Thursday, July 24, 2008

Will you be my friend?

So I had a good birthday on Sunday (and I steadfastly maintain my assertion that I am 26 years old… I think it works…). We went out to dinner with my parents and Rick’s parents. I decided on Truluck’s – which may seem like a strange choice for me, since it’s mostly seafood and I hate seafood. However, they have some of the BEST chocolate cake served by any restaurant in the city. Yes, my choice was motivated by chocolate… (seems like many of my choices are motivated by chocolate…) And actually, they had a roasted chicken entrée on the menu that turned out to be quite tasty. (Truluck’s is one of those places that changes their menu on a regular basis, so I never know if they’ll have anything I’m interested in or not… someday I’m gonna go there and order nothing but chocolate cake, because everything else on the menu will be too fishy…)

Rick’s mom sort of let it slip that we were celebrating a birthday, and when our waitress asked whose birthday it was, I guess I had a weird look on my face – because she jokingly said, “oh, stop giving me the evil eye – you just be happy we’re not in a restaurant where I’m wearing a sombrero and calling everyone over to sing happy birthday with maracas…” And I WAS happy about that… Fortunately, at Truluck’s they just quietly bring you a chocolate soufflé with a candle and a little box of truffles (the truffles were an especially nice touch – I wasn’t expecting even MORE chocolate…). No singing waiters, no clapping, and (thank goodness) no sombreros or maracas. :)

So I’ve been trying out Facebook this last week. It’s sort of a more mature version of MySpace – I actually tried MySpace for a couple weeks a while ago, and decided it wasn’t something I wanted to stick with. I kept getting “friend” requests from people who most certainly did not want to be my “friend.” But the Facebook set-up seems to be a little less junior high oriented, so it weeds out much of the questionable element. But I’m still sort of torn on whether it’s really my kinda thing… I’ve found all sorts of people I went to high school with, but I’m not sure I want to contact any of them – I mean, there was a REASON I couldn’t wait to get out of high school. And do I really want to get back in touch with a bunch of people whose only connection to me thus far is… HIGH SCHOOL? Eh… probably not…

And as you look through the various names on Facebook, you can see how many “friends” each person has. I keep finding these people with three or four hundred “friends.” And I’m like, “oh come ON… nobody honestly has four hundred friends…" Not REAL friends, anyway. And that’s the thing about Facebook and MySpace and all those “social networking” sites – it’s a way to maintain “friendships,” but in a very casual manner. It’s like the 21st century, ADHD, noncommittal way to stay in touch. And is that a good thing, or a bad thing? (Just food for thought… :))

But the one thing I’m really enjoying about Facebook is the online game of Scrabble I’ve been playing with my friend (and she really IS my friend… not just one of four hundred “Facebook friends” :)) Cindy. Even though she’s obviously going to win this round. But I’m giving myself a break because I’ve actually never played Scrabble in my life – and I’ve been wondering, as we pass turns back and forth through cyberspace, how I’ve gone these entire thirty… er, twenty-six… years of my life without playing one game of Scrabble. How did THAT happen?

And that reminds me – it’s my turn…

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