You know how facebook wants to “help” you create your “content”? As if I didn’t already have enough “help” with that what with a couple people who kept posting “cute” little yooper memes to my “timeline” (or whatever it is). Memes with yooper stereotypes that do not apply to me at all. That is, they didn’t apply to me when I was a child in the yooperland, and they *certainly* don’t apply to me after living almost my entire adult life down here in Trollandia on The Planet Ann Arbor, working at various info tech careers. Not that I don’t love the yooperland. I certainly do. I even fit a few of the stereotypical things people say about yoopers. Maybe 5% of them. The other 95%? Not so much. I complained about this timeline grabbing phenomenon to Mouse once and she said, “Moom, do you know you can change your settings?” Duh… So I locked down my “timeline”, so to speak. Just to be clear, people who live in the yooperland cannot be stereotyped any more than people who live anywhere else. We are all *people*, wherever we grew up and wherever we live now.

Anyway, I got on to facebook this morning and the first thing it presented to me was a cute li’l “movie” of my seven years of being friends with my own daughter. I could “share” it if I wanted to but I didn’t. Jeebus. Actually it seems I became “friends” with both my daughters seven years ago today. I didn’t seek them out at all. I had joined a couple of months before to keep up with a dear friend who’d had a health crisis and almost died. (She is alive and very well today thank you very much.) I [very timidly] befriended a couple of old high school friends and that led to a mini-reunion for anyone who could get to the Lansing area. But my kids? I laid low and didn’t tell them I was on facebook. Why? I didn’t want them to think I was stalking them. And I didn’t *want* to stalk them.

So, seven years ago today, Lizard Breath emailed or texted me or whatever and said something like, “I think dad is on Facebook but I’m confused because his profile pic is the Uncly Uncle.” It was news to me that the GG was on facebook but it was fine with me because we are autonomous enough even as a long married couple to do social media separately. But I ‘fessed up to Liz that *I* was also on facebook. I told her that I wouldn’t be offended if she didn’t “friend” me and the next thing I knew, I had a friend request. And then the 21st century version of The Commander’s old Birch Point Telegraph got to work and the next person who sent me a friend request was Mouse.

So I have been facebook friends with my children for seven years now. I have tried my darndest not to be That Parent. The one who shares every single blasted cute thing her [adult] children do. Or posts all kinds of cutesy articles to her [adult] children’s timelines. Or incessantly tags them. I am not perfect but I try. I definitely post more stuff on FB than my kids do. I think FB has kind of evolved mostly into an old fart’s social media platform. That is not necessarily a bad thing but… oh well, I don’t think I have the energy for that whole discussion tonight.

That bird? You never quite know what you are going to find in the pond in West Park. Always ducks. Sometimes carp but not always. A 20-pound carp who ran for city council. Turtles sunning on rocks. A muskrat swimming a long vine to its home. Billions of toads engaged in reproductive activities and a biologist studying them (and making them vomit so she can analyze the DNA in the contents of their stomachs). And tonight? This majestic beastie! A great blue heron. I tiptoed past him on the boardwalk and, amazingly enough, he did not spook and fly away.

G’night! Oscar Tango with Porterization tonight and then the mayor’s green fair and a walk home and A SHOWER (felt soooo good). I apologize to anyone I may have alienated by systems analystism this week. Learn the vocabulary. Separate the issues. Look at the data. Research research research. Yada yada yada. Chill out, KW!

Thanks y’all for putting up with me!

This entry was posted on Friday, June 10th, 2016 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.