Facebook, the Social Utility Network

Today, while working on finding new places to send my resume, I got a bit distracted by Facebook. My Facebook account is set up so that I receive email alerts every time someone has posted something to my wall or inbox, or continued a thread of comments in which I was a participant on someone else's wall. So, while looking through my emails to see if I had received anything job-related, I saw that I had Facebook messages. I replied to them, then went back to my emails. I ended up spending the morning toggling back and forth between emails and Facebook, cell phone and web browsing. I found that I was quite adept, if I do say so myself, at juggling several screens at once, and I managed to get quite a bit accomplished with no major screw-ups. I think there should be a place on a resume to highlight all that proficient multi-tasking. If I were an employer, I'd hire me.

I reconnected with a few old friends today from my college years through Facebook. One friend had posted several old photographs from the good old days. Several of us were making our contributions by naming faces in the pictures, the ones she couldn't remember. This caused a big Facebook party to take place. Because of all those old photos and the comments people were leaving, old friends were re-connecting with other old friends and sending to each other the Reader's Digest condensed versions of the past 25 years of their lives. We learned who is no longer in our midst (permanently), or who just moved away. Which couples are no longer together. How many children people had. It was actually a big, fun reunion of sorts! I have to confess that I did not accomplish nearly as much as I had planned on as far as the resume contacts today. It was really nice to have a bit of a break from that, though.

After the Facebook party ended, my son stopped by for dinner. Somehow I was under the false impression that he was coming for a visit. I didn't realize he was just appearing as non-paying diner in Doree's Kitchen. He wanted to watch television while he ate, so I apparently was not thinking too clearly when I thought we might have a little dinner conversation. I guess the clock was ticking somewhere because he basically did the old dine-and-dash, and ran back to his college campus almost as soon as he was done eating. Next time, I'm charging a 25% fixed gratuity for parties of one or more. For more on the joys of parenting, visit my other blog at: http://theemptynestparty.blogspot.com/ and you'll quickly understand why I named that blog what I did.

I wondered today about talk show hosts; how DO they do it? Day after day, week after week... where do they get their material? Their ideas? Their topics? Do they have a team of writers? Do they ask people to write in with suggestions? What about the days when they're really tired and just don't feel like talking much? Or the days that they're feeling under the weather and have almost no energy? It all led me to decide to ask YOU, the readers, to leave suggestions in the 'Comments' section of this blog on things you'd like me to ramble on about. Or start separate blogs about. Other than my Empty Nest blog (the link I gave you above), I do have one more blog that I just recently started. It's specific to Nashville residents, though. It's on being frugal in the Nashville area and where to go in order to do just that. That website is: http://thepennywisepurse.blogspot.com/. However, please do leave your comments and suggestions on topics you'd like to see for this blog or new blogs. Any advertising on each particular blog will be specific to that blog's content.

I think I'm coming down with something myself. Must have been all that Facebook partying I did today. I'm feeling a bit under the weather and achey. Chicken soup and sweet tea welcome!

By the way, the weather today was around 60 degrees. I had my doors wide open letting in the beautiful, fresh air. Let Soccer the cat outside to enjoy it, but she ended up getting into a rumble with another cat from the 'hood and had to come back inside. I tried to cook up some cat treats -- turkey giblets and livers. Found out the hard way that microwaving them is not the best method to use. It only takes about 45 seconds for them to explode into smitherenes all over the entire interior of the microwave. Who knew.

These are some of the highlights of the day for the unemployed. Participating in Facebook parties and blowing up livers. Don't be too envious.