@Bill3 - thanks for your post. Knowing what you want to do is more important than being able to articulate a rationale. I'm perplexed. I don't know what I want to do.

Ideally, I'ld like to be welcoming. I love weddings and especially wakes before funerals, where I have made really meaningful discoveries of my extended family. But that's live, face to face. On media, I'm wary of setting a precedent of being open to a contact. I fear regretting it later. Right now I have this vague sense of having been kinda "stalked." That's not the right word, but I can't think of a more apt word. Some of what's been shared by my new contact has been slightly weird - a lot of negative talk about another mutual relative. This person seems to have abnormal boundaries. So, now, I'm trying to distance myself a bit, but I don't want to be hurtful to someone who's starting to come across as fragile. I'm thinking, "What did I get myself into?" I sort of committed to an eventual meet-up IRL, and I think maybe I should have held off on that.

I'm way far from this person's neck of the woods. But soon I'll be traveling to that area. I think my whereabouts are being "tracked," and that expectation of getting together will be hanging over me. I can be really naive about guarding myself socially. I feel stupid. Then I think, "What's the worst that can happen. Probably nothing awful."

Here, today was a major holiday. People I really wanted to hear from barely touched base with me, whilst my phone, for a week, keeps lighting up with notifications of new messages from this new friend.

I spend too much time alone. Always have. Navigating socially confuses me.