To Friend or Not To Friend...??

Do you facebook???
Why do you facebook?
I recently signed up, only because I found it was the best way to know if my child was alive and well out in the world.
You see, if you have kids than you know they rarely answer your calls, the odds are better if you send a text for a response. In my case, I don't necessarily need to hear their voices, just knowing that somewhere out in the universe they are alive and communicating with someone - usually their peers.

.....so I opened an account on facebook. I would take a look now and then to see if the kids (nearly a decade past their teens) had posted anything recently so that even though I hadn't had a recent phone conversation I could put my mind at ease that someplace they existed and were not "dead in a ditch",

I quickly decided that facebook shared more information than this mother cared to know -
example: a photo of a group of underage teenagers with pool floaty toys around their necks, cards and beer bottles on the table and smiles on their faces posing for the camera that only comes when the parents are away from home and the youth are running amuck.

Thankfully, this picture was posted nearly 8 years after the event and when I mentioned I didn't remember hosting that party, I was told that it must have certainly been someone else's sofa in someone else's home.....
really, someone else would have owned that couch???

I got another surprise....not one I was hoping for. I know that by signing up for Facebook that people may search for you....I'm not one of those types.
I've had someone from my past come back again....not an old boyfriend (at lease that would be somewhat interesting and maybe flattering).  Did you ever have one of those girlfriends who was just WAY TOO pretty? Thin, flawless, handsome boyfriend/later husband? Everywhere you went with her men would fall over themselves staring at her? Well, you get the idea. So....I see this facebook message, "Kyle, is that you?"...I opened the message and the flawless face 30 years later is staring back at me....complete with 16 family photos of her family and weddings. I couldn't tell the bridesmaids from the mother (flawless face) all wearing long gowns...you know....to go with the long flowing blond hair she had 30 years ago and still has today. 

Still married to the handsome boyfriend, later husband...four children....successful business owners....high end property address....will she be seeing me? That's a big fat NO...the picture I have on my facebook is a mop of hair covering my entire face (that's why she asked "is that you Kyle?").
I guess she's forgotten I was never one for having my hair styled...I leave that to the blowing wind.

I sent a message back telling her I was happy to see her lovely family, that she looked as beautiful as I remembered, sent along a hello to her husband.
Then I took some good advise from The Hawaiian Bag Knitter.....some people are just better left to the past.

Facebook has the key to open doors to the past....do they also have a filter button to block out beautiful people??? The pictures of the house parties while the parents were away....they'll be framed now that those years are over and I survived.