For the past few years I have been the co-moderator of a retail message board. (http://amesfanclub.com/forum/index.php?action=forum) Originally started around 12 or 13 years ago as a tribute to the defunct Rocky Hill, CT based AMES Department Store Chain the message board was broadened over the years to include all retail and restaurant related topics and on a smaller scale Amusement Parks, Food, Radio and TV, etc.
Anyway in the beginning of 2017 I got a Facebook Message from one of the co-moderators on the board. (I only had him on Facebook so I could contact him about issues with the message board I couldn't resolve myself). He was going through a rough time and needed someone to talk to. To be polite we started messaging each other back and forth discussing what's going on in our lives. Things have gotten better in his life, but he continues messaging me semi-regularly just to chat. I really don't consider him a real friend. Aside from the retail message board we have nothing in common.
Now he's talking about coming up to Connecticut in April because he wants to hang out with me and meet up with the owner of the retail message board. He's talking about us visiting the former AMES Headquarters which is still sitting abandoned more than 15 years after the chain went under. He also wants to take me "bar hopping" and help me "meet women." I don't "bar hop", I'm not interested in meeting women (or men for that matter), and I'm not a big drinker. (I'd be surprised if I have four alcoholic drinks a year). As I said I don't consider him to be a real friend of mine and I was only pretending to be his friend to be polite. The fact that part of his rough time he was going through included him getting his third DUI, losing his state job, and losing his license for 9 months somehow factors into this as well. Especially because he still brags to me about all the drinking he does. Drunk driving isn't cool. Maybe one DUI is marginally okay (if you're young and don't know how much booze you can handle), but 3 DUIs means you're 12 steps away from a problem.
That's when I realized I was in over my head and had to bail. I have relinquished all my duties on the message board to him and knocked him off my Facebook friend's list and have been ignoring his messages. Maybe it was wrong of me to pretend to be someone's friend just to be polite, but someone else did that to me once.
Anyway in the beginning of 2017 I got a Facebook Message from one of the co-moderators on the board. (I only had him on Facebook so I could contact him about issues with the message board I couldn't resolve myself). He was going through a rough time and needed someone to talk to. To be polite we started messaging each other back and forth discussing what's going on in our lives. Things have gotten better in his life, but he continues messaging me semi-regularly just to chat. I really don't consider him a real friend. Aside from the retail message board we have nothing in common.
Now he's talking about coming up to Connecticut in April because he wants to hang out with me and meet up with the owner of the retail message board. He's talking about us visiting the former AMES Headquarters which is still sitting abandoned more than 15 years after the chain went under. He also wants to take me "bar hopping" and help me "meet women." I don't "bar hop", I'm not interested in meeting women (or men for that matter), and I'm not a big drinker. (I'd be surprised if I have four alcoholic drinks a year). As I said I don't consider him to be a real friend of mine and I was only pretending to be his friend to be polite. The fact that part of his rough time he was going through included him getting his third DUI, losing his state job, and losing his license for 9 months somehow factors into this as well. Especially because he still brags to me about all the drinking he does. Drunk driving isn't cool. Maybe one DUI is marginally okay (if you're young and don't know how much booze you can handle), but 3 DUIs means you're 12 steps away from a problem.
That's when I realized I was in over my head and had to bail. I have relinquished all my duties on the message board to him and knocked him off my Facebook friend's list and have been ignoring his messages. Maybe it was wrong of me to pretend to be someone's friend just to be polite, but someone else did that to me once.
