Tuesday, August 18, 2015

truly shocked

Today I learned about the sudden passing of a FB friend. We never met face to face, but he led a group I belong to, and I enjoyed our interactions in the group and in PVTs, even though we didn't always agree and sometimes he got on my nerves.

I would probably never know what happened to him, had him not been the leader and admin of this group. It makes me uneasy to know that this could happen to any of my friends and I might never find out.


So, to all my friends out there on Facebook - even those of you who are my friends outside of FB, but I don't see or talk to very often; even those of you that don't agree with me on everything; and even those of you who are friends on FB only - I care about you. If I didn't, you wouldn't be on my FB. Believe me, I don't friend anyone I don't care to have in my life, no matter how long I've known such person in real life. So, if you're still on my FB friends list, I care about you. I wish you'd never die, but if you do, I wish I at least had a way to know, so I can mourn properly.


Thursday, August 13, 2015

facebook vacation

So, yeah, I had seen some people announcing they were going to take a facebook break, and I couldn't help but thinking "why would any one do that?"

I tried answering my own question. I thought about facebook could want to make anyone stay away from it? What would be the benefits of staying away from it? H'm... All the hours of the day you spend browsing through your friends' pages or your own "home", getting into pointless discussions, reading stuff that makes absolutely no sense and that you wonder why anyone would waste their time posting it.

Maybe staying away from Facebook wasn't a bad thing at all. Maybe it could even be a good thing. Maybe I should try this!

So I did it. I announced a week facebook vacation on a Wednesday morning.

Knowing myself and my lack of self-discipline the first thing I did in order to ensure absolute success was to delete the facebook app from my phone. I knew that if I had the app at the touch of my fingers at any given time, I would end up giving in and cheating by looking at the app "for just a quick little second", and then my experiment would be ruined.

The first couple of hours were really tough. I kept thinking, "dang, why did I do that?" I kept opening my phone just to be reminded that the facebook app wasn't there anymore. I kept wondering what my favorite comedians were posting, what was going on in my Beatles group, what my friends were up to what I would only find out next time I talked to them. Argh! It was driving me insane. I didn't think I'd be able to do it.

But, lo and behold, I made it through 24 hours and I wasn't as devastated as I thought I would be. I was actually fine.

The rest of the week went by uneventful. I checked twitter for my news updates, and I texted with friends I usually text with. So, as you can see, no, I didn't become a hermit, I just wasn't wasting hours and hours of my day scrolling through stuff that might or might not be true, cute sayings, drama-dram-drama. Did I miss the funny posts, my favorite comedians, my groups? Yes, I did. But just for a few minutes and less and less each day.

So, in the end, I must say, it was not as bad as I thought it would be, and it is actually better than what I thought it would be.

I went back to using Facebook this Wednesday, but I have been using it a lot less that I used to. I still haven't added the app back to my phone. Let's see what happens from now on.

Sunday, August 09, 2015

Groupie?

When Dean first met me (he told me years later) he thought I was a groupie. Why because I carried the world in my car. Sleeping bags, and backpacks, and blankets … you name it, I had it in there. Well, I still do – better safe than sorry. Let’s just say if I ever get stranded on the highway on a snow storm, I don’t plan on freezing to death.

Sunday, August 02, 2015

Assuming I am Hispanic ticks me off

Once I sat next to a lady who kept on code-switching between English and Spanish with me. Why again did she think I could speak Spanish? People just assume I can speak Spanish. It drives me crazy. This other day I was at the train station and this lady looks at me and asks me IN SPANISH what time is the next train to NYC! 

:/

I just shrugged. 

Honestly, why should I understand what you're saying? If you had assumed I could speak Portuguese and spoke Portuguese with me I'd be fine. 
NOT SPANISH!!!!!

Then another day I was at Walmart, wearing a BRAZILIAN flag shirt. On my way out this black guy looks at my shirt and goes - Buenos Dias!

Oh, please, no! Look at my flag! Look at my flag! Please! No Spanish! 

I looked at him as if I had not the slightest clue of what he said, and kept walking. From a distance I could hear him yell, " Buenos Dias!"

Argh!!!!!