I think it speaks volumes about our generation

that as 20-somethings all up and down the East Cost (South Carolina to New Hampshire and evidently as far inward at Cleveland and Detroit) are experiencing their first earthquake, rather than running for the lowest levels in their houses or hiding under tables or whatever you're supposed to do in an earthquake--those guidelines don't really get hammered into our heads as kids in Jersey--, we were updating our Facebook statuses. I was talking to E on Skype and told her my house was shaking and she said someone was walking on her roof and we realized it might be an earthquake?! In New Jersey?! What!?! And by the time we came to that conclusion, it was over. And statuses had been updated telling me it was felt in DC, Maryland, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio at the very least. I saw all of this before going outside to see any potential damage. Before calling my mom. Before anything. Potentially life-threatening natural disaster? Lemme go update my status just in case I die...

I can't say it wasn't incredibly convenient and faster than the news, though. Social networking is crazy, man.

I'm a Queen on my throne! I'm magnificent!

A friend's facebook status asks, "If there was a soundtrack to your life, what would be on it?". I want to dedicate a post to answering that, but that takes more time than I am allowed to procrastinate with right now (I have a meeting with my independent study professor at 3), so for now just enjoy this song off Jill Scott's new album (have I mentioned she's next on the list of people I need to see live?) that seems appropriate for my life right now, in more ways than I've told you all about. [You guys might get a surprise on Saturday. Be excited.] 

Things that make me feel like a bad person:

I've gotten into the habit of unfriending people on their birthdays. I mean, if facebook announces to me that it's your birthday and I don't recognize your name, let alone care enough to write you a 15-character message, we don't need to be friends.

My friends are maaaaaaaad inspiring:

A friend's Facebook status:

"What comes easily you'll esteem cheaply. Dreaming is easy. Making those dreams a reality is HARD. But, anything truly worth doing requires work so, come what may, gotta keep pressing on because fighting for your dreams means they'll mean that much more to you when you finally achieve them."

smdh

...Ex-step-grandmother's sister, I don't know how to tell you this, but...a) you are NOT my cousin, and b) I WILL NOT BE YOUR FRIEND ON FACEBOOK.

the end.

Ex-lovers and friends

So I have a friend who, when discussing her recent exes, always brings up that she wants to be friends with them after the dust has settled, not like my situation with J (just-the-letter J, not J******) where he keeps trying to hang out with me and I want nothing to do with him. I finally felt the need to clarify that I don't want nothing to do with him because we dated, I want nothing to do with him because...looking back on that chapter of my life, I have no idea why I EVER wanted anything to do with him. I like to call him all-the-rebellion-that-was-supposed-to-infest-my-teenage-years-balled-up-into-7-weeks. 

What I didn't remind her of, though, is that he's not the only ex I have, not the only situation for her life to be compared with. *sigh* We were laughing yesterday at a Yahoo article that said one of the worst New Year's Resolutions to make was to quit Facebook, because everybody uses Facebook. That's...not exactly true. More and more recently, I've found myself desperately wanting to Facebook-stalk one person I can't: my first ex, the one none of my friends like to talk about because they think I was being ridiculous about the whole situation. I'm not going to go through the whole thing again: he's been talked about before. I don't tell people this, but every time I'm home I hope I'll randomly bump into him at the mall or Wal-mart or somewhere. When I'm bored and randomly clicking around on facebook waiting for something interesting to happen in someone's life, I sometimes type his name into the search box just to see if he reactivated his profile, because I want to know what's going on in his life more than I care to admit. 

Don't ask me why. I don't know. I don't want to get back together with him, not in the slightest. I meant what I said in that tear-filled phone call from freshman year, and I will not retract those statements. But I hate that not wanting him romantically means I can't have him at all. I hate that I miss the way I feel when I'm with him, because I'm almost positive that what I'm missing is the naivete and sense of endless possibilities that encompassed the entire time we were close, but even more so I hate that we can't be friends. He has faded nearly entirely into person-I-once-knew status, and dammit, I want to know him. But sometimes that decision isn't ours to make.

If Facebook Gives Me

one more ad about some goddamn dating site,


I AM GOING TO SCREAM.


...that is all.