[daveT]

Slow Play Ray:

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You may be underestimating how often people talk of "loving" each other, with utter seriousness and in a romantic way, over the internet without having met.

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perhaps, but that is still not what i would normally consider "online dating" based on the parlance of our times - more of an actual online relationship i guess, which is more than a bit freaky. christ, i hope this is not what people think of when i tell them i met my girlfriend online!

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Unfortunately, I think that this is what most people think. More so, people probably think that you were one super-desperate puppy, and think better of themselves for never attempting it. I doubt that you would agree with them. I personally see nothing wrong with increasing your chances of a successful relationship.

Solo AJ

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I feel as if I'm totally crazy for thinking that people who "love" each other despite having an "online relationship" for only a month are nuts. Am I?

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I don't see the difference between this and two people who meet and marry six months later. It does show a severe lack of judgement as a general rule. With that said, I do allow that there is a such thing as love on first site, and yes, love on a web-site is attainable, though I don't see it working for me.

The rest of your post is very good, especially:

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Imagine posting this to a forum of people who are incredibly lonely and emotionally unbalanced, or depressed. I would imagine the responses would be quite telling

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Ser William:

The whole story picked on Audrey. The author took several shots at her "love," especially when he talks about how he moved in with a physical woman, to counter Audrey's desire to move to Colorado.

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She divorced her husband over a phantom. What kind of person must she really be? Can anyone here ever conceive of doing what Audrey did?

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No, I couldn't.

With that said, I do live in Los Angeles, and this entire story gives a discomforting snap-shot of our city. People here are very desperate for a ton of things: the big break, a lover, a job. In all of these attempts, we all get royally screwed in several ways. I have seen rich kids come to this city with 10 k and leave broke in less than two months because of a piece of scuzz. It can be hard to balance the vulnerabilities with the realities of the situation. In more than one case, we are forced to sleep with the Devil. Audrey has done this at the beginning by searching from love from a green card marriage. To say that this situation is atypical would be nice. Most relationships are at their base, a matter of convenience.

I think that Audrey wanted a new life, was probably also sick of living in Los Angeles. The story did not end completely bad. It took this experience for her to end a marriage that she was not happy with.

Could I see this happening to some of the people I see in Los Angeles, or anywhere for that matter? Maybe not this extreme, but people do get sick of the day to day rut, and become miserable. It usually takes an extreme action to break free.