anleja

One of my best friends from high school moved from Michigan (btw, hello fellow Michigander!) to Kentucky to live with a girl he met online, and that was about 3 or so years ago... he's still living there.

Another friend of mine moved from Michigan all the way to Oregon to live with a girl. OR maybe she moved here from Oregon? (Okay, I admit, he's not much of a friend, more of a friend of a friend kinda person.)

I myself was really interested in a girl from Ohio a while ago... I thought about maybe trying to pursue something, but for our own specific situations it would have been too much of a hassle.

For your situation, maybe wait a little bit longer to gauge your feelings? A week isn't too long, even though I'm sure the level of communication probably makes you feel like you know her pretty well at this point (even though you haven't met face to face).

As far as figuring out if you have a good connection online, the whole human interaction thing is lacking (can't read body language, etc.), but the exchange of pure ideas can be a pretty good way to tell about a person's character.

*edit* oops, I re-read your post and realized I didn't answer your specifc questions about being able to maintain a relationship only online and the phone, with seeing each other very little if at all... I don't know if I could do that. Human interaction in any form is nice, but I think it would get too frustrating after awhile. Typing and reading "I love you", or saying it on the phone, does not have the same effect of saying it face to face... but that is just how I see it.