....very sweet,thanks for allowing a glimpse of bliss.
lifes moments like that are worth striving for.
I met Maria as she was a rental manager,of my apartment build., she made the first move and impressed me with her honesty. We bonded instantly;
since her family(2daughters and an infirmed father)
was the focus of life for 7 years we did holidays
such as Niagra falls ,and camping trips.She loved the
shore/ me mountains. We grew together then apart,
as her children had children;always the best of freinds.

i had the misfortune to be on a Navy ship visiting St. John's Nfld when i met my 1st wife at a street dance.. i was her ticket off the rock, as Nfld is known.

On a backpacking trip to Big Bend NP over Thanksgiving weekend. I was leading one of the five trips. When you are with a group of people for four days and three nights you get to know them. Lots of talking around the tents for breakfast and dinner and lunch on the trail. I guess we both decided that we should go out, so when we returned to Dallas I asked her out and it turned into a 20+ year relationship. Many more backpacking trips to WY, CO, NM,AZ, and CA. The marriage ended, but no regrets. We do have a 24 year son out of it.
BTW I no longer backpack, but do love a good day hike with lunch on the trail and a hot meal, shower, and bed at night. lol
If you have never been to Big Bend NP it is worth the trip. It is, I believe, the biggest and most isolated NP in the U.S. Just don't go during the summer.
So @LiterateHiker you first date was hiking. My pre-date was hiking.

I met Linda at work. I'd returned from a year working in Riyadh and taken a job with the Iams pet food company as IT Strategic Planning Director. I had divorced about 2.5 years before. Linda was the IT Controller... in charge of the IT budget. I was pretty gun-shy about (1), dating at all. (2), dating someone at work, & (3), ever getting into a serious relationship again. Later, I found out Linda was going through pretty much the same thing. In stepped our H.R. director. The only female director in the "Boy's Club" of upper management. She "had a discussion" with Linda about me. (Linda told me about this much later) A few days after this "mom-to-daughter" type discussion, Linda walks into my office. I braced myself for the "You're over budget!" discussion we usually argued about. She sits down in a chair across from my desk. I'm given "the look".
"I've two tickets for Carmen" she says.
"We should go" she says. (Tickets provided by H.R. director I find out later)
"Um..... Ok" stammers I.
"Good, we can meet at Arrow Wine in Oakwood for their wine tasting before we go" she says.
"WTF is going on here?" Think I.
"Great!" I stammer.
"I'll meet you there at 7:30.... wear a suit" she replies. And walks out.
At this point I'm dumbfounded. What just happened?
The evening goes splendidly. Wine tasting a success after I mention to her that chewing cinnamon gum is not the best way to taste wine. Opera, very nice considering it's the Dayton Opera guild. Drive back to Arrow wine with the tops off on my MR2. We kiss before she departs. I'm thunderstruck by this woman. 2 months later we depart on a week's vacation together. 23 years later, married, growing old together.... We both stopped in to thank that H.R. director.

Which one?

Husband #1: Blind date. Left after he loaded and pointed a 12g shotgun five inches from my face

Husband #2: Working at an answering service. He called complaining about his cable service. Separated after 3yrs married when going home after a week long stay in a looney bin (post partum depression) he informed me he was leaving.

Husband #3: He was a regular at the convenience store I was working at. One day we were talking and I said something (don't remember what). He came back with "A woman after my heart". I asked him if that was all I can get. We were together for 12yrs until he died of heart failure.

I'm obviously not a good picker of men, so I've taken a break to see what it is that I want. The last boyfriend I had went to prison for child porn, and my second husband abused both my son and daughter. Not having that again.

My mothers Avon Lady was selling more than lipstick, she had a daughter she was looking to get married off.

