Facebook and Me

I recently returned from my 30th High School Reunion. Click here to view a homage by Steve Sicula, creator of the comic "Home and Away". Steve is one of our class alumni:

http://www.gocomics.com/homeandaway/2010/08/08

Oh, in adding this link, I discover you can't simply type the link, you have to use HTML. Wow. It's like when I first started using EBAY and to create an ad you had to know HTML. I felt like such a pro, learning to center, make headings, and change the font color with opening and closing tags.

Back to the reunion...I was the class geek/nerd...what's the current term for smart, not dressed fashionably, anxious-to-make the-wrong-move-person? That was me. I was in theater and choir. I've helped put together all three reunions (10, 20, 30), but was not a class officer. This time last year, I was chatting with my friend Nancy, who was attending her 30th. She recommended using Facebook, so I opened a personal account. This somewhat irritated my middle daughter Kayla, who feels adults (defined as older than 25 with jobs) are sticking their noses in where they don't belong! Of course, now businesses, charities...well, basically everyone has usurped facebook from her and her peers' little college hands. She hasn't mentioned if there is something "new" (like when everyone migrated from myspace to facebook), but she wouldn't would she? Except maybe in a Facebook posting, lol.

Back to the reunion...I was stunned to already find a number of classmates on Facebook. I was friending them all and trying to get input on what participants might like in a reunion. Turns out, some of the earliest on Facebook were a little...odd...sorry guys...and I started to think it wasn't such a good idea to use my personal page for the reunion. I created a page for our purposes, and voila (I always want to write that word as "WAH LAH" or voile, which is a fine fabric), we were cyber-connected.

I love Facebook - it's fun to see what people are doing. No one writes letters anymore, and if they do, its only to close friends. Facebook maintains the loose connection I'd have if I lived in Mayberry (a lifelong dream), and saw Andy or Aunt Bee on the street and chatted for a few minutes about canning pickles, or Ernest T's latest antics, or Opie's grades. Now, I live just down cyber street from the people I grew up with, my extended family, and friends across the country.

The reunion? It was fun, more fun than the others. We didn't have a dinner - appetizers and drinks. People chatted and laughed and moved from group to group. In the past, I felt tied to my table and found it awkward to approach other tables to chat. I looked...pretty darn good, if I do say so myself...well, as good as a person attending her 30th can look when she didn't skip any grades.

If you're not on Facebook, give it a whirl. You might be surprised who you find and what they're having for supper tonight!