I think this blog template is a little too pink...I might have to change that after I post this.
Anyway, I was reminded today that I never followed up on my class reunion. It was held at the Koolau Golf Club about a month ago. I went with my gal pals, the ones I met in intermediate school and still hang out with til this day. I should note that one of these gal pals, who I'll call Elastagirl, is actually a year younger than me, but she hung out with us more than she did people in her class, so we invited her as our guest. We met The Stuff Guy (TSG) there and grabbed a table. The atmosphere was casual, which was nice. It was in a place called "Honeys," a place I presume is normally some kind of a restaurant. $25 got us heavy pupus, which was actually a pretty decent meal -- except there was no rice, which was odd considering that mac salad was one of the dishes. No host bar.
The drinks here were kind of pricey, which was probably a good thing since it helped to control how much I drank. I decided to limit myself to two drinks, in part because at some point I would have to drive from my friends house in Kailua to my house in town, and in part because I got plastered at my 10th reunion and had to have a friend drive me home.
Although I always enjoy seeing old friends and finding out what's going on in everyone's lives, this reunion wasn't as much fun as the 10th. I think part of it was that I wasn't involved in any of the planning, which is one of my "things." I'm pretty sure anyone who has known me fairly well at any point in my life, including now, will tell you that I was always involved in organizing or planning something. Nonetheless, it was still a somewhat eventful evening.
People seemed to hang out with their old high school cliques. I didn't socialize nearly as much as I did at the 10th, although I did speak to a couple of people that weren't part of my high school social circle. I was able to socialize with those I was most interested in catching up with, like our class president. At our 10th reunion, she had 3 children and said she and her husband wanted a total of 6...and they obtained their goal!
Ooh, and there were also door prizes, so that was cool. I won a $10 Starbucks gift card and a bag.
There were a few surprises in store for me. The first one was seeing a guy I had a love-hate relationship with in high school. I think the last time I saw him was probably about 18 years ago. He was literally the only person I knew in high school that I did not recognize at the reunion. I only knew it was him by looking at his name tag. So it was nice catching up with him in a civilized manner. The other surprise is one of the long-lost friends I got back in touch with earlier this year. He was supposed to return to the mainland before the reunion, but managed to stick around to attend.
It ended up being a fairly early night since we got kicked out of the place sometime around 10:30. Some people were going to head off to a bar in Kailua to continue the party, but my group chose to go home.
So what do I do when I go home? What I do practically every night...I log on to GMail and do other stuff on the computer. And who do I find also on GMail? TSG. Remember when people used to call each other on the phone? Although I had a number of people in the intermediate, high school, and early college days calling me, usually because they needed someone to talk to and I kind of became the Charlie Brown psychiatrist, I was never really much of a phone-talker. I always liked writing better, so GMail chat is great for me. Plus you can walk away if you need to and come back to the conversation when you're ready. Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked...my point is that TSG and I were chatting, and then I got Elastagirl to sign up for GMail since she and I were e-mailing each other back and forth at the same time. That way we could group chat.
Then Elastagirl sends me a link to the Facebook page she just signed up for. I look at it and immediately dismiss it as a Myspace-kinda-thing that I have no interest in doing. I'm telling TSG about it and commented that I can't even keep up with my own blog, why would I want to do Facebook? But I sign up mainly to look at Elastagirl's page. Then Facebook ends up "finding" people I know! Cool! So I add them as friends too. Now, one month later, I'm up to 45 friends and I spend time on it every day while I'm doing other stuff on the computer.
I've been questioned about "what's so great about Facebook." I have nothing else to compare it to, so I can't tell you whether it's "better" than MySpace, but I can tell you that Facebook can be used for many purposes and those on Facebook have a great deal of control over what they want to share on their pages and who they want to share it with. I've seen people use it primarily as a source of advertising for their business or cause, and some people who just use it for plain ol' fun, which is me.
It's also been a great tool to reconnect with people who seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. For example, I found a couple of high school classmates that I don't think I've seen or heard much of since high school, but I was curious about, especially after the reunion. I was actually amazed that they remembered me...or perhaps they're just not very discerning about who they add as "friends" on Facebook. =) I've also been able to reconnect with people who have moved and I haven't heard from in over 10 years.
Ironically, I don't necessarily chat or otherwise communicate with some of these people, but it's fun to look at their Facebook pages and see how their personalities are reflected through the content of the page. Some pages don't really have much on them, but others have all kinds of stuff like what their favorite tv shows, movies, and music are. I also really enjoy looking at the pictures people have on their pages. I try to find what I enjoy looking at on other people's pages and add those features to my own page.
Facebook has also helped me to develop relationships with people I know through work. There are people in my building who I have as Facebook friends that I have probably chatted with more on Facebook than I have in person! I also get to see a more personal side of these people than I would at work. It's nice to find something in common with people I work with, other than work.
I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that I ended up liking Facebook so much. Like I said, I was never much of a "talker" (believe it or not...I know some of my friends are laughing at that comment and saying, "yeah, right!"), and as soon as I learned about chat rooms, like Interact way back in the early 90s, as well as other discussion boards, I was in them. Facebook allows you to keep in touch with others as time allows and in the manner you're comfortable with.
So, if you're interested in keeping in touch with your current friends, or maybe finding some long lost friends, check out Facebook. But beware...you could become an addict like I have.
