I have FIF's too.

My best friends are people I met on the internet. It's been that way for me for over 10 years.

I am such a homebody. I hate going out to bars where the music is so loud you can't hear the people you came to visit with. I tried meeting people at church, but that was a bust. So it seems natural that as the internet evolved so did my online relationships.

I never set out to become one of 'those people'. It just happened. I used to chat with people while playing games on Yahoo. Eventually I started chatting through an instant messenger service while doing other things on the web.

I met my best friend through a dollar bill.

Yep. $1.

I got a couple bucks back in change at Target one day, and happened to notice a website written on the back of one.

It said something like 'To see this bills travels check out www.wheresgeorge.com.' So I did.
It was kind of interesting to see how that bill had travelled from one person's wallet to mine. I was intrigued, and decided to start some bills traveling myself. As I went through the process I started to have a few questions, and decided to check out the wheresgeorge chat room. Little did I know that another person very similar to myself was doing the same thing at the same time on the other side of the country.

I started checking into the chat room fairly often (remember I never went out), and so did a few other people. One of the chatters was a gal with similar interests to mine. We both liked to stay home, do crafty things, collectors of items, and played on the wheresgeorge website. It was fun to compare bills, and travels, and interesting bits that we found through the site.

The more we chatted, the closer we became. We moved our conversations out of the chat room, and onto an instant messenger. We could talk at any time of the day about any topic.

She was there for me to talk to when I had bad bouts of depression. I was there when she had to move cross country, and find an apartment without knowing many people in town. I couldn't be there with her, but we were always online at the end of the day together.

 After 4ish years of chatting we finally got to meet. There was a group of those 'wheresgeorge' people meeting in St. Louis, so we both went to join the activities. I was terribly shy, but had so much fun. I met a few people that would become extremely important in my life.

Sooner than expected I met the man I would one day marry. ... So did she. We talked through relationships, job changes, house buying, surgeries, job losses, alcoholism, cancer and sewing!!!

As we continued to grow and make new friendships I grew a close circle of friends. I continued to talk with her daily and had started chatting with a new friend from the wheresgeorge group. Soon my 2 closest friends were both on the internet! We were all able to meet in Washington DC in 2006 and 2007.

In the mean time I become very busy with planning a wedding. While searching out some wedding related resources I came upon The Knot. Long story short I found myself posting on yet another message board. I came upon a group of women that were all planning August 2008 weddings like I was. We became fast and furious friends.

I finally got the wedding planned and both of my best friends from online were both able to come to my wedding. I even had the honor of having one as a personal attendant (She spent hours making all the jewelry for the attendants to wear) and the other did the reading of the scriptures.

Since that time I maintained a close friendship with the group of women from The Knot. One of the girl's summed it up best here. Several of those girl's have been able to meet, and I hope to be able to join them someday.

I love my FIF's, and I don't know how I would have made it through the last 10 years without them. <3 XG, Scott, and the BCP!!!