Monday, November 3, 2008

Halloween, Facebook, and other scary delights.

Here's the latest:
Halloween was a great success. The girls donned their ghost (or as Jenna calls it: "dost") costumes and hit the mean streets of Delmar with Dan, prowling for candy.
And they were back after 13 minutes.
Apparently they went to about three houses until the costumes started to annoy them and they realized, "Hey, you know what? My mom has BAGS of candy right at home. Why not just eat that instead of traipsing around half-blinded by a rough 140 thread-count cotton sheet from Walmart falling into my eyes every three seconds?"
Well, that's a bit of a stretch... they don't really use the word "traipsing."

So they came home and I recommended they go over to my parents' house to show them the costumes. My parents get close to 200 - yes, two HUNDRED- trick or treaters and it turns out that Michaela is a champion Halloween Door Answerer. She loved seeing everyone else's costumes that came to my parents' house and they are thinking of hiring her next year to answer the door the whole night. And paying her in Hershey bars and Skittles.

In other news, I made myself a Facebook page after being roped in by my friends Gina and Angel. Because I really need another outlet to maintain and keep updated.
It is kind of fun, however, people somehow find me and then ask to be my friend. It turns out that I feel about Facebook friends the way I feel about friends in real life: I only really need a few good ones that I love to death and the rest just kind of annoy me.
This makes for some awkward self-examination at 10pm when I fire up my Facebook page and it turns out three people I marginally know have requested to be my friend. Do I accept? Do I reject them? There's no button to click that says, "Thanks for offering but I really have all the friends I want right now." Being new to Facebook in general, I am not sure of the etiquette so I have chosen to accept all who offer "friendship".
And the stress! The stress of writing new updates, choosing a non-dorky picture, and making my life seem just a little bit better than maybe it really is.... I can't take it.
And then last night, the whole lid blew clean off. A girl I knew in high school somehow found me and asked to be my friend. We shared a homeroom for four years and she was always friendly. So I click to accept her as a friend and when I go to her page to see her friends, it is almost all people we graduated high school with. Holy crap.
I saw pictures of people I have not seen nor thought of in over 16 years. It was mind blowing. All I could see was their little picture, where they live and if they aligned with a workplace or organization. Many were holding babies in their picture, indicating they had some type of partner and had plunged into parenthood.
What a Pandora's box! It was like reading the end of a book that I started reading a long, long time ago. Of course, since I was looking at this at roughly 12:30am- not my most rational hour- my head started spinning about what people would think of how my life turned out. Would they be impressed? Underwhelmed? Pleasantly surprised? Not surprised at all? How do I even feel about how my life turned out? What would I do differently? What choices would I make again?

I know this: I love my husband. I adore my daughters. I love my family. I laugh A LOT with my friends. I have people I could call at any time, day or night, and they would help me. I like my house. I love my town. I worked hard at my education and feel like I really helped some people who were in crisis situations. I feel like I am doing the best for my kids right now that I know how. Things aren't perfect: I could eat less chocolate. I could live in a more exciting city. I could have a sexy job. I could live more in the now.

But overall, it's a good, happy, satisfying life, with lots of good, fun things to look forward to.
Now how do I shove all of that into a two inch by three inch picture???

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You show a picture of your daughters and their faces tell it all! (Although I do not REALLY think you should show them on Facebook!) Your life is incredibly successful and meaningful-you are raising two exceptional angels, are a great wife and homemaker, wonderful daughter and sister, and a really fun friend. "You done good!" Love, Gammie

Em said...

I have the same issues with Facebook, but mostly just with highschool people. What is it about our high school insecurities that we can't shake?

Anonymous said...

Good points about Facebook! I feel the same about some of the high school people. I didn't really keep in much contact with anyone after I graduated, and when I get friend requests from HS people on Facebook, I wonder, what do they think finding out I'm still working on finishing up college, am not working outside the home corrently, and am an unmarried-but-not-single Mommy? Then I realize, my life is great! I have a great boyfriend who I love and who takes care of Nicole and I, and Nicole is just perfect and we make each other laugh. I have to remind myself that it doesn't really matter what people I knew some years ago think abotu how my life is turning out, because I am happy. :) Jessica

Winterhoff Family said...

This was a great post- one of my favorites. I loved your thoughts on Facebook and you put everything into words so poignantly. Good job, friend! Love, Carrie