Acknowledging wave from Snape. Only catching up now.
I really hope everything went well today.
You are one feisty lady and, remember, you have more life experience than the combined experience of any interviewing panel.
Wickaninnish - you are right again about I having, at least, the advantage of meeting Widow in real life. When she asked me if I had ever tried OD, I got the impression that it was a new experience for her at the time. It was on day one and it was only a snippet of a conversation, although she told me she could not believe how she could be messed around so much. At the time, I could not credit that such an attractive lady could attract such crass behaviour.
Later, when I found that I had lost the means to contact her, I started to look at OD sites and eventually found this thread.
It is funny how things happen. While gaining an insight into how OD appears to work in the raw, I got interested in the life stories of such a varied group of people here. Having had a charmed life which took me all over the world, through three different careers and having made understanding people a cornerstone of my business career, I thought with the benefit of the passing years, that I knew how things worked.
Then I found this thread - and I am blown away by the sheer magnitude of my ignorance. I know some of this is because I am a male who has wandered on to a ladies' site. I hope to God this does not come across as patronising - but, I am so impressed by the fortitude and stamina that some contributors here have to apply just to deal with the curved balls that life throws at them.
And I have to say that it annoys me to the level of incensement to read of the "antics" of the males outlined in some of the stories here. All I can say is that OD appears to attract a dispropotionate number of dysfunctional males. I have operated in enough male environments, sat in enough locker rooms and gone on enough boys' trips to have any illusions about anything. But, seriously, none of the behaviours outlined here has ever been in my experience - and would be amazed if it was in any of my mates over the years.
Perhaps the anonymity of the OD process encourages peoples' worst impulses - but, I just wonder, if there is another constituency of ladies out there who have the good luck to just meet up with normal guys - and, by definition, would not end up on this thread. While it is probably a game of numbers, it is probably just as much a game of choice.
I often wonder, as well, if people expect results too quickly in terms of time. I would be of the view that one should set their standards high and be prepared to just sit and wait - and use OD just as an a auxiliary aid that may or may not turn something interesting your way.
Reading some of the posts, I sometimes wonder if waiting impatiently for this impersonal process to produce somebody wonderful and quickly, provokes feelings of inadequacy which get projected out into real life. There is nothing so pervasive as a feeling of inadequacy or failure and, by itself, will ensure
that you will project whatever is the opposite to the Colgate Ring of Confidence.
Sorry, did not mean to rabbit on.
Just to say that exposure to this thread encouraged me a week back to relay my story here. Just putting it down on paper clarified a lot of things for me and the encouragement I got here, pushed me to do something about it.
Of course now, I am like an eighteen year old hoping that Widow's daughter will follow through with her promise to send the email, with the holiday photographs, and most importantly her Mom's email address.