Funny tale of an online romance and its real-world conclusion

Jeff Simmermon says:

I've been performing at The Moth, a spoken word/storytelling non-profit with arms in NYC and LA. Essentially, folks perform a 5-minute story (without reading or notes) based on a theme. It's rated like figure-skating -- with teams of judges awarding scores like "9.5" or "8.0". They have the second-largest podcast on iTunes right now, too.

So anyway -- in 2003, I met a woman online. She was from Western Australia, I was living in Richmond, VA. I ended up selling all my stuff and flying over there to meet her in person. Here's the story.

[#1 posted by Anonymous , March 6, 2009 2:19 PM]

This guy is great. I've seen a few of his other stories and he is very funny. I look forward to seeing more from him in the future.

[#2 posted by Wbb882 , March 6, 2009 3:32 PM]

What do you mean, real world conclusion? Nothing was concluded for me, did they stay together?

[#3 posted by Mark Frauenfelder , March 6, 2009 3:49 PM]

Maybe I should have said it was consummated, instead of concluded. :)

[#4 posted by dove , March 6, 2009 4:05 PM]

I LOVE the Moth podcast. I just discovered it a few months ago and it is now tied with escape pod and the drabblecast as my favorite. I am always dissappointed that the episodes are so short and so much time between them, though.

[#5 posted by t3knomanser , March 6, 2009 4:29 PM]

Replace Australia with Pittsburgh, and I've lived that. We got married. It worked out rather well, I think. I approve, anyway. My wife seems pretty happy about it too.

//My wife and I met in an online Star Trek RPG forum. Beat that!

[#6 posted by giusbox , March 6, 2009 4:57 PM]

Hold on... a bald white guy making $9/hr desperate for validation through companionship and a change of scene that ditches friends and family for a girl half way around the world with no plan other than getting there...

and the nerves on the plane description! uncanny.

[#7 posted by Robinpen , March 6, 2009 5:24 PM]

So glad it had a happy ending. But being a West Australian myself, I want to know the follow-up. Though it certainly sounds like he didn't regret his decision.

[#8 posted by Derek , March 6, 2009 5:25 PM]

Oh, no you don't! You're not leaving me hanging like that...must know WHAT HAPPENED!

[#9 posted by murrayhenson , March 6, 2009 6:14 PM]

I was a bit more fortunate than Jeff.

My future wife and I almost immediately clicked; we went completely batshit insane for each other after just a few emails. Which lead to IM's. And phone calls I couldn't afford. And plane tickets I couldn't afford which meant I took a loan I couldn't really afford to pay for my plane tickets from Portland, Oregon to Krakow, Poland. But, I didn't have to sell my music.

I wasn't in town for more than 12 hours before I was blindingly, horrifically drunk. After the whirlwind that was those two weeks together I flew back. A few months later I had a garage sale, put a bunch of stuff in shipping boxes, packed a few bags and bought a one-way ticket. I sold my house via email and FedEx. That money, minus paying off the mortgage, paid for my stuff to be replaced and a bit of spending money, plus a significant part of the cost of the wedding a few years later.

The wedding was two years ago. The transition isn't complete (my Polish still sucks) and has sometimes been very hard but I knew, almost from that first email, that it was going to be worth it and it has been.

I always enjoy hearing similar tales and know of an Australian who made the move to the US ~5 years ago. He and his wife just had a baby about a month ago.

[#10 posted by eustace , March 6, 2009 8:26 PM]

Tales of Great Courage! Thanks, Mark, for a real-world unicorn chaser.

[#11 posted by twobeeshawn , March 6, 2009 8:41 PM]

and, and, and, come on.....

[#12 posted by closetpacifist , March 6, 2009 9:06 PM]

Here's Jeff's Australia category on his blog, which has some posts which fill in a few details: http://www.andiamnotlying.com/category/australia/

The kangaroo hunting article's really good, although it may, uh, unchase your unicorns.

[#13 posted by Takuan , March 6, 2009 9:21 PM]

good roo shootin' tales.

[#14 posted by kumaruddin , March 6, 2009 9:30 PM]

wow..he's bald..

[#15 posted by zikman , March 6, 2009 10:00 PM]

HEY I LIVE IN RICHMOND VA AWESOME I want to meet a hot australian.

[#16 posted by bondjamesbond , March 7, 2009 7:48 AM]

I found the tale a bit mundane, the ending inconclusive, the delivery a bit strained.

[#17 posted by Takuan , March 7, 2009 7:53 AM]

you mean like real life?

[#18 posted by garyb50 , March 7, 2009 8:13 AM]

Met my wife in an AOL chat room in June, '91. We're still married.

[#19 posted by Javier Candeira , March 7, 2009 9:07 AM]

My Aussie wife and I (Spaniard) met around October 04 on a Debian channel. Then we met in London on January the next year. Then she came to visit me in Madrid, and we went together to Barcelona. By November we were attending my friend's wedding together, by January I was in Australia meeting her parents.

Long story short, our first child is due in 7 weeks (can't wait!). Best chain of decisions I have ever made.

Also t3knomanser, I just saw your Star Trek forum and raised you a Debian IRC channel. :P

[#20 posted by Anonymous , March 7, 2009 1:38 PM]

that story blew me away. i had a similar story: i met my australian in los angeles in 2002, and we had a long distance relationship via phone and email. we got to actually know one another after meeting in person. my first reaction when i met her in person was "is this my wife?".. my 'oh shit' moment was when i surprised her by turning up at her house at 7am on a weekday with some flowers and my suitcase after having flown from LAX for 13 hours. that was 2003, and we now live together in LA and have a 3 year old son. jeff's story about the swear words is absolutely true. aussies use swearing like we use punctuation.