to me and said, 'There are two girls behind us."

My wife recalls that the first look I gave her was annoyance followed by a double-take. She didn't think people did double-takes in real life.

Love at first sight. I shit you not. I always avoided relationships having spent the bulk of my life as an ostracized, skinny nerd. However, the first time I saw her it was different. We talked. And talked. And talked. They missed their movie. This is all despite me discussing the political repercussions of WWII.

We ended up going to her friend's place and we continued talking and having all the things in common. We didn't stop talking until 7 AM. I was exhausted and she asked me for my number.

So I gave her the number I knew best: this is the number of the guy who was my ride back to town from college and was always hours late. My tired, love-addled mind didn't register this for a little over 24 hours. I woke up at the crack of 1 PM and waited by the phone. I became confused and sad and went to bed.

The next day I woke up at the crack of 11AM, jack-knifing up and yelling out to my self, "I GAVE HER THE WRONG NUMBER!" The chase was on. I ran to the phonebook (remember those?) and looked up where her friend worked. Like a true pro: HI! I need to know your manager's number!" *click*.

Smooth.

So, I went to go get my car and go there as I elected to drive myself since that asshole could never be on time. My car is gone. My mother had taken my car to go get groceries.

Noon rolls around and I hear the garage door. I whip open the door, but it's my dad coming home from lunch. 'FUCK!' I yell in his face.

"What the hell did I do?' I didn't answer as I madly racked my brain to find some way to contact my wife-to-be. I did catch him mumbling into the fridge, "I don't even know why I come home anymore."

Shortly after, the garage door opened again. I think I leapt from the door out to the driveway and grabbed all the groceries in one hand, deposited them in the door (I remember my mom saying, "Thank you for being so-" then I slammed the door in her face), and leapt into the car and drove off to the mall where her friend worked.

"You just missed her."

SHIT SHIT SHIT! AH! My friend seemed to know her, maybe he knew her last name so I could look it up in the phone book and call them that way! He was working at Best Buy, so there I went.

I ran to the computer section where he worked, "Hey! Do you know her friend's last name?"

"Sorry, dude. I don't."

I was crushed. That was it. How would I run into her by chance again? I turned to leave, and then there they both were. Her and her friend, looking at cables.

What. The. FUCK.

I ran to her and proclaimed that I was an idiot (I still do this a lot) and accidentally gave her the wrong number, etc. What's funny is during the drive over, her friend proclaimed that I was a jerk for giving her a bogus number, but my wife-to-be narrowed her eyes thoughtfully and responded, "No. I don't think he's a jerk. I think he's just kind of stupid."

I spent the rest of her last 3 days in the US with her and the morning she left I got my first kiss. During college I got up hours before classes to talk with her via internet chat before she went to bed. I only missed one day over the course of six months.

I went and visited her the following summer for two and a half months after I saved up thousands at my part time job after classes (double major: History and Political Science). My parents had actually saved since our birth for college, so I didn't have to pay a dime.

I went back for Spring Break and then she came back and we were married. We both went back in 2005 after I graduated (had to do some summer stuff to finish out both degrees) and taught English together, which had been a dream of mine since High School.

We will have been married 15 years this year. We have three kids and she'll always be the love of my life and has been since I first set eyes on her.

We actually ended up getting married on the DDR machine we met on.

Mr. Welldone That was indeed an excellent story, thanks again for telling it.

Lepstadder haha I'd say not to worry yet. "Waiting" isn't quite always the answer either, most often it takes action. Someone you like/hang out with more often slowly transitions into love than the more instantaneous event Welldone is talking about up there. Common interest/attraction and agreeable personalities can lead that way, but it's also different for everybody, and important not to confuse infatuation or lust with love.

As far as timing, well I'm 33 and have always been single. I still worry about it, sure, but it's as much my own fault as anything probably.

I'm currently single and am considering marriage

Fair to say that I have been strictly career-driven for a very long time, and even simple dating has been very low priority over getting a combination of the following: a nice-paying job, a nice car, and a decent place to live while having a nice job and a nice car. It has been as though the stars have to be in perfect alignment before I get to the point of even approaching a cute girl. In a way, it does make total sense though. But recently I have eased up.

Having those (well, maybe just job and car can do) will definitely help in finding not just a cute girl, but THE cute girl

And especially make the relationship transition of her as my 彼女 to her being my おくさん

For the record, I am a little older than purify but younger than dirt!  

Lepstadder There is absolutely no problem having a preference, of any sort, for your type of girl. It definitely is not unreasonable.

You call the shots on what you like. No one else has that privilege, only you do. Remeber that