A few weeks ago, I started getting SO MANY notifications of Facebook memories. You know, those things that Facebook likes to remind you about, and you’re halfway afraid to click on because you’re not sure if they’re actually good memories, or just things you posted when you were drunk-Facebooking and they only seemed like a good idea ten years ago?
Oh. Maybe that’s just me.
Anyway, these actually did turn out to be amazing memories because apparently in 2009 I trusted that Facebook was a safe place, and in 2009 I happened to be correct. Many of the people I’d tagged in my original post also participated in sharing “25 Things” about themselves, and I learned so much about people I knew very well, and also about people I didn’t know so well. I’ve spent the past few weeks reading them, and it’s made me very nostalgic for that time.
For you young people, these things used to be called “Notes” on Facebook. (And since I’m no longer a young person, I have to confess that it took me a full fifteen minutes to find where Facebook stored these ancient hieroglyphics called Notes.)
Also for you young people (but also for those of you who are my age but have forgotten), here’s a not-so-ancient-history lesson: in the early days of Facebook, we once actually used this platform to connect with each other. We didn’t use it to analyze our differences, create separation, or wage battles.
At that time, we still thought the Internet was for information and entertainment and not for making everyone want to kill themselves or each other. Please forgive our feeble-mindedness; we didn’t know any better.
Below is my “25 things” post from January 27, 2009.
Please note that while there are a few notable updates, the majority of this is still true except for number 25.
1. I was named after Monica, my mother’s best friend in the first grade. They made a solemn promise to name their children after each other. My mother’s family traveled a lot, so my mom never saw Monica again. Still, I suspect that the original Monica broke her promise—my mother’s name is Hilda.
2. I love San Francisco. Everyone there is so wonderfully weird. Maybe it’s being from a small town that has done it to me, but when I’m there I imagine hopping off of the bus and disappearing into the crowd and living another life, becoming someone without boundaries, responsibilities, or worrying about someone might say about me.
3. I could live without chocolate—or any sweets—for the rest of my life. Gravy, on the other hand, I can’t imagine life without. I could drink a mug of it for breakfast.
4. I don’t have a favorite color. I really don’t even understand the question. (Favorite color of what?!)
5. I really, really, HATE shopping.
6. No matter how many times I specifically ask for it, no one in my life has cared about me enough to get me Dance Dance Revolution for PSII. I don’t understand it.
7. My son Dale weighed 8 lbs., 14 oz. when he was born. He was supposedly two weeks early. Three weeks before Kendall was due, I took a tablespoon of castor oil—she was born within 12 hours, a more reasonable 7 lbs. 4. oz.
8. I started reading before I was four years old, so I started school a year early.
9. I haven’t cried for my own problems in so many years I can’t remember. But I’m brought to tears almost daily by TV commercials, cheesy songs, or talking to someone about their problems.
10. When I was thirteen years old, I jumped down on the beach and got a fish bone stuck in the bottom of my foot. I told my family for years that it was still there, but no one believed me. When I was almost thirty, I took a pair of tweezers to the “cyst” the doctor had diagnosed; yep, it was the fishbone—teeth and all! I keep it in a ring box beside my bed.
11. I won’t go inside a bank unless there’s no possible way around it. Those places freak me out.
12. When I was a kid, every time I got a fever I stayed up all night and spoke gibberish until the fever broke. I remember a little of it. Once I stopped breathing, and my Dad brought me around by putting a package of frozen French fries on my chest.
13. I have only one form of road rage. When there’s a line of traffic in the same place every day, and those people drive from a half-mile back and expect me to let them in, I get very excited. I want them to try to get in, so that I can force them to drive into one of those orange barrels. I’ve done it once, and it was the single greatest victory of my life.
14. I refuse to celebrate Valentine’s Day. It’s just stupid.
15. My two most prized possessions are letters from my brother and my sister, separately, telling me how much I mean to them. I’ve had them both for years but I’ve only read each of them once.
16. I have a photographic memory when it comes to words I’ve read on a page—I can see them exactly, even where they are in a paragraph. But I can’t remember even a seven-digit phone number long enough to dial it.
17. I can never be on a jury for anything important because of my experience with my brother’s trial. I know I couldn’t be impartial—I tend to feel sorry for people in handcuffs.
18. My favorite movie is The Big Chill. I live for shit like that.
19. I almost always remember at least one dream each morning. I review them while I’m in the shower. I think it’s the only thing in my life I’m truly disciplined in doing each day.
20. My nearly-lifelong friend (23 years and counting!) Katherine and I had our youngest children on the same day, in the same hospital. I was first! (Even though she was due three weeks before me…I’m not sure she’s truly forgiven me for the castor oil incident above.)
21. I am very, VERY, afraid of birds.
22. I really have no understanding of money. I don’t like to talk about it, or even to think about it.
23. My bedroom is painted bright orange. Most of my house is painted in fairly atrocious colors. It’s like a circus in here!
24. I really resent having to clean my kitchen every day. I’d rather clean toilets three times a day than clean up after a meal.
25. I have a tiny, tiny crush on the President of the United States.
I remember reading #6 and springing to action! ❤️
Yes! That was so perfectly unexpected. I have paid it forward in similar ways, always with your random weird act of kindness in mind!