- Joined
- Jun 25, 2011
- Messages
- 827
- Reaction score
- 262
Has anyone else run into this? I certainly hope so, because I have a fairly long list of people who clearly or apparently despise me despite me never having done anything to upset them. I was talking to a friend about this a few weeks ago and started going over it again tonight when a picture of my friend Billy and his wife popped up on Facebook. Billy has long been my brother's best friend. We got to be rather close back in college to the point that, in addition to hanging out with him and my brother regularly, I'd also do things just with Billy, or he'd join me and my friends on a pretty regular basis. He was never what I'd call my best friend, but we were very close. We saw a little less of one another toward the end of college but were still close. That was about the time he met his wife.
I liked Betty well enough from the start. She was friendly and her sense of humor was similar to mine. We had similar tastes in movies and music and I can't recall a single time we were together that wasn't pleasant. The only disagreements I remember related to Betty had to do with drinking. She liked to drink moderately but was opposed to overindulging. This wasn't an issue for me because I had cut way back shortly before meeting her. The only sparks that flew over the issue were between her and others. I'm not saying that has any bearing on anything, but it's the only issue that ever came up that ever caused any consternation with her. Again, though, it was completely unrelated to me.
After a couple years of dating, they got engaged and started planning their wedding. They'd been to mine and my brother's weddings and we were all excited for them. They wanted a small, intimate ceremony and reception, no more than 30-40 people. I naturally assumed I'd be going because Billy told me I'd be invited and I helped with some of the plans. A month or so before the wedding, we still hadn't received our invitation. I was at my parents' house and saw theirs on the counter. I saw Billy a few days later, asked him about it and he apologized saying that finances required them to cut down the list of guests. I later found out that my wife and I were the only two guests cut from the list and it was done so at Betty's behest. She apparently threatened to call off the wedding if I wasn't uninvited. They moved out of town shortly after, and in the years since, if Betty knows that I'll be present when Billy comes to town, she refuses to come. She not only told Billy to cut us from their Christmas card list, but she had him tell me to cut them off ours. I've asked Billy what her problem is but he says he doesn't know what I'm talking about. I'm genuinely flummoxed.
My other friend, Bobby, is a guy I've known since I was a kid. He was a few years older than me but our families were close enough that we consider each other family. Although I was never as close to Bobby as I was to Billy, there's never been a cross word between us. Bobby's wife, also named Betty, is someone I got along with the first few years I knew her. They moved away and we lost touch for a decade or so but then reconnected on Facebook. We struck up an online friendship and commented on each other's posts almost daily. Then one day, out of the blue, not only had she unfriended me but blocked me as well. I figured it was a mistake of some sort so I shot her an email. I got a profanity-laden tirade in response. It was pretty vague but mainly was her calling me a horrible person and ordering me to never speak to her or her husband again. Again, it left me mystified.
I also have a fairly substantial list of people I was friends with back in high school or college but who preemptively blocked me on Facebook. It's not a matter of them having private profiles; I can tell they've blocked me because I can see their profiles from my wife's and daughters' pages. I asked a mutual friend about one of them and he told me that I should keep my distance because this guy hates me with a passion. For the life of me I have no idea what I could have done to draw the ire of this disparate group of people. It's not just that I'm a good guy in general; these are all people I was friends with at some point and whom I have never wronged in any way. My only theory is that I have a doppelganger out there who is going around angering people from my past. It may sound like a nutty theory, but it's the only one that makes sense.
I liked Betty well enough from the start. She was friendly and her sense of humor was similar to mine. We had similar tastes in movies and music and I can't recall a single time we were together that wasn't pleasant. The only disagreements I remember related to Betty had to do with drinking. She liked to drink moderately but was opposed to overindulging. This wasn't an issue for me because I had cut way back shortly before meeting her. The only sparks that flew over the issue were between her and others. I'm not saying that has any bearing on anything, but it's the only issue that ever came up that ever caused any consternation with her. Again, though, it was completely unrelated to me.
After a couple years of dating, they got engaged and started planning their wedding. They'd been to mine and my brother's weddings and we were all excited for them. They wanted a small, intimate ceremony and reception, no more than 30-40 people. I naturally assumed I'd be going because Billy told me I'd be invited and I helped with some of the plans. A month or so before the wedding, we still hadn't received our invitation. I was at my parents' house and saw theirs on the counter. I saw Billy a few days later, asked him about it and he apologized saying that finances required them to cut down the list of guests. I later found out that my wife and I were the only two guests cut from the list and it was done so at Betty's behest. She apparently threatened to call off the wedding if I wasn't uninvited. They moved out of town shortly after, and in the years since, if Betty knows that I'll be present when Billy comes to town, she refuses to come. She not only told Billy to cut us from their Christmas card list, but she had him tell me to cut them off ours. I've asked Billy what her problem is but he says he doesn't know what I'm talking about. I'm genuinely flummoxed.
My other friend, Bobby, is a guy I've known since I was a kid. He was a few years older than me but our families were close enough that we consider each other family. Although I was never as close to Bobby as I was to Billy, there's never been a cross word between us. Bobby's wife, also named Betty, is someone I got along with the first few years I knew her. They moved away and we lost touch for a decade or so but then reconnected on Facebook. We struck up an online friendship and commented on each other's posts almost daily. Then one day, out of the blue, not only had she unfriended me but blocked me as well. I figured it was a mistake of some sort so I shot her an email. I got a profanity-laden tirade in response. It was pretty vague but mainly was her calling me a horrible person and ordering me to never speak to her or her husband again. Again, it left me mystified.
I also have a fairly substantial list of people I was friends with back in high school or college but who preemptively blocked me on Facebook. It's not a matter of them having private profiles; I can tell they've blocked me because I can see their profiles from my wife's and daughters' pages. I asked a mutual friend about one of them and he told me that I should keep my distance because this guy hates me with a passion. For the life of me I have no idea what I could have done to draw the ire of this disparate group of people. It's not just that I'm a good guy in general; these are all people I was friends with at some point and whom I have never wronged in any way. My only theory is that I have a doppelganger out there who is going around angering people from my past. It may sound like a nutty theory, but it's the only one that makes sense.