I Sing the Praises of Facebook

So you want to know what I like about Facebook? How about this:

Before FB, I knew her as another neighbor, the mom of my son's friend, and the wife of Keith's scouting buddy.

Since FB, I've learned she is a grammar maven, a compassionate soul, a mean cube-truck driver, and a razor-sharp wit. But best of all? She's my friend.

For more happiness, visit Leigh

Facebook, Caution, and God

Deciding what to give up for Lent this year was a difficult decision. Donuts? Done that. Fast food? Done it. Television? The newspaper? Flirting? Yes, yes, yes. This year I really wanted my Lenten "fasting" to be more meaningful, so I gave up Facebook.

I thought maybe I was in love with Facebook. Through it I have found high school classmates, former neighbors, and some of my dearest college friends. I've gotten to be much better friends with some people from my own neighborhood, too. So checking FB multiple times each day brought immense pleasure to me and would surely be meaningful as a Lenten offering.

The first few FB-less days were hard. What if someone sent me a friend request? What if Jennifer posted pix of her first photo exhibit (or the subsequent SECOND one!!)?? What if Lady Fi offered some of her sage advice about life or my last long-lost college friend decided to find me?

But something interesting has happened. The time I was spending "quickly" checking my FB has morphed into time my brain can simply think. I'm teaching better, reading more books, and doing a far better job studying for the Sunday school lessons I write.

This week, instead of checking my FB page a dozen times a day, I've been reading these verses and trying to see what they mean in my life:
If anyone boasts, "I love God," and goes right on hating his brother or sister, thinking nothing of it, he is a liar. If he won't love the person he can see, how can he love the God he can't see? The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both. 1 John 4:20,21

In some ways, it would have been easier all the way around to have given up pizza.

Just When I Think I'm Bored with Facebook

Sometime between Washington crossing the Delaware and Grant and Lee meeting at Appomattox, I worked at a college. It was small and had potential for greatness, and there were some wonderful faculty members and students. It had great location and community contacts, but things there were a little dicey. Crazy, really. There were undercurrents and overcurrents and swirling currents of unrestrained toxins which tainted most of the good things coming out of those hallowed halls of higher learning. *The writer can't decide if she should gag at the memory or gag at the trite expressions which have taken this post hostage.*

I did a mighty good job there in spite of the circumstances, but sometimes enough is enough and the day I walked out of there having tendered my resignation was joyful. I went home, gathered up my baby girl and was free of that terrible work environment and anything associated with it.

Somehow, the next 14 years moved quickly and when any thought of that yucky school arose, I just put my fingers in my ears and ignored it.

Then one night last winter, a friend request on Facebook forced me to think about that college. The request was from a co-worker from that horrible school. I've thought about her sometimes. I even referenced her here. It took me 3.7 seconds to accept that request (and that included the 3.6 seconds it took for the grumpy computer to wake-up and respond.)

That former co-worker and I met up last night. We commiserated about our former employer. We laughed. We shared pictures of our families. And we marvelled that if it hadn't been for Facebook, we would never have known that we both now teach at the same community college :)

Here's to regenerating old friendships.

Look What Showed Up on Facebook

A newly-minted Dr. Caution Flag, c.1991. 

• Where is her hair?
• See her sister and dad in the background?
• Do you think she should wear this gown on a regular basis?  Maybe to church next Sunday?

My Facebook Mystery Friend

You know I've had a little something going on with Facebook the last couple of months.  It's been fun to "find" people I didn't know I had lost and then find some I had definitely lost.  Without exception, they all look wonderful (well, I know I post a nice, slimming picture of myself, too!)  I've enjoyed seeing that some people have moved a grand total of 2 inches from where I left them and others have moved light years away.
Some have turned out so differently from what I predicted, and that should be a lesson to you not to trust my powers of prediction.  Psychic I am not (but I did read a good novel about one, The Grift.)

Yesterday, however, dampened my Facebook enthusism.  I got a friend request.  That means that someone I "know" found my name and wants to link up with me, in the most wireless way possible.  She sent me this message:

Caution!!!  Is this really Caution Flag??? I can't believe I found you. This is wonderful.  Please get me all caught up on your life.  How's your mom?

I was happy to read that someone wanted to find me.  And since my mom was our guidance counselor, I always think it's sweet when someone wants to be remembered to her. 

I looked at the letter sender's picture. No memory of her.  I looked at her credentials.  Yup, same school/same time frame.  I looked at her list of friends.  Yes, we knew the same people.  But her?  There is not even the tiniest of synapses lighting up at her name.  Who is she?  I suppose it would be rude to ask her to give me a hint?

Instead, I emailed a mutual acquaintance asking for a clue, but just this minute I began to wonder if I sent the email to the mutual acquaintance or accidentally sent it to the mystery friend.

Facebook will certainly be the undoing of me.

Facebook Has Its Way With Me

So I've been spending some more positive time with Facebook. At first, I was unimpressed because Facebook wasn't delivering much info to me. I had only found my own nieces and nephew and they weren't lost in the first place. It was fun to see their friends, I will admit. Then I began to find friends who live within in a five mile radius of my home. Our paths don't always cross anymore, so I balanced annoyance at Facebook with a very mild appreciation of it.

But now I've begun to find what I had really hoped to find. I've found a childhood friend. We moved a couple of times when I was a child. The first move was from New England to the Mid-West and then the Mid-West to the South. Then, for my undergrad degree, I went back to New England. For the two masters, I went to the South. For the doctorate I landed in the Mid-West. Since all that was prior to the internet and since I have never been a devoted letter writer, I've lost most everyone I knew prior to my current life.

So last night was huge when I found that childhood friend. And what I loved even more was that she was just as excited to find me. And the other day, I found a lost friend (who is only a year older than I am) who had been in my wedding. I was happy. I actually jumped up and down. And when my son asked, "You mean that old woman in the picture was once your friend?" I didn't even mind.

My Futile Facebook Journey

My SIL should get some sort of commission from Facebook. She loves it and thinks I should love it, too. She talks of being able to follow her college-daughter's life via Facebook. She talks of reconnecting with her college friends. She talks of finding friends from waaaay back. She talks of the ease of chatting with all these people without having to call or text.

So I sign up. How cool to see my nieces' and nephew's pages . How cool to "spy" on them.

Then I try to connect with high school friends and I find only one, and I don't really want to reconnect with him.

Then I try to connect with college friends only to find that none of them have listed themselves under their maiden names. Hellooo! People I want to find?? I lost contact with you by the time you got married. Please remember that you had a life prior to marriage, and a name, too. I can't find you if I don't know your name.

And then there's the little issue of my mis-speaking the name of Facebook.  So what if it came out, "My Face"?  Unfortunately, my audience for the mis-speak consisted of Checkered and my teen-ager.


*sigh*