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-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), March 20, 2001

Answers

March 20, 2001, Omaha World-Herald

Next-Door Neighbors Meet Online

BY MICHAEL KELLY

Weary of the bar scene, registered nurse Melissa Irlmeier of Omaha signed on to the Internet to see if she could talk to someone interesting.

She browsed personal ads on America Online and noticed a photo of a nice-looking guy described as a "tall Texan." Hmmm. She used to work in Texas, so she sent him an electronic note on the World Wide Web.

Who knew where in the world he was? He could be in Texas or Kalamazoo, in London or Timbuktu. She doubted she'd even get a reply.

Five minutes later her screen popped up an "instant message." She was new at this, and asked who it was. Came the reply: "You just wrote me."

They chatted online for a while, and he said he was in the Air Force - stationed at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Neb. Cool, she replied, I live in Omaha, too.

He said he used to live in Bellevue, but had moved to an apartment in downtown Omaha. You're kidding, she said. I also live in an apartment downtown. Where do you live?

The Ford Warehouse, he said. The one at 10th and Dodge Streets.

Irlmeier was shocked. She had seen lots of other people in the personal ads, and somehow had stopped on a guy she thought was in Texas - but he lives right in her building!

Unbelievable. She asked: Which apartment?

"I'm 209," he said.

She blinked. Hers was 207.

That night, July 12, Melissa Irlmeier and Lt. David Clayson had their first date. They walked to Billy Frogg's in the Old Market and drove to a movie.

Appropriately enough for a relationship that moved fast, the film was "Gone in 60 Seconds."

Clayson's heart went almost as fast. Three months later to the day, as the sun set, he took her to the roof deck of their apartment building. She is 5-feet-9, and he stands 6-feet-7, but he dropped to both knees.

He looked up and kidded that she should enjoy this, because it was the only time she would be taller. Then he asked her to marry him. "Yes!" said the lieutenant's woman.

Saturday they married at the Capehart Chapel near Offutt, and on Monday they headed for Jamaica.

The Internet has attracted bad people who pose as something they aren't and prey on others. But there's still room for folks of good character.

Irlmeier, 24, grew up in Carroll, Iowa, and attended Glidden-Ralston High School, playing volleyball, basketball, softball and track. She earned a biology degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a nursing degree from Creighton.

Clayson, 28, is from San Angelo, Texas, and took ROTC at Angelo State. Fate works strangely - sometimes, electronically.

Melissa's parents, Jim and Peggy, live in Gretna. When her mom met David, she reminded her daughter that they had seen him before - he had politely held the front door for them. Peggy remembered saying: "Why can't you meet someone nice like that?"

The pair lived in the same building for more than three months without meeting. Their mailboxes were one on top of the other. Their parking spots are a floor apart, one exactly above the other.

Was their meeting on the Internet mere incredible coincidence? Melissa thinks there was help from above.

"Things kept happening, and we got along so well. There had to be an 'upper hand' in this."

Melissa is an acute dialysis nurse who stopped on David's online picture because, she said, he was a cute guy. Maybe she subconsciously recognized him from that time at the front door.

Life is full of unexpected changes. Last week Melissa made another change - she moved out of Apartment 207 and around the corner into 209.

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), March 20, 2001.

Sniff

-- Lars (larsguy@yahoo.com), March 20, 2001.

A nice contribution in a world where traditional, jaded journalism likes to perceive the internet as a solid threat to good connections. Thanks, Lars.

-- Oxsys (Makalani7788@aol.com), March 20, 2001.

awe thats very sweet =)

-- (cin@cin.cin), March 20, 2001.

I think most of us here, have found the honesty of fellow forumites refreshing, IME. We ARE real people, honest and true for the most part. The dark picture of evil strangers the media paints, while possible, has not been seen on my screen. I feel myself fortunate to have met so many wonderful people online, you included, Lars. Thank you.

-- Aunt Bee (Aunt__Bee@hotmail.com), March 21, 2001.

Makes sense to me. I'm in love with Manny.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), March 21, 2001.

Sniff what?

-- (nemesis@awol.com), March 21, 2001.

Very nice story, Lars. Fate, what a wonderful concept.

But when I first read the title I thought it said cock warmer. My bad!

-- Maria (anon@ymous.com), March 21, 2001.

Am I the only one who was creeped out by the fact that the story apparently uses their actual address?

-- Tarzan the Ape Man (tarzan@swingingthroughthejunglewithouta.net), March 21, 2001.

Only cause you're creepy, Tarzan.

-- (he@is. he really is), March 23, 2001.