This is not quite a family matter, but it does involve personal relationships. On the job, I have a lot of free time on my hands. I'm planning a vacation, and through two separate travel forums, I've met two different women who also seem to have a lot of free time on their hands. I have an unfortunate tendency to be overly flattered when people show interest in me, and I'm very lonely while at my job.
I've got one pen pal (we'll call her Mary) who tells me every single detail of her day (i.e. I'm going mattress shopping, I have to take my mother to the doctor, and her blood tests were fine, etc. etc.). We started out talking about travel, and then came the inevitable personal questions/answers/details. It just kind of snowballed, till I was getting multiple emails every day. During the summer, I sort of managed to keep Mary at arm's length and am pretty sure we could break off our relationship.
However, I never seem to learn from my mistakes (or how was I supposed to know, really?) and now I've got a new Mary. Let's call her Joan. I don't mind discussing travel, but suddenly, and it's partly my fault, we're talking about work, where we live, personal stuff. She's sending me links to this and that. What I really don't like is she has asked me about my spouse's and my retirement plans, and what does my spouse do for a living. I am reluctant to discuss my spouse with her, and frankly, this is all moving a bit too fast and she's becoming a PITA.
Right now, I'm in the middle of a very upsetting legal matter and some personal problems. I can barely stand to talk to my "real" friends about this stuff and I don't want these online relationships to go any further (farther?). Here's a good laugh: I told Joan that I've been dropped without a word by several pen pals in the past, and she said she'd never do that to anyone. But that's what I'd like to do right now--ignore her!
I'm sort of socially inept, and I don't know how to let Joan know I don't want to answer her personal questions, nor do I want to be emailing back and forth every day constantly. Like, at times, I DO actually have work to do on my job.
Mary, I'm not so worried about. I think she's very lonely but she'll be fine w/o me.
Please advise, if you have any thoughts. Thanks!