Circa around 1977, I was a Disco going, college student, pot smoking, commercial artist revolutionary living La Vida Loca in Old San Juan when I met her ...at the outside door of a Disco in Old San Juan was this young girl... I told her I liked her face and will like to paint her... I gave her my phone nr... a week passed she didn't call me and I went to see one of my buddies play college basketball she sat not far from me, she knew my buddy and was attending the same college, my friends with me said isn't she the girl of the other day? I said she didn't called me so I said fuck it. I know she made a comment to her girl friends that we were high. We just ignored each other that night even if at some point she sat next to me… but next weekend I was in the same place standing at the outside door of the same club with my Kid Sister visiting from NYC, My sister tall, white, Gorgeous, with all the charm of a New York City Girl that had lived in Europe, had gone places (Spent a year as Exchange student in Barcelona, Spain). She thought she was my girlfriend. So I used my sister to get her… Eventually events of the night draw us together I told her... "You didn't call me", she said “I did called you and to prove it, I memorized your phone nr”... She told me my number, that in itself got me interested, wow (she remembered my phone number)... (I didn't know that she and her girlfriends had a trick of one learning first three digits, another learning two digits, the other learning two digits (back then everybody’s using same area code) and bingo they know the order and get back the number quick), nicely done... And when the dice of Fate are cast even the clumsy act of me spilling a drink on her dress before our first kiss, did not spoiled our union… We were destined to not only meet and copulate… we dated and at times double dated with my basketball playing friend, she was a basketball groupie after all... Around the time we met she was dating a guy that was 6’6”, I am 5’11”. Me… Older, more worldly, better sharp dresser, better dancer, more street savvy, I went to him and introduce me to him myself. I hope he understood what that really meant (I am going to take it away from you and there is nothing you can do about it dude). Well, I am sure I am the worst basketball player she ever dated and I didn't play bad... We dated on and off broke up for about 6 months, we saw each other of course in discos and with other people... we restarted dating again because she gave me a ride to a disco that I knew I could get her in even if she was not 21 because I knew the guys at the door... So I did it, got her in despite being under age, and I told her now that you are inside... you can do whatever you want just make sure you give me a ride back home... night goes on... Slow music (boleros) was played... I didn't danced with her and danced with somebody else... so what she did? She left me stranded in Old San Juan... Okay... Of course I was mad, the next day I went to her house, why she did that to me, I thought we were cool? We ended that day talking and going to dinner and to a movie that night and we were in Condado (Tourist area connected to the island of San Juan) I saw my buddies car cruising and I hided but they saw her and asked her about me and she pointed at me yelling he is right here hiding from you guys. The Foolish things we do when we are young... About 3 years of meeting her I joined the Navy, Married her and she gave me 3 Wonderful Kids... we were married for 19 years, My buddy went on to have a great, long basketball career in Puerto Rico as one of the best combo guards (shooting guards and point guards) in the league, (All time Great and among top scorers), even was in the National Team. And me and her we still go out dancing and spending time together when in same city, she remarried and got divorced and currently returned to Puerto Rico and is living with her current boyfriend... I had never remarried but I am proud of my relationship with her. Our joke... "She gets half of my Retired military pension (to me she earned it, married to me for 19 years), so she needs to keep me alive to get that money... And I want her dead so I can get my other half of my money every month" but is just a joke. I want her to live long and prosper forever. We had showed our kids how you handle a divorce. How little jealous I am... me and her husband number 2 went to purchase a computer for my first born and the sales young woman thought that me and him were a couple... Modern times right?... Yeah Right!!!! I have to explain her... "Nah young lady, I am father and husband number one... he is stepfather and husband number two. I like tall blonds but he is not equipped to be my type…” She divorced me because I was driving her crazy... she divorced him because he went crazy... Figure the odds. Divorced since 2000 I will do it all over again... We were Wonderful People back then and We are Wonderful People Right Now… Despite the Pain of Losing One Child to Suicide… we all will share the Blame but we put blame on no one because you are Responsible for your Own Acts and putting that Responsibility on Someone else is Never Going to be Fair or Right…. I live my life knowing that every time my little girl needed my help I was always there for her… even to our last conversation over the phone… Life is what you make out of it. Do not complaint, just change the odds and make it better. Peace and Love... I am still active looking for one last Hurrah!!! Dressed 20th Century Style, Coat and Tie, Two tone shoes, matching vivid ties. Light on the Foot… I am a Poet and I can Dance… Adorable… Latino Style… All Full of Myself… I am Hector, the Disco Guy formerly known as Luigi, The Prince of Santurce and Ina Martha’s first husband and only Father to her kids... I am alive and well, living large according to my means, in suspected Sanity!!!! A Poet with stories to tell… In love with Women… because I am Man. Looking forward to relocate to Old San Juan after my 66th Birthday. Still dancing to my Own Beat until the very End. No Regrets… This is My Manifest of an Important Moment in My Life.

