Facebook and Aging

If you are a recluse and only go on the Internet and facebook to interact with others you could have a very satisfying birthday experience.

Having a birthday and being on facebook creates a whole new strange world of celebration.  In the ancient times, you would have to hook up with your friends and family to receive all the warm wishes.  Some might send you a card in the mail filled with sweet sentiment and maybe a few bucks.  There were always those that had a difficult time remembering when your birthday was, and they would have to suck it up and send their wishes late or forget it all together.

Now, we have facebook and everyone can get a reminder that it is someones birthday.  No more forgetting or having to put a stamp on an envelope, just jump on the Internet and your wishes can give instant gratification on all sides.  I just had the best facebook birthday ever!  (Thanks everyone for that)  It is sweet and funny, kind and loving all at the same time.  I got greetings from people who were at work, across the country, down the street, and far away but I got all of those birthday wishes in one day.

My phone started buzzing early as well wishers began to show up on my wall and deposit their little bits of kindness.  Throughout the day, as I worked (not a very birthday thing to do), my phone would buzz and I would check to see who had left me a goody.  It was fun!

Don't get me wrong, I loved what my family called birthday hell nights.  We called them that because they were always these twilight zone nights where the weirdest things would happen.  There was the time that we were at a restaurant and my brother Mike yelled at the top of his lungs in the middle of dinner.  It was such a strange sensation, like time stopped!  Then the diners slowly recovered and the din rose again.  Once we went out for a birthday hell night to a eatery on Cinco de Mayo.  My brothers, Mike and Jeff, participated in a jalapeno pepper eating contest and paid the price for a couple of days, and I ended up in a contest that had me doing blow job shots in front of my parents. -shiver-  We had taco bell birthdays, bowling and Steak n Shake birthdays, Ground Round (my personal favorite) birthdays, and many others.  There were never any expectations of normalcy with our birthdays so we always embraced the weird and wonderful world of birthday hell nights.

The older I get the more that I appreciate the extra that surrounds the standard cake and candles, the handmade cards, funny phone messages usually involving singing, email cards that do all manner of exciting tricks, and now the facebook banter that arrives all day like a little waterfall that you find in the wilderness when no one is around.

Please always remember and don't ever forget:
"It takes a long time to grow young."
Pablo Picasso