Ruth's Orange County Finds: Unfriended: a cautionary tale

Good thing I saw an articlee about a facebook gliftch last week before I tried to message a friend on Facebook.

Good thing I didn't assume the worst when I noticed that this friend was no longer among my facebook contacts.

Good thing I didn't think that this person unfriended me, and then went to the trouble of hiding their profile from me.

Good thing I didn't freak out about why this long-time friend would feel the need to go to these lengths to avoid me.

Good thing I didn't spend the next hour going over every interaction I've had with this friend in the last month.

Good thing I didn't psychoanalyze our last conversation to try and figure out what I did to offend this person (Was I too opinionated? Were my kids too unruly? Was I too distracted? Too needy? Too stand-offish?)

Good thing I didn't spin into a critical frenzy of self-doubt about how awkward I can be in social situations, and how many things I need to change about myself.

Good thing I didn't then start projecting my anger onto this friend (How dare they judge me right now . . . don't they know how stressed I am?)

Good thing I didn't ruminate on it all day.

Phew.

Good thing I didn't do any of those things.

Good thing I didn't react to the entire situation with he maturity level of an adolescent girl.

Good thing I just calmly waited until the facebook glitch was fixed, and my friend re-appeared in my friend list.

Yeah.