Family, the Tie that Binds, even on Facebook

I saw today that Facebook now has 500 million users now. And to think that the genius behind all of this is 26 years old. I've got clothes older than he is. I've been on it about a year now. My children are on it and I have quite a few friends on it as well. I even found my ex-husband on there. No, we are not friends. Not in this life or the next either. But I have met some nice, interesting people.

Anyone who is on Facebook has probably had the urge to check out an old friend from school or someone they have not thought about in years. I remember searching for an old high school friend. He's a priest now. I still find that hard to believe. I looked up my maiden name to see if I found anything. There were lots of them but I doubt any were related to me. That would have been quite a find. I only have one uncle left on that side. My father had four brothers and one sister. Through them I ended up with eleven cousins. It's sad to say but if I ran into to any of them I doubt I would know them at all.

The other day I had a sudden urge to look up the name of a cousin. She was six months younger than I. We spent many school summers together in New Jersey. My grandfather lived in New Jersey as did my uncle and aunt. My mother and I used to drive up from Alabama for a couple of weeks each summer and occasionally during Christmas breaks from school. My cousin and I were both only children. She had red hair. I sill remember cutting off her pig-tail. We got into a lot of trouble over that episode.

I put her name into the search. Imagine my surprise when I actually found her. She still has red hair. I knew instantly that was her. We lost touch many years ago and I haven't seen her since the early 70's. So now we are Facebook friends. After chatting with her I even discovered the my aunt and uncle are still alive. That was a surprise. My cousin said she would have them e-mail me. Thanks Facebook. I thought that tie was forever broken, but the family ties still are there.

Addiction or There's an App for That

Ok, I admit that maybe I need to go into a virtual 12 step program to get me off "Farmville". I got on Facebook last year. Now I find that I have to see what is going on each day. And I thought Twitter was bad! I was addicted to that too. I even had TweetDeck which chirped every time a new tweet came in. My grandsons kept asking where were the birds.

This year I started playing "Farmville" a little more. Last year I didn't really do too much. Now it is serious business. I have to work my crops and do all the work around my farm. Sometimes I get the help of arboritists or farmhands. Mostly it is me who has to do all the harvesting. Oh, and I can't forget the co-op either. Jeez. Who know that simple games could be so addicting. You can apparently get "an app for that" for just about anything including Facebook games on any "smart phone." There is even one which will "analyse" a baby's cry to tell you what is wrong.

I find myself thinking every day that I need to go back to writing. Then I have the urge to see what is going on at my farm or my Hotel City, or my Social City, or my Mafia Wars, or Pet City, Happy Aquarium, etc... Get my drift?? I am beginning to think my life revolves around the games instead of real life. On the other hand, sometimes the games are more fun. I don't have an app for that on my phone... can't play games in the car. Of course the cops would not take too kindly to that anyway.

I used to laugh at people I knew who spent a better part of the day playing games instead of doing housework or cooking or anything else for that matter. Then I wondered what would happen to me if I didn't have the ability to play these games? Oh dear, can I stand one day without them? Uh...well, aw come on, just one game! Maybe the fun will wear off soon. Oh crap! Last time I looked my crops were 98% ready to be harvested. Can't let them go to waste. Gotta get thos coins so I can make my farm bigger. Sigh. And so it goes. There's gotta be an app...for quiting. Right?