I used to travel all over the world for a company that shall remain nameless, I had met Jinling in previous trips to China, she worked in HR and was very pretty, but at the time I was married, so look but no touch! Anyway, I got divorced in 2010, Jinling was the only person I knew that sent me a nice email expressing support because she knew divorce is always sad for both parts. In my following trip to China I thanked her for her kind email, invited her for dinner, it all started there. Now she is with me here in FL. Photos: 2013 in the Yangtze River Park in Wuhan and one of her from 2010, finally last year in NYC and here in FL.

I met my husband Peter in August 1971 standing at a bus stop with some girlfriends in Princes Street, Edinburgh. He was already known to one of my friends who was a Cub Scout leader because he was a Boy Scout leader in a different pack...and they had met frequently at Scouting events. I had heard a lot about this interesting, extremely tall, good-looking, mad as a hatter, Irishman from Belfast, and true to her description of him, he turned out to be all of these things...and more! He was head and shoulders above the throng that night for starters, at 6’6”...and it was a throng, as it was during the Edinburgh Festival and thousands were on the streets. In what was to become typical Peter fashion, he announced in his charming Ulster lilt...that he’d love to invite us all to join him at the Festival Club for a drink....only he’d just bust the flies on his trousers! I thought he was a complete buffoon, charming certainly, but not someone I’d be interested in. My bus arrived and I went home never giving him much thought, but a couple of months later we met again at another friend’s birthday party and he made a beeline for me and I found him completely fascinating, interesting, intellectually stimulating, and I was smitten forever. He proposed six weeks later, and we married in September 1973, a marriage that lasted until his death in 2010. He was literally the love of my life.

I met mine in 1997 when I was assigned to sit with her for a couple of days and train her how to interact with customer calls. She had broken down and cried during the stressful formal training classes and was going to quit so they asked me to do some 1:1 training. It worked. She stayed in the job for several years and we grew very close.

We were a couple fr 17 years and are still close today. We see/talk to each other and go out on dates pretty regularly..

I met my future ex-wife in 1966, during rehearsals for a pantomime. She was 18.
I invited her for a coffee date, forgot my money and she had to pay. She tells me she's still damned well paying!! Humour is excellent "couples glue".

I was visiting mates in share house in Petersham. We all smoked bongs sitting on the brown couch in the living room - very He Died With A Felafel In His Hand.
Good god, she was gorgeous. Perfect 90's ICPOD (inner city princess of darkness), pale skin, full lips, almost cartoonishly buxom figure, in a black satin slip, leggings and big Docs. And she turned out to be smart, quirky, fierce and... taken.
Very, very taken.
We'd didn't get together until 10 years later.

Annette knocked on my door and asked if I would take her a few miles down the road to her waitress job. We had briefly spoken a week before in the trailer park we both lived in. A week later we went out on a double date with another couple and after taking her home to her place I just never went home.

I met my spouse at work. She was the secretary of the CEO of a big Textile Firm where I was a Mill Manager...one of my friends told me: you have to go and see the new secretary, she's stunning! So I did and not only was super attractive but friendly and sweet. After a few weeks ( all the guys went crazy for her, so I had to rush) I asked her out and after some convincing she accepted, we clicked and there was a lot of chemistry, and eventually we were together... forever!

I met my ex wife in a club, she saw me walking across the room and came up to me and ask me to dance. It was love at first site, I couldn't believe that this beautiful woman, was actually asking me to dance.
After the club closed, we went out and got a bite to eat and exchanged numbers.
Two week's went by, without a word from either one of us. Then on the fifteenth day, I was jumped outside of a restaurant, they broke my nose, I remember thinking, if I make it out of this, it's a perfect opportunity to call her....lol
We were together for almost 24 years