Friends’ Pages
addicted to facebook
one time on facebook (heh), i was “married.” someone who was my “friend” on facebook called my dad and asked him when i got married. my dad called me and asked me when i got married. i immediately retorted with “of all people, when were YOU the one to believe everything on the internet?”
i’ve noticed this unbelievable dependence on facebook by people that i know. some people update their status every 15 minutes (which for some reason i can’t stop reading whether i care what they’re doing or not), and some hardly go near it for fear of information release. job recruiters lurk online and scout out their prospective employees, and we all have checked to see what the hot guy in high school is up to now.
this is complete and utter crap in my opinion. there have been countless articles written about how our dependence on social networking is actually making us less social. but when it all boils down to it, it makes us less personable and more picky. i work with this girl who is the sweetest thing ever. i’d love to be better friends with her and i think she deserves the absolute best of men. two other coworkers and myself are on a hunt to find a suitable man for her, and (guilty as charged) we turned to our friends list on facebook. we’re reliant on it! we’re dependent on it! why!? (what i should have done was gone through my phone because i only keep people in my phone that i will call at any given moment for anything, or whose numbers i need to know so that i can screen the call.) my “friends” on facebook are hardly that. i have 478 facebook friends. what the heck is up with that?
everyone has facebook!
alright, i am calling myself out in an attempt to explain the addiction. right now. i do not have 478 friends. at least not 478 real, true friends. i probably have 3. maybe 4 if i catch someone on a good day. so what the heck am i doing? in fact, i find myself annoyed when i have some of their crap pop up on my home screen.
a few years ago, benjamin and i would have a little competition to see who could cut down their facebook friend list to the fewest amount of people without lying or diminishing a friendship. we called it “the cut.” i think benjamin got down to 22, and i could only narrow it down to 31. but… i just said 3 to 4 true friends, right? i guess the point is that you’re either socially networking or you’re not, and going out of my way to say “here are my real friends” is not the way to do such a thing.
maybe i have 478 people because some of them want to keep tabs on me or see what i’ve been up to, otherwise they would have deleted me, right? maybe some of them want to look at my AWESOME (cough cough) pictures. surely some of them want to see who i’m dating now. some of them want to know where i live, or where i’m working. and maybe i want them to see this so that i have some sentiments of self-worth. having people interested in me definitely is appealing whether i want to admit it or not. i (and probably lots of people) like to be liked. so maybe facebook is my way of doing that. if i have 478 “friends” maybe that means that 478 people give a crap about what i’m doing… and that makes me feel wonderful.
too bad the truth is that only 3 or 4 of them care enough to keep up with it on a regular basis.
and i’m not saying that i’m free of this either. clearly i have friended people for the same reason. vicious cycle, i’d say. so is it social networking, or is it another way to give us little confidence boosts and a sense of importance?
i think i almost just convinced myself to delete my account…. but not quite. i’m still addicted to facebook, whether for its entertainment value or for my fix of self-esteem.
if i could do nothing
if i could do nothing, i would do everything. for the past six days i’ve been couch-bound thanks to my body’s significant intolerance to anything it isn’t used to, and have come to the conclusion that “relaxing” is not all that it’s cut out to be. this morning i was driven back to post-op to receive two bags full of fluids via IV after day 5 of being unable to eat, drink, or even stand up to walk around. i sat in the front seat of justin’s truck with my head pressed up against the window watching the trees fly by and smelling that fresh, damp, crisp smell that only late september/early october can muster. stay remarked that it’d be the perfect day to skip work and go for a run or hike or bike ride. if i could have lifted my head, i would have agreed. it was at that point i started to wonder about all of the things i wish that i could be doing with my daily routine. teaching kids, or taking groups of people white water rafting down the oconee, or building houses for habitat, or being some type of scientific journalist. i’m not sure, but i am sure that it doesn’t include calculating coefficients of heat transfer or figuring out how to save energy through environmentally friendly heaters. if i could do nothing, i would make my way to the beach every morning, go for a run, watch the sun rise, play fetch with the dogs, and find the rest of the hours of the day waiting to be tackled. i think if there is one thing that i need to feel in my life, it’s that i’ve made a tiny little change in the world every day i’m alive.
i learned that i have the best friends in the world, and if i didn’t already know that, it was solidified this past weekend. i’m not sure how complete strangers find each other and learn to love another unconditionally with no reason to prove anything, but i’m really glad that i met these people. “a true friend is one who walks in when the rest of the world walks out.” well-said.
doing nothing and being on the couch can teach lots of things. i guess the pain over the past five or six days really paid off in one way or another.
we’ll see if i agree tomorrow morning when i walk into the office.
good patients sing to their doctors
i was told you are supposed to have your wisdom teeth removed in your mid-teens. oops.
i got my wisdom teeth ganked yesterday morning after having the appointment rescheduled twice. barrels of fun, i’ll tell you. my favorite future brother-in-law took me there and i wasn’t really sure how any of it was going to go. and to be honest, the only thing i was told is that i am a “good patient.” justin informed me that i was telling all of the nurses what a fabulous guy he is, and was also serenading them with the theme song of alvin and the chipmunks (in reference to my hugely swollen cheeks). also, i had to be carried to the truck. i called my father twice, possibly a third time. i’m not one of those little ones who handles anesthesia well, and i’m still not.
the night before though, justin and i had grand ol’ time learning “get some” songs on the guitar. we also concluded that playing guitar does not give you some mystical pick-up-members-of-the-opposite-sex powers. we also dragged out the cello, i gave a brief lesson, and were up til 2:30 just screwing around on our instruments. if we had a bass and one more guitar there we would have had it made. i showed justin the cause for a cellist’s true hatred of pachelbel’s canon in D, and he, in turn, showed me this collegehumor.com video. it’s on my myspace page too.
i tried to go to our softball game last night. my friends are smart - they let me think that they were going to take me but fully had no intention of doing so. i’m sure that was a good idea because about 30 minutes before they left, i got up off of the couch to go to the bathroom and fainted. good thing the hardwood floor broke my fall. now, not only does does my swollen mouth hurt like all hell, but the nice little goose-egg on my skull feel like someone is pounding me with a hammer. on the bright side, i’m downing chocolate milkshakes at the rate that no one else in atlanta will be able to lay their hands on one, AND scared hitless won the game and came home with one big-ass trophy.
my dad is my sunshine. he got me a nice little boquet of flowers that are conveniently situated at the end of the couch by my feet. basically if i’m awake, i’m looking at them.
right now i’m bored out of my mind. i’m waiting for the hydrocodone that i just took to kick in and knock me out for a few hours. and i can’t tell you how much i would love to be able to consume some type of red meat and a nice cold beer. i can feel the stitches in the back of my mouth which is really starting to bother me, but at least i’m not completely numb anymore.
i hate to say this, but i’m actually wishing i were at work. there is nothing worthwhile on tv other than the gameshow network. i like the gameshow network so much. where else can you see mark summers from double dare, calton from the fresh prince, ben stein, and rachel ray all within 5 minutes of each other? i also love innocent family tv. it reminds me of the times that life was easy.
nana is not doing so well again. i really wish i could be at home to help my family out with her care, but that obviously isn’t an option. i’m not fully sure how to update on that, but i just know that time is running low.
to all of you who have called, texted, brought me a milkshake, or listened to me blab away in my constant drugged-up state, i just want to say thank you. i really appreciate it more than you can imagine. you prove that the word “family” is not exhaustive to those who have the same DNA as i.