ahh, facebook

In an interesting twist of fate, the newly updated Facebook privacy settings revealed a bunch of pictures that I was dying to see, but had no way of accessing previously. The Ex got engaged last year around this time, and I got all kinds of upset. Then, I found out over the summer that despite an original plan to have a fall wedding in 2009, they got married in April instead, preceding a move to a far away place.

At the time, I did pause and think, "Huh, so he didn't think to tell me," but didn't give it much more thought than that. More than anything, I just wanted to see pictures of their wedding because 1) I love to go through other people's wedding pictures, and 2) I'am a secret stalker at heart.

The Ex had hidden all of his photos on Facebook, and of course I wasn't friends with his wife, so even though I knew there were photos of their wedding on facebook, I couldn't see any.

Enter Facebook's new privacy settings ... Not only are the Ex's tagged photos now newly visible, but I can also see his wife's wall and photos. I think this is because she and I are friends of friends.

I do feel a little creepy doing this, stalking their wedding pictures, but looking at them made me really really happy. Their wedding was simple, sweet, and very low-key. It made me really happy that the Ex found a girl who is totally real and down-to-earth, not a poofy-white-wedding-dress princess who's had her wedding planned since she was daddy's little girl on a pony at 8. Compared to how I was the years that the Ex and I were together, it's not hard to see why he would be so much happier with New Girl.

And I am totally okay with that. The Ex was not the right person for me. I am actually very down-to-earth at heart, too, but somehow got too caught up in wealth and status and appearances during the later years of college. The Ex only knew he was unhappy with that aspect of me, but didn't know that it wasn't actually representative of me as a person. Instead, he found the right person in New Girl and was immediately drawn to her cheery unpretentious personality.

As for me, I found the right person in Broadway who is able to bring out the best parts of me. He helped me to find the real me, the (relatively) easy-going, happy-go-lucky me who is happy and secure without (many) material possessions. And that is what the right relationship should do. I can't believe that I hadn't yet even realized this a year ago. I probably wouldn't have been as upset over the Ex's engagement.

So, back to the Facebook pictures. I'm not sure how long I'll continue to be able to see both of their photo albums and tagged pictures. Did they already update their privacy settings to include "friends of friends?" Or is the "friend of friend" visibility simply the default, and they haven't changed anything yet?

Of course, I hope the pictures continue to be visible, especially so I can keep up with other pictures of them in the future in far away place. But either way, I'm happy to have gotten a glimpse.

I'm even happier at my reaction to them. I honestly smiled a few times at how happy they looked at their wedding. Yay!