OK, I spend time on Facebook. I have wasted time cooking in Cafe World, growing crops in Farmville and taking care of my virtual pet. I should do all of these things in real life with the same level of dedication. Lately, I have spent less time there but I do check in a lot and I play Lexulous games. Those are good. And I always like hearing what's going on with the people I know.
I had come to the conclusion, however, that Facebook would not get more exciting. There would be no more connections with people I once knew. And I wasn't happy about that. I live a long way from where I grew up and connecting with people from school has been refreshing. I really like those people now. Whatever went on back then.
Last night, I started searching for people. I looked for some from my early 1990's workplace. That came up empty. Women may have changed last names and it's tricky recalling the exact spellings of more complicated names. Oh well. Then I looked for a few people from school. And I couldn't believe it when, simple as could be, there was P's profile. There it was! We were in classes together on and off from grade 1 to our graduating year of high school. There were some ups and downs along the way, I guess, but I had missed her and there she was. I sent a message and she replied. A connection has been made.
This is not the first really special connection that Facebook has allowed me to make. Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my really good friend, Frances. Through no malice on either of our parts, we lost touch. On one trip to an Italian deli market, I was almost crying. The lovely smells of cooking reminded me of time spent at her house with her grandmother at work in the kitchen. I Googled but had no good way to contact her. Then I looked up her teenage daughter on Facebook, introduced myself, and she connected me to her mother. We've gotten together twice since then, my husband's been welcomed in to visit with her wonderful family, she's visited my parents and she's met my son. Even more importantly, we shared things from our younger days that no one else knew. Memories of two little girls. I no longer cry at Italian food stores.
As far as my other Facebook activities go, I may still go visit my virtual pet, the poor thing has been starving for a while, but I'm done with farming and Cafe World duties. Lexulous is fun and I get to play that with friends at a distance. So that's amazing if you think about it. The real value to me of Facebook though is connecting, reconnecting and staying connected with people from the past and present. I'm so glad that I joined.
Oh, and I get to call my grade 4 teacher Maureen now. That's just really good? bad? weird? It's great to be reconnected with her too.
JAHD
(Oh, and I'm not including P's name because I'm not sure how much she wants to get involved in Facebook yet. She's new.)
PS - I hope that I didn't send my son to school with pink eye today. Yes, that's unrelated but don't we all have many thoughts swirling around in our heads? Or is that just me? Back to the pink eye, his eyes were sticky and reddish this morning. Might be new shampoo? I looked up symptoms, was satisfied it was o.k. and then on way out, he said someone in his class had it last week. I guess if every kid in his class gets pink eye for spring break, I'll really have to rely on my old Facebook friends for company. The mums at the school aren't going to like me. Again, oops.
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