This will take several posts. I simply don't have time to sit down and write out everything at once. So I will do it in bits and pieces. Trying to decide where to begin this is a real challenge. As I said, nothing happens in a vacuum. There have been struggles for quite some time that have shaped or influenced some of my reactions. In fact I have scars from years and years ago that played a vital role in what has gone on in the last year or so. But I don't want anyone's pity here. This isn't about anyone else. It isn't anyone's fault. And I am going to do my very best not to throw anyone else under the bus. This will be difficult in some ways because as I said, you don't really understand my perspective if you don't know the whole story. But the way I figure, I don't really owe anyone an explanation anyhow. So if you don't understand or blame me because you don't know the whole story, that's ok. Just know that you don't know the whole story. I choose not to take anyone down with me. And if anyone dares to say a word blaming anyone else for any of this you will wish you had not. This is about me and me alone. Don't go speculating and putting blame where it doesn't belong. Everyone in this story is a grown up and doing the best they could and I dearly love them. So keep your opinions to yourself and don't go causing trouble.
So with that being said I will start just over a year ago. A couple of things to keep in mind about me. I know personally almost all of my friends on facebook. There are a couple who are friends of friends. But no one random. My Twitter account was the same way at this time. Just a handful of people that I knew personally who followed me. When the Benghazi attacks happened I was having surgery to have my gall bladder removed. I was furious with the response that followed as anyone who was around at the time can attest. I posted a tweet on twitter expressing my frustration and I got my first real taste of what this Twitter thing was all about. Overnight it was retweeted over a thousand times and I suddenly had hundreds of followers who I did not know. I did not attempt to get to know anyone. I don't talk to strangers online. lol. Bad idea. So aside from commenting on a tweet here and there I kept to myself. Stayed mostly to Facebook where I knew everyone.
As most people know I started a workout program the beginning of the year and started trying to get back in shape after multiple surgeries in the past year and four kids. I was so excited about seeing results almost instantly that I posted a couple of photos a couple of weeks in. I posted them on Facebook and on Twitter. I got a few congratulatory comments on my tweet. Nothing crazy. Except this one guy I did not know who then went back through pictures and commented on them as well. Ok. No big deal. Then he sends me a direct message. This startled me. I'd never actually talked to anyone I didn't know online and I didn't want to. But something seemed off. I went to his profile. He said he was a Navy officer. He did not behave like one. He made several outrageous claims in an obvious effort to impress. Unfortunately for him the random girl he picked knew better. I called a friend who has been in the Navy many years. This guy was over the top. Calling me baby or princess in every line. Lying about his service. I was disgusted. He pretended he was deployed to Afghanistan. That he was single because his wife left him during his last deployment. Hadn't ever had kids.
In truth he was living in the states. Married with two little boys. He was in the Navy but had made all kinds of false claims about his service. After much discussion with my friend I had to decide what I was going to do. Did I want to ruin this guy's life? Contact his wife? Let the Navy handle it? I had the ability to wreck this man's entire life. It was an enormous amount of pressure trying to decide how to handle it. I decided I wanted outside advice. Someone who wasn't protective of me. Someone unbiased. An objective opinion. So I told my husband my intentions, gave myself a list of criteria for someone to ask, and went to my now rather lengthy list of Twitter followers. I had no way of knowing everything I thought I knew was about to be turned on its head.
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