Sunday, August 9, 2009

Confessions of a Facebook Addict



At the beginning of this year, I posted that I would try my best to post once a week. Then, I found that wasn’t going to happen, so I dropped to once a month. I now realize, with it being August, that I’ve not posted since April. Where did the time go? I’ll tell you where it went…..I’ve become addicted to Facebook. I spend time every single day catching up with old classmates, old workmates, community members…you name it. It’s been fun…

I’ve read plenty of blogs, but haven’t taken the time to post my own. I constantly think about posting. I think, “Hey, that would be a great subject to blog about”, etc. Then, I get home, check out what’s going on with Facebook, and then decide, “oh, I’ll blog another day”…..well, now another day has become 3+ months! I don’t have any followers (at least none that have joined my follower button), but can’t say that I blame anyone….I haven’t been faithful to posting. There has been absolutely nothing to follow!

I am probably just blogging to hear myself think outloud, but that’s okay too. Guess it’s better than actually talking out loud….someone might try to have me committed. I have thoughts going through my head that probably should just be written instead of spoken. Sort of like when I was younger and decided to keep a diary. Other than the fact that I didn’t want to put my deepest, darkest thoughts in writing for fear that my sisters were sure to discover and blab to everyone at school, which would have been mortifying, so I didn’t keep that up either. It’s okay though. I’m sure I’m not alone in this.

Initially, I decided to post about country life here in Indiana. I still want to do that….I posted on Facebook one morning about the quiet sounds of the morning….the rooster crowing across the road, the birds singing and Sarah singing at the top of her lungs outside on her swing. I am sure if we didn’t live in the country and lived in town, the neighbors would have been banging on my door telling me to keep her quiet….out here, that doesn’t happen. If the neighbors can hear her, they don’t seem to mind. I had several comments about how in town, all that can be heard is traffic and sirens….I guess this “quiet” out here is taken for granted. Having lived in Indy for 4 years, I can attest that the “city noises” eventually became tuned out. Living here in our small community, if there is a siren going off somewhere, you can bet everyone notices. Not just because of the noise, but for fear something has happened to someone we know. And chances are, it usually is someone we know.

Another Facebook post had to do with graduation. My son graduated from high school this year. The weekend prior to graduation, we had an open house for him. I cleaned all week, cooked for 2 days, we set up tents and tables/chairs in the yard and invited family, friends, classmates, community members, etc. We set up corn hole (another rural game that everyone loves), volley ball net, horse shoes, we had silly string, Frisbees, and other assorted games for the kids. On Facebook, we laughed about how many weekends in a row we went graduation party-hopping (5 weeks in a row to be exact). The day after graduation, we were attending our 4th or 5th party and another parent of a graduating senior remarked how it was the 3rd time that day we had all eaten together. A former Union County graduate now living out of state posted that most communities don’t have open houses like we do here. Something we just take for granted here….
At my son’s party, later in the evening (once all the “old” people had gone home), the kids just kept coming. We had a bonfire. Part of the graduation requirements here include a senior exit presentation. Homework throughout high school must be saved. The bonfire began with my son deciding it would be fun to ignite it with the “ceremonial burning of the homework”…..we had an entire wheelbarrow full of it. Later, kids just kept coming over. They all sat around the bonfire and just had fun….some of the large balls were tossed into the fire, but I bought cheapy stuff because I knew it would all be destroyed. And it was….there is still a large child-sized horseshoe on the roof!
At one point in the evening, someone noticed the 4-H goats had gotten out of their pen. There is nothing funnier than watching non-farm-boy athletes chasing goats! A smart farm boy would know that if they just stood still, put their backs to the goats, the goats would become so curious that they would just walk straight up to them and they could be easily corralled this way! Just because we live in a rural area, doesn’t mean all the boys are farmers!

