The dangers of information at your fingertips. On a whim looked up an old flame who

[Dueller]

...broke my 17 y.o. heart in college. Was really just curious what ever happened to her...no desire to make contact. Felt a little guilty snooping around, but Hey its the information age.

It became a bit of a fun exercise just seeing how much I could find out.

Well, serves me right for being nosey. She's on a number of high profile BoD's, highly regarded in her professional life, routinely runs in Boston and NY marathons, has adopted a mutt from the pound, is married to a super successful high profile atty, has multi-million $$ homes in Florida (beach front, no less) and the southwest (a sprawling ranch), yadadadada. To top it off I found a few pictures of her and she's still hot hot hot.

Guess the old gal knew what she was doing when she dumped my a$$

And before you console me with "But is she happy?" she looked pretty damned content in the photos.

[mossguy]

Pictures? Did someone say Pictures?

Best,
Tom

[Dueller]

Originally Posted by mossguy

Pictures? Did someone say Pictures?

Best,
Tom

Nah...I've invaded her privacy enough

It was kind of weird...hadn't really thought of her in years...decades, even. Happy for her, I suppose. No reason not to be. But, stilll....did her life have to turn out so ostensibly well

[snbush67]

Were you hoping for somthing different? Perheaps a 350lb single mom on welfare with 6 kids?

[Dueller]

Originally Posted by snbush67

Were you hoping for somthing different? Perheaps a 350lb single mom on welfare with 6 kids?

lol...no. I wished her no ill will. Just weird thinking back of her 30+ years ago. Politically active, ultra-liberal...your basic hippy chick majoring in social work and gonna change the world. At the time a few years behind that curve. Now married (apparently for some time) to a nationally recognized litigator in high profile securities cases. Pics of her attending high society soirees in evening wear and diamonds. Sitting around in her 9500 sq ft ranch house with mountains in the background. Just weird how things turned out.

I think I kinda looked at it as how different our lives have become.

[HardDrive]

I'm not sure exactly what she does, but one of my ex girlfriends works for Fords Motorsports. She is constantly posting photos at various racing events.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

One more reason not to go onto Facebook, Myspace, Linkedin, or any one of the other million-and-one self-promotional sites. Ditto Monster and CareerBuilder - yes your information can and will pop up on search engines if you post resumes there so only keep them up for as long as necessary. Not like anyone of significance ever called me from those sites anyway - only bottom-feeding headhunters looking to waste my time.

[Oh Haha]

+1 on Jeff's thoughts.

I visit FB a couple of times a week, at most. Right now, some folks are posting pics of the "band days". That was a great time but things are different now....for most of us. Seems that some of those people are doing the same thing they were back then. Wow.

I was checking out some pics of a benefit concert for our former guitarist and ran across a shot of my ex-wife.Yep, still the same.

[herr_oberst]

Jim, we've seen pix of your cabin; to many of us here on the board, you haven't done too bad either. It's all relative, and you never know, maybe she's checked you out in this bold new information age, too!

[TechnoViking]

This is a very timely thread for me. I just re-connected with "the one that got away"; my college GF. She was rich, hot, so cute...damn. When she broke it off, I was devastated.

Anyway, ~16 years later, I do a search for her on LinkedIn. She's married, got a PhD, and works for a big company and has done well for herself. We emailed, and exchanged pics and she, too, is still hot.

Damn, I was hoping she'd have gained 80 pounds and would be living in a trailer somewhere.

Anyway, in all seriousness, after exchanging emails with her, I actually feel a lot better. Her life, like mine, has turned out to be very imperfect. I'll bet if you contact your old GF, you'll find she is the same.

[TechnoViking]

And, you'll feel slightly less like a creepy internet stalker by just making contact.

She'll probably get a kick out of hearing from you.

[Tim Hancock]

I admit to wasting some time recently looking at pics of old classmates on FB. Can't help but be astonished at how old and chunky looking many have become in their mid 40's.... Not that there is anything wrong with that.

[cgarr]

Well what is wrong is some of the guys I went to HS with are now gals

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by herr_oberst

Jim, we've seen pix of your cabin; to many of us here on the board, you haven't done too bad either. It's all relative, and you never know, maybe she's checked you out in this bold new information age, too!

Was thinking the same thing. Jim there are people you went to school or grew up with who are prolly looking at you on the internet and saying "boy, he sure did well in life!"

Every time I go to my HS reunion I get that a lot. Funny thing is that many of them had A LOT more chances as a young pup than I did but did not work as hard nor want it as bad.

[targa911S]

Originally Posted by Oh Haha

+1 on Jeff's thoughts.

I was checking out some pics of a benefit concert for our former guitarist and ran across a shot of my ex-wife.Yep, still the same.

I'd like to run across my ex's picture....... on a milk carton!

[IROC]

Originally Posted by HardDrive

I'm not sure exactly what she does, but one of my ex girlfriends works for Fords Motorsports. She is constantly posting photos at various racing events.

Did you mean to say "posing for photos at various NOPI events"? Hahaha...just kidding.

[vash]

my ex's have gone in all directions. lawyers, divorced victim of abusive husbands with 2 kids...i quit facebook.

[rattlsnak]

Originally Posted by Dueller

Nah...I've invaded her privacy enough

sounds like it was all 'out there' so i dont think you invaded anything..

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I can think of no better way to invite stalkers, scammers, spammers, id thieves, etc. than using those kinds of sites.

On the 'net, anonynimity is the best policy. You're inviting trouble otherwise.

[Dueller]

No plans to connect. In thinking about it this morning over coffee, I guess what was unsettling was not so much the superficial trappings of success, but rather some forced introspection of my own life and whether I had changed so much, progressed so far from where I was as a young college student. A "who is the person I've become?" moment.

Admittedly I've grown in these 3+ decades and by many measures am successful to a degree, but I guess I am having a retrospective of whether I have I lived up to my full potential. Probably not, but then again, who has?

I once read a short story about a young boxer, who while serving in the millitary during WWII had an opportunity to fight an exhibition bout with an aging Joe Louis. The young boxer was in his prime, a military wide boxing champ and was concerned he might embarass or hurt his childhood idol. Long story short, Joe Loiuis beat the kid senseless. It was a bitter pill to realize he would never be a World champion at such a young age. Maybe not my own epiphany with my little snooping exhibition, but it has made me think what I still have to accomplish personally and professionally.

Guess I better turn off Jimmy Buffet singing "A Pirate Looks Back at Forty."