I graduated college, had no idea what I wanted to do, and impulsively flew to Barcelona for Sonar festival.
Three days in I woke up at 5 PM local time, super jetlagged and all partied out, and went on a walk to find some food. After a half hour I stopped at this salad bar. Spain is all pan y carne and I was craving veggies so bad.

Sat down alone, smashed my salad, wrote in my book, and inhaled four desserts in a row. [Hey, it's a buffet!]

This guy who had been sitting alone a few tables away asked me if I had gone to Sonar. We started talking about philosophy, math, electronic music.

Later I learned he approached me because he was like "who is this weirdo eating every dessert in here and writing in a moleskine?"

Ended up leaving the place together and going on an al night adventure drinking wine, talking about everything, laying under the Arc de Triomphe, eventually passing out in his hotel room to Bloomberg.

We ended up living together in this awesome apartment for a month in Barcelona, separated for a month, met back up in Sevilla for a month, and now we keep flying all over to be together (he's Canadian, I'm American, neither of us have location specific jobs ATM). It's been 11 months now...


So yeah. A jetlagged salad bar conversation in Barcelona.

I love that I met my partner at the courthouse! We were the last people in the waiting area to be called for jury duty, and despite my intense leave-me-alone-I'm-reading vibes, he started chatting with me. Turned out his fashion company was going to be an exhibitor at the tradeshow I manage, we knew a million people in common, and he was so charming I actually put my book down. I ended up getting dismissed from the jury, and emailed him later on to see how the trial had gone. We kept up now and again over the next 8 months, and ended up having some looonnnng and involved conversations when his company arranged to do a design collaboration for our show. When the actual show came around and we were stuck in Vegas together, well... let's just say that now it's been over a year, and I couldn't be happier about having had jury duty that day. Our silly names for each other are DFTC and RFTC (Dave / Rachel From The Courthouse). Should I have admitted that? Too pukey? Ehh, whatevs.

I met my current boyf at a Dungeons and Dragons game. For real. It was my first one, I walked in not knowing what a D20 was, and walked out with a babe.

How has nobody mentioned craigslist!? (Unless I missed it!)

My ex of 4 years I met on craigslist back in LA.
My current soon-to-be boyfriend (it's only been a few dates, but it'll get there) I met on craigslist.

Hahaha.

Match.com. Though we tell people it was where we first met, for a chat over coffee at Panera Bread, because we don't like dealing with the weird looks/lectures/etc.

I was a month out of a 5-year relationship (four years of which had been long distance, and it had been falling apart for approximately the same amount of time) and he was one year out of separating from his wife. My roommate had taken me out to a club a few weeks before and I was reminded, yet again, that it's just not my scene. I had zero hopes for an internet dating service but figured I had nothing to lose. We met up for coffee and hit it off immediately. He was the first person I ever met up with, and I was the only one whom he ever asked on a real date. We spent nearly every second together from that point on and got married in March of this year. A month ago he moved 10,000 miles away (thanks, military!) but we're keeping the love alive until I can join him permanently.

I dated his roommate. It was a disaster, but I came out ahead.

I met my boyfriend in a bar. He was the bartender. I was getting drunk. It definitely wasn't intended to go anywhere, but three years later we're living together and doing just swell. It really couldn't have turned out lovelier.

That said, if our eventual theoretical grandchildren ever ask how grandpa and I met, I fully intend to lie to them and make up a better story.