And speaking of farm boys…..there is nothing cuter than watching young farm boys at the 4-H fair! Our fair is all about the fair….we have no midway. That’s right, no midway! My husband (who was not a 4-Her), thinks the fair is all about the rides. He can’t understand why, “people are fascinated at watching cows walk around in circles” to be judged. He can’t understand why, when we go visit a larger fair (with rides) that we always want to go into the buildings and look at the exhibits….”c’mon, the rides are waiting!” I generally take vacation the week of fair…I wasn’t able to this year because I used it all for sporting events and pre-graduation week, and then there were the 2 days of freshman orientation, and then there will be the moving-in of my son when he ships off to Indiana University later this month.
In a normal year, I am at the fair by 6:00 a.m. We serve breakfast for 75- 100 people every morning. We basically have 3 concession stands….none of us serve the same items so that we can have a variety of offerings, and not to step on each other’s toes. This is the one week of the year where you can visit with your “4-H Family”….an extension of community members that you most likely grew up with through 4-H and now our kids are all experiencing the same sense of “family”. Even though the kids are all competing against each other, most wish each other well, too. If someone needs help, someone will always be willing to offer advice. Facebook has allowed all of us to post how our kids have done—out of town former 4-Hers will comment about how they remember the fair, offer congratulations, and even realize how, after all these years, we still “judge” cookies when they come out of the oven to see if they are blue-ribbon-worthy.
I guess it’s the sense of community and the posting about your normal, boring, daily lives, to people that you’ve grown up with offers a more personal touch to it. Facebook is basically just blogging to people you know. Blogging is posting to people that you most likely don’t know.
I must tell you, I have one “friend” on Facebook, I have never met. We “met” through our blogs. We both are Hoosiers and live over an hour apart. We have taken quizzes and other silly things on Facebook. It’s amazing how we are so alike! We will get together someday for lunch when we go to Indy and then we can blog about it! That’s something I’m looking forward to!

My favorite blogs have to do with thrift shopping and turning “trash” into treasure. I have loved to do this for a long time, and so guess I felt compelled to only blog about what I’ve been up to in the refurbishing world. I have realized that life gets in the way of what I want to do, even though what I really want most in the world is to spend these few precious years enjoying my kids, their friends, their activities, etc. I suppose that once the kids all grow up and move out of the house I will have more time to do this. But in the meantime, I guess I can’t really worry about it. I’ll just post about “life, here in the great State of Indiana, out here in the country”. It’s our life, and I will probably not even notice some of the differences from living here in the country as opposed to living in town, or even in a larger city. I’m not totally a country bumpkin…I don’t really even care for country music.
My son just recently learned of his roommate at IU…he is from Beverly Hills. This should be culture shock for both of them, so I think this will be fun! Through Facebook, I’ll be able to keep up with their activities, etc. I love the humorous comments that these kids post….I guess hanging out with them will help to keep me young. I’ve become familiar with the “popular” music again…some of which I like (a lot of it, not so much!).
So, to post about recent thrifting by me, I purchased numerous cheapy pieces of furniture over the 4th of July weekend and am in the process of “shabbying” it up for the Christmas Bazaar.
This week, I purchased 2 upholstered chairs at Salvation Army (this store, as well as Goodwill have become increasing pricey!). These chairs had that perfect “shabby” look to them, but had stains, had been in the store for a few weeks, and I finally just asked, “Hey, these have been here for a while, what is the chance that these would be marked down?” To my surprise, they marked them down over half what was listed. This made me both happy and mad. I think they are attempting to gouge all of us “purchase for display or resale people”. I have decided that it is much more cost-effective to attend auctions or yard sales for the true bargains! Anyway, I bought them on my lunch hour and loaded them into the back of my van. When I got off work, I opened the door to the stench of cat pee! Eeewwww!!!!! Salvation Army has its own “smell”, so can’t say I noticed it in the store. Plus, sitting in the hot car afternoon didn’t help matters at all. I had initially thought I could use upholstery cleaner, but now that I’ve discovered the urine, they’re going to have to be de-odorized, as well. I contacted my husband’s cousin, who works for a restoration company, and it will cost a small fortune to have this done. Needless to say, it has turned out not to be such a bargain after all. With what I will have to spend to have them cleaned (and even then, they can’t guarantee the smell will be completely gone), I decided I could do one of 2 things: 1) Say the heck with it and get them cleaned, although I would never be able to get back out of them what I had in them or 2) Say the heck with it, I need to find someone to teach me how to upholster, buy some clearance fabric and reupholster them myself. This is the option I’ve decided upon. I’m going to completely strip them down to bare bones and start over. With what I will have to pay for classes, I’m sure I’ll be money ahead, plus will have learned a skill that I can use in the future. Generally, I have this thing about chairs…I always buy them…you can never have too many. Once I learn how to reupholster them, I’m somewhat concerned that I will have no fear in buying those that can be recovered. This could start a whole new chapter….so, guess maybe it was a good buy after all. Now, to locate someone to teach me…..

So, this is pretty much my April-August life. Not sure when I’ll post again, hopefully soon, but no guarantees. Rest assured, those of you that I’ve been following for a while, I’ll continue to see what you’re up to….your lives seem more interesting, anyway! Thank you to those faithful bloggers….you’re more fun and fresh than some of the magazines, but am thrilled to pieces for any of you who are featured in a magazine, newspaper or what have you. Keep up the good work and hope to talk to you all real soon.

Kelly

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