F is for FACEBOOK

Frank’s cousin Joyce had been trying to talk me into joining Facebook for months, but I thought it was some kind of silly kids’ site and wasn’t interested. Maybe I began to hear interesting things about it. I just can’t remember. But sometime in the fall of 2008, Frank and I were sitting at the airport in Albuquerque, waiting to leave for Washington, when I decided on the spur of the moment to join Facebook. Easiest thing I ever did, and as soon as I clicked on whatever made me an official member, there was my precious friend Mary Story Simpson, whom I had been searching for for years, just waiting for me to send her a friend request. I absolutely love Facebook because of all of the friends that I have.

Several of my cousins are on Facebook, and I have a wonderful time keeping up with what’s going on in their families – births of grandchildren, surgeries, new homes, trips to Europe and other exotic places . . . all sorts of things, and I love knowing what’s going on in their lives.

Of course, Wendy (our daughter) is on Facebook and posts beautiful photos of Jackson and Corey (our grandchildren). She also keeps us up to date with what’s going on at Duel, the brewery where Todd brews. Wendy is such an amazing photographer, and she shares unselfishly.

I have about 150 former students as friends on Facebook, and it gives me a thrill every time one of them posts a funny grammar piece or writes to tell me that one of his or her children has received an English award or just drops in to tell me something positive about days in my class. I love those “kids,” some of whom are grandparents, with a passion!

I always post something about my boy on his birthday (February 10) or on the anniversary of his death (July 2), and oh, you should see the comments that his friends and ours make about him. He died almost 24 years ago, and people still remember him an count him among their best friends. You know that those comments thrill this mother’s heart!

Whenever we take trips, I post a travel journal, and so many, many friends travel along with us. They make me feel so good, even if they don’t read my verbose journals. Most just look at the photos.

I can’t understand people who won’t have Facebook pages because of all of the horror stories that they’ve heard. They just don’t get it that if they don’t post something that offends or is very private, they won’t have nasty things written on their pages.

I must admit that I’ve been hacked a couple of times. I just changed my password so that the hacker would have to work harder next time he or she wanted to get into my pages. There’s nothing secret in my info, but I just don’t like to think of strangers roaming around in my space.

So . . . I’m glad that I took Joyce’s advice and joined Facebook. I don’t stay on the site the way some folks do, but I do like to check in every once in a while to see what’s going on in the lives of my friends and relatives!