Goodbye Dallas Hello World: Facebook-less-ish

100 Before 100

1. Learn to knit

2. Write a cookbook

3. Learn how to clap to the beat of music on my own (No, seriously. This is an issue)

4. Start a by-mail book swap with my amazingly smart high school friends

5. Learn how to use photoshop

6. Get a puppy and train him so well that I can go for a run and she/he will follow behind me with no instruction

7. Go to every continent

8. Be fluent in French

9. Watch all of Hitchcock's classic movies

10. Celebrate a 50th wedding anniversary

11. Throw a party that people will be talking about for years as one of the best events they've ever been to.

12. Write in a journal daily for a year

13. Learn to scuba dive (I received scuba lessons as a Christmas present! I'm one step closer to knocking this off my list!)

14. Ride an elephant

15. Read War and Peace

16. Have a white christmas

17. Wear a tutu in all seriousness in public

18. Build my dream kitchen (subway tile, giant stove, sofas for hanging out....)

19. Work on conquering my fear/phobia of needles to the point where I can get a shot without being slightly hysterical

20. Learn how to make delicious Indian food (there have been some very failed attempts in the past)

21. Live in a city that is no more than an hour drive from the mountains

22. Create a 5-year plan that is feasible, interesting, and exciting.

23. Go to the World's Longest Yard Sale in Tennessee.

24. Win the weekly cartoon-captioning contest in the New Yorker.

25. Go 12 months without losing a cell phone.

26. Donate 10+ inches of hair to Locks of Love

27. See the Taj Majal

28. Collect and record stories about my family from my grandparents

29. Break the habit of picking at the skin around my nails. Youch! It hurts!

30. Bungy jump from the world's tallest bungy jump from Bloukrans bridge in South Africa.

31. Have a “signature dish”—something that everyone will ask me to bring to a potluck.
32. Go ice fishing.
33. Get all of my amazing girlfriends across the nation together for an unforgettable weekend.
34. Spend a month in the woods with nothing but the pack on my back and whatever I can carry in it.
35. Use the phrase “the last time I was in Thailand” in a completely legitimate way.
36. Own my own company.
37. Learn how to clean and cook and entire fish.
38. Play with a baby elephant

39. Run a 7-minute mile.
40. Compete in a hot air balloon race.

41. Live in a foreigncountry
42. Play tennis at a 4.0 level (right now I'm a measly 2.75)
43. Learn the names of the constellations
44. Beat my Mom at Scrabble (never. going. to happen.)
45. Start a compost pile
46. Buy a gorgeous piece of stained glass
47. Learn how to be a good haggler
48. Wear a two-piece with ease again
49. Be an extra in a movie
50. Learn how to play chess

Happy Monday to one and all! I know it's Monday and all, but let's at least just pretend Mondays are awesome and fabulous. Ummkay?

So we need to talk. I think I'm going to get rid of facebook. I KNOW, I KNOW! Blasphemy! I've been on facebook since Sophomore year of college. That's 5 years y'all! I've been in relationship with a social media site longer than I've ever been in a relationship with a MAN! Facebook and I have been through a lot of ups and downs over the years: format changes, strange friend requests, and a semi-stalker or two.

But, now facebook and I are having issues. Issues that might just be the end of a beautiful love. Facebook used to be the place where I joked with my friends about our stupid college escapades: posting pictures, leaving inside jokes on each others walls, and generally acting like the 19 year olds we were. But now my grandmother is on facebook (WHOMP WHOMP). My Dad is on facebook. My old bosses are on facebook. My 11 and 14 year old sisters are on facebook. EVERYONE IS ON FACEBOOK!

Where oh where am I suppose to post pictures of parties, ridiculous costumes, and general embarrassing daily acts? Basically, I don't want anyone but my friends knowing the way I really act on the weekend.

It's not as if I'm some sort of baby-sacrificing heathen who shoots heroine at swinger's parties. I'm just a regular 20-something who acts like an ass on a regular occasion.

A week and a half ago I left facebook, we were on a break. Not broken up. On a break. But then it was kind of a pain not being able to see email address, birthdays, and the like. So today facebook and I have reunited on a trial basis. I've brought my profile back but purged some random "friends", removed all photo access, and shut down my wall.

What do y'all do about facebook? Are you friending your grandma's? I need some help here lovlies!

4 comments- my fav!:

S@sha said...: July 12, 2010 at 1:34 PM; I've thought about ditching facebook myself, mainly because I feel its one of the most shallow forms of communication there is. (If you can even call it that). If you click the "like this" button under my update but I haven't talked to you in person in three years are we really friends? Eh. Plus my dad joined fb and you can't refuse a friend request from your dad right? So I understand your privacy issues!

There are all those new-ish features that allow you to put friends in lists and let them see things accordingly, but I've been to lazy and on the fence about fb to test them out.
missris said...: July 12, 2010 at 2:18 PM; Ugh I hate Facebook...but I can't leave. It really helps me keep track of friends near and far. I figure that whatever I post on Facebook is pretty mild. The stuff from five years ago (with the date stamp to prove it) isn't all that crazy either. If someone doesn't want to hire me because I, a consenting adult of 26 years, am photographed holding a glass of wine at a friend's dinner party, then eff 'em. I don't need that kind of draconian oversight, in a friend, relative, OR future employer.
Emily said...: July 12, 2010 at 3:38 PM; Yesss, I was just telling my mom this exact same thing. Facebook went downhill the moment they opened it up to high schools (in my Facebook should only be for college students college student mind at the time), but then they went completely open and I'm just over it. While I love my family, my MIL and aunts posting on my status updates just aren't really the facebook scene I'm going for. I absolutely want to quit, but it's such a good way to see what people you don't actually want to talk to in real life are doing.
Melanie and Matt said...: July 25, 2010 at 6:38 PM; Dear Meredith,

Embrace the power of the limited profile. Mother (and mother-in-law) can see photos that I upload - but not those that people tag of me... because... well... i don't trust my friends to stop and think "might this upset Mrs. Backs?"