Anyway, I was reminded today that I never followed up on my class reunion. It was held at the Koolau Golf Club about a month ago. I went with my gal pals, the ones I met in intermediate school and still hang out with til this day. I should note that one of these gal pals, who I'll call Elastagirl, is actually a year younger than me, but she hung out with us more than she did people in her class, so we invited her as our guest. We met The Stuff Guy (TSG) there and grabbed a table. The atmosphere was casual, which was nice. It was in a place called "Honeys," a place I presume is normally some kind of a restaurant. $25 got us heavy pupus, which was actually a pretty decent meal -- except there was no rice, which was odd considering that mac salad was one of the dishes. No host bar.
The drinks here were kind of pricey, which was probably a good thing since it helped to control how much I drank. I decided to limit myself to two drinks, in part because at some point I would have to drive from my friends house in Kailua to my house in town, and in part because I got plastered at my 10th reunion and had to have a friend drive me home.
Although I always enjoy seeing old friends and finding out what's going on in everyone's lives, this reunion wasn't as much fun as the 10th. I think part of it was that I wasn't involved in any of the planning, which is one of my "things." I'm pretty sure anyone who has known me fairly well at any point in my life, including now, will tell you that I was always involved in organizing or planning something. Nonetheless, it was still a somewhat eventful evening.
People seemed to hang out with their old high school cliques. I didn't socialize nearly as much as I did at the 10th, although I did speak to a couple of people that weren't part of my high school social circle. I was able to socialize with those I was most interested in catching up with, like our class president. At our 10th reunion, she had 3 children and said she and her husband wanted a total of 6...and they obtained their goal!
Ooh, and there were also door prizes, so that was cool. I won a $10 Starbucks gift card and a bag.
There were a few surprises in store for me. The first one was seeing a guy I had a love-hate relationship with in high school. I think the last time I saw him was probably about 18 years ago. He was literally the only person I knew in high school that I did not recognize at the reunion. I only knew it was him by looking at his name tag. So it was nice catching up with him in a civilized manner. The other surprise is one of the long-lost friends I got back in touch with earlier this year. He was supposed to return to the mainland before the reunion, but managed to stick around to attend.
It ended up being a fairly early night since we got kicked out of the place sometime around 10:30. Some people were going to head off to a bar in Kailua to continue the party, but my group chose to go home.
So what do I do when I go home? What I do practically every night...I log on to GMail and do other stuff on the computer. And who do I find also on GMail? TSG. Remember when people used to call each other on the phone? Although I had a number of people in the intermediate, high school, and early college days calling me, usually because they needed someone to talk to and I kind of became the Charlie Brown psychiatrist, I was never really much of a phone-talker. I always liked writing better, so GMail chat is great for me. Plus you can walk away if you need to and come back to the conversation when you're ready. Anyway, I'm getting side-tracked...my point is that TSG and I were chatting, and then I got Elastagirl to sign up for GMail since she and I were e-mailing each other back and forth at the same time. That way we could group chat.
Then Elastagirl sends me a link to the Facebook page she just signed up for. I look at it and immediately dismiss it as a Myspace-kinda-thing that I have no interest in doing. I'm telling TSG about it and commented that I can't even keep up with my own blog, why would I want to do Facebook? But I sign up mainly to look at Elastagirl's page. Then Facebook ends up "finding" people I know! Cool! So I add them as friends too. Now, one month later, I'm up to 45 friends and I spend time on it every day while I'm doing other stuff on the computer.
I've been questioned about "what's so great about Facebook." I have nothing else to compare it to, so I can't tell you whether it's "better" than MySpace, but I can tell you that Facebook can be used for many purposes and those on Facebook have a great deal of control over what they want to share on their pages and who they want to share it with. I've seen people use it primarily as a source of advertising for their business or cause, and some people who just use it for plain ol' fun, which is me.
It's also been a great tool to reconnect with people who seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. For example, I found a couple of high school classmates that I don't think I've seen or heard much of since high school, but I was curious about, especially after the reunion. I was actually amazed that they remembered me...or perhaps they're just not very discerning about who they add as "friends" on Facebook. =) I've also been able to reconnect with people who have moved and I haven't heard from in over 10 years.
Ironically, I don't necessarily chat or otherwise communicate with some of these people, but it's fun to look at their Facebook pages and see how their personalities are reflected through the content of the page. Some pages don't really have much on them, but others have all kinds of stuff like what their favorite tv shows, movies, and music are. I also really enjoy looking at the pictures people have on their pages. I try to find what I enjoy looking at on other people's pages and add those features to my own page.
Facebook has also helped me to develop relationships with people I know through work. There are people in my building who I have as Facebook friends that I have probably chatted with more on Facebook than I have in person! I also get to see a more personal side of these people than I would at work. It's nice to find something in common with people I work with, other than work.
I guess I really shouldn't be surprised that I ended up liking Facebook so much. Like I said, I was never much of a "talker" (believe it or not...I know some of my friends are laughing at that comment and saying, "yeah, right!"), and as soon as I learned about chat rooms, like Interact way back in the early 90s, as well as other discussion boards, I was in them. Facebook allows you to keep in touch with others as time allows and in the manner you're comfortable with.
So, if you're interested in keeping in touch with your current friends, or maybe finding some long lost friends, check out Facebook. But beware...you could become an addict like I have.
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