oh, look

Regular programming is resuming before tomorrow! I wanted to share a couple more things with you all.

First, re the evil Facebook: So, one of the Benevolent L's "friends" that we clicked on had someone I went to grammar school with as their friend. Benevolent L did not know this guy, but opined that he was handsome. Yes, indeed he is. Was he good-looking as a kid? Eh. He wet his pants. See? This is my problem with the whole enterprise. Here's an attractive middle-aged man, bright, presumably has done things in the past 40 years, and some asshole like me sees him on Facebook and their first association is, oh, yeah, he had an eneuresis problem when he was seven.

Similarly, we came across a woman we went to high school with. I didn't really know her per se, but we had a class together. Well, when I was in college, someone who was a friend of her sister told me that their father had molested them. When the Benevolent L asked me today whether I remembered her, it was the first thing I thought of. I didn't say anything--L wasn't the one who'd told me that story and I have no idea if she'd heard the same, and I don't even know if it's true. But again? Here's a middle-aged woman smiling brightly in her Facebook picture, presumably having had a life full of experiences over the past 30 years, and some asshole like me looks at it and immediately their mind goes to some piece of horrible, maybe true, maybe not, gossip they were told in 1981.

I mean, do you see my point with this? My boss asked me one day if I was on Facebook and I said, NO, and that I couldn't imagine anything more horrifying than some guy I dated when I was 15 finding me on there. Townie Girl cracked up and said, "I'm That Girl. I looked up every single one of my old boyfriends." Me, I think the people from your past should be allowed to stay there. Um, unless you are using them as characters in your boring, I mean colorful, blog stories, referred to only by their initials or pseudonyms. Or unless they are still part of your present, of course.

Okay, second subject. MBTA etiquette, part 4573. If you are on a crowded train or bus, and I politely and considerately move my pile o' stuff onto my lap so that you can share my seat, and then the train or bus empties out such that there are now plenty of vacant seats, you should get up and fucking move so I can spread out again. I don't care if you are only going four or five more stops. If you aren't getting off in the next two minutes, fucking move across the aisle. And thank you for your consideration.

That is all.

xoxo