When it rains, it pours

It's funny, isn't it? How aphorisms can so aptly describe a situation, I mean.

I wrote an ad, posted it on CL, and waited for responses. Several came. Only one really obvious creep in the bunch. The others wrote e-mails with varying degrees of intrigue (and grammatical skills - I'm such a stickler for that).* I wrote back to each and every one of them. Most responded to my response. And so the cycle went.

Then, one day it all just dried up. Gone. I knew there would be no new responses, as the ad had expired. But all the guys who'd been e-mailing me? They all just stopped. Every single one of them.

That's weird.
It made me wonder if I'd said something.
I started to feel a little bad about myself.

I mean, one guy deciding it's not worth continuing conversation with - that's one thing. All of them? All on the same day? I knew I was my father's daughter when

I started to think there was a conspiracy against me.

I know what you're thinking - where's the rain? Where's the pouring? This sounds more like a drought.

Except that yesterday, FOUR of them sent me messages, all with the same theme:

I'm sorry it's been a while. Life has gotten busy and time got away from me. I still really want to chat with you. I hope you're not mad at me.

Mad? No, I'm not mad.

I was feeling a little bit like the well had dried up and it was time to post a new ad. And I was wondering what I'd said or done to make EVERYONE bounce at the same time. And I had needed to remind myself that this is an experiment, and the experiment is NOT intended to wreak havoc on my self-esteem. Or even touch it slightly. But mad? Seriously?!?

The fact that all FOUR of them hoped I wouldn't be mad caused me to wonder...

WHO are these men?

No - WHO are the women they've meeting on Craigslist previously?
Do these women really get mad when someone THEY HAVE NEVER MET disappears? For a few days? Is that happening? Is that "normal"?

If that's normal, then I am definitely not it.

Oh - and for the record, there are still a couple out there who did seemingly drop off the face of the earth. I'm guessing they realized I'm not a good match for them. And,

I am okay with that.

* I admit that I'm a little afraid all of my grammar/spelling judgments are going to come back to haunt me one day. I'm going to make some error on this blog, and someone is going to judge extra harshly for it. Let this be my pre-error caveat: I'm not perfect; I know I'm not perfect; I don't expect you to be perfect; but if you're going to make errors in spelling/grammar and you're trying to impress me, know that you'll succeed only if you make them few and far between.