28 January, 2009 | Leave a Comment

I mentioned recently that I have a Facebook account now.  And surprise, surprise…people from my past have started to find me.  It’s nice that people are looking for me.  And it’s cool when people from my New York days look me up.  But now people from the deep dark past are knocking on my door.  I don’t know why I find this so unsettling, but I do.

When I turned 20, I moved to NYC, which was 3,000 miles away from where I grew up.  I grew up in a very conservative place and I could not wait to escape.  Whenever I go back there to visit (my parents still live in the same town) I do not see any of these people.  It’s quite an accomplishment that I’ve been able to avoid them for so long.  I don’t have anything in common with the people I grew up with – I wish them well, but my goal in life was not to get married and have six kids and become a housewife driving a mini-van.  That is my idea of hell. Besides my family, no one in my life right now knew me before the age of 22 or so.  That’s the way I like it.

Of course, thanks to the devil that is Facebook, that’s all changed.  My best friend from childhood who got knocked up in high school found me on Facebook this week.  So now I have to look at pictures of her 17-year-old daughter.  17-years-old!  If this girl follows her mother’s lead and gets pregnant at this age, then you know what that means?  My best friend from childhood could, quite conceivably, become a grandmother this year.  My life was better without that knowledge, thank you very much.

I predict my Facebook account will be deleted by the end of the year…

1. Comments RSS

1. Ken Says:

   January 28th, 2009 at 11:14 pm

   Anglofille:

   I don’t do Facebook. I had a young lawyer friend ask me to include me as a “friend”. I concede that perhaps I am turning into an old fart, but nevertheless, I want to meet my potential friends in person. I make a distinction between friends and acqauintances.
   I declined, He seemed put out. But he surprised me this week by calling me up and informing me he had settled a case (not an easy one) that I had referred to him. He said he’d be sending me the referral fee. What a pleasant surprise!

   When I was at my last law office (Led by a fake revolutionary who was an authentic paranoid/schizophrenic) I had a colleague named Patircia (her real name). She was a nice lady who also had the makings of a great lawyer. Smart, attractive in a 50 something kind of way, and charming.

   She wanted me to join her Facebook as a “friend”. I prefer to be the friend I am now. We meet a couple of times a year for drinks. I like it that way.

   But I know what you are talking about. Imagine going to your hometwon (yeah, I know, (“The place that cannot be named”) and you were on TV, being interviewed every day?

   This happened to me. I was managing a campaign for governor and we had as press secretary a woman who would not appear on camera. She was the Exhibitionist Who Did Not Want to Be Seen. Yes there was such a person.

   Anyway, I was forced to appear on camera because no one else had the stature to do it. So I did it. It raised my public profile by a factor of 20 or 30.

   And all the people out of my past came out of the woodwork. Most uncomfortably a past girlfriend. She showed up unannpunced in my office and demanded to see me. I had her shown into onr of little siderooms until I finished my meeting, and then saw her.

   I quick;y saw there was no upside to contin uing this relationship.

   So I get it.

2. SpliceGirl Says:

   January 29th, 2009 at 1:41 am

   I. Told. You.

   No, wait.

   I. WARNED. You.

   Mwa hahahahahahahahahaha!

3. Ken Says:

   January 29th, 2009 at 1:58 am

   Oh. You were the one in 1988! Nice to finally make your acquaintance….Except she still didn’t get the joke and was still bothering me two years later when we finally got this guy elected.

4. Kirsten Says:

   January 29th, 2009 at 2:19 am

   I’m on Facebook and enjoy it ok, but it is a bit disconcerting that the same people who made me want to forget my high school years now want to be my friend online.

5. Ken Says:

   January 29th, 2009 at 2:24 am

   I got a mailer from my high school today (Class of ‘71). Asking to update my bio. Not sure I want to answer.

   And I enjoyed high school. Especially where they let me leave a semester early.

6. Gregory Says:

   January 31st, 2009 at 4:30 am

   “And I enjoyed high school. Especially where they let me leave a semester early.”

   You got paroled from high school?

   I’ll count that

   Gregory

7. Ken Says:

   January 31st, 2009 at 12:47 pm

   You might say that. As Casey Stengel used to say, “You can look it up.”

   They counted on my good behavior.

   Did you know that the school cases and the prison cases are in the same chapter of the law books?

   What more do you need to know?