Terminalcoffee discussion

Question...have you ever met up with old friends you haven't seen for many years?

I ask because through the magic of facebook a few friends from my old neighborhood and I are getting together over Halloween weekend. This isn't a formal reunion, thank God, because I don't think I could handle one of those. But we're getting together at a bar to hang out. I mean, there was some falling out back in our mid/early twenties, for whatever reason, and we were all pretty much criminals as teenagers, but everyone seems past all that and I think seeing four or five of the guys I hung out around with every day through elementary and high school should be pretty cool.

What do you think? Have you reconnected with people you hadn't heard from in years due to facebook, etc.? Did you meet face to face or just online? How's it going?

Your first paragraph reads like a book jacket set up for a "until X is found dead upside down in a barrel of toxic waste."

Sure why not. You can always just leave early.

I'm pretty sure I'm faster then them, Stephen, but I'll make sure they don't slip anything in my drink...

No, one is a fireman now, one is an air traffic controller, and a couple of the girls are nurses...

lol I just read too many mysteries. Seriously, do you think you would have anything in common anymore?

I reconnected with a guy I knew in high school just recently on Facebook. John was the best friend of one of my old boyfriends, and somehow my friend Mindy (who knows EVERYONE) found him again on Facebook.

John's a theater person, works on lights and props and such. I went to his latest show, Lullaby Moon, a few weeks ago, which is where the Owl Lady avatar was from. It was really nice seeing him again, but we didn't have much chance to talk, as he was really busy with the show.

i have not committed to facebook yet. between email, goodreads and twitter i just about am social networked out. plus, i think your past can track you down on facebook LOLOLOL

I had a weekend getaway last October with my two best childhood friends. Amy and I have known each other since she moved into the house across the street from me when she was 3. I was 4 at the time. Clare and I have known each other since she and I met at the bus stop on the first day of school for first grade.

When I moved from Louisiana to Texas, Clare and Amy became inseparable. Amy's mother babysat me during the summertime and afterschool and she was my mom's best friend. Clare's sister and brother, both each, had been our summertime babysitters. And her mother was our choir director.

Amy & I didn't lose touch. We'd both lost touch with Clare for 15 years, though. We reconnected back in July of last year on Facebook and stayed in touch through October planning our reunion/weekend getaway.

They're both moms, wives, and devoutly religious. I was the oddbird at the reunion. I'm liberal, single... no kids, no responsibilities... oddly enough, I think we all assumed that I'd be the first of the three of us to get married, have children... As for the liberal thing - I've always been liberal so I'm sure that didn't surprise either of them.

Their kids and husbands have friended me on facebook, too.

I've had some successful meet ups with old, old friends. Oddly, the most awkward reunion I've ever had was my college reunion this past spring. I kept thinking "Aha! That's why I didn't keep in touch with you! I didn't care!" However, there are people from much further in my past whom I have had a great time reconnecting with.

I read an article in Newsweek yesterday on how people use Facebook and other social networking sites to reconnect with old friends and former flames - the term they used was "retrosexual."

Facebook was the way some high school friends coordinated our 20th anniversary. Sadly, I couldn't attend, and I was really looking forward to it, something I would have avoided years back.

I think FB is a terrific way to reconnect with people; it reminds you why those people were in your lives in the first place, and why you should keep some of them in your current life now.

why you should keep some of them in your current life now.

Key word, SOME of them.

I have a question.
Why is Myspace now totally lame, but Facebook is cool?
They are the same thing, are they not?
Seriously. I don't get it.

Myspace became a naked, bare assed kind of place you didn't dare let your kids wander about in lest they find parts which they do not yet have hair upon.

Myspace is totally lame.

Stephen wrote: "Myspace became a naked, bare assed kind of place you didn't dare let your kids wander about in lest they find parts which they do not yet have hair upon."

WTF?

Like that sentence of convolution?

Like is not the word.

Julie wrote: "I have a question.
Why is Myspace now totally lame, but Facebook is cool?
They are the same thing, are they not?
Seriously. I don't get it."

My theory... when myspace was busy repairing whatever it is they repaired, and people couldn't log on, they went to a more dependable social networking site... and OH! then they started discovering what it was about the new site, in this case it'd be facebook, that was a considerable improvement to myspace... and then they stuck around at the new site. And everyone else did the bail, too.

Larry wrote: "Like is not the word."

Love?

Too many sparkly ponies on MySpace.

And naked parts upon which children must not gaze.

Where? I never saw any of that.

Myspace was slow. Facebook has more bells and whistles. When myspace saw people responding to that stuff - the quizzes, the apps, etc - they tried to retrofit their site but people had already moved on.

Larry, I ate to say this, but your Avatar makes you look rather wooden and stiff.

Myspace was just too much of everything, stupid backgrounds, music you couldn't stop, blah blah blah.

Stephen wrote: "Larry, I ate to say this, but your Avatar makes you look rather wooden and stiff."

Don't judge a book by its cover, dear Stephen.

Gus wrote: "I think FB is a terrific way to reconnect with people; it reminds you why those people were in your lives in the first place, and why you should keep some of them in your current life now. "

I feel precisely the opposite. FB is a terrific way to "reconnect" with people and it reminds you exactly why you stopped being friends with them in the first place.

My class's 5th year reunion *rolls eyes* failed because no one showed up. Why? We are friends on facebook, thus, we don't have to actually see them in person and pretend to be nice to them to see what they're up to.

That said, I've reconnected with penpals from my childhood and that's been nice.

Angie wrote: "I feel precisely the opposite. FB is a terrific way to "reconnect" with people and it reminds you exactly why you stopped being friends with them in the first place."

And those are the ones who get deleted from the friends list. Problem solved.

... Until they realize you defriended them and keep requesting your friendship. Ugh.

In addition, I have some issues surrounding abandonment and stuff like that that makes it hard to just *click* and delete... or I get upset when someone deletes me when I feel we've had no bad blood.

Angie wrote: "... Until they realize you defriended them and keep requesting your friendship. Ugh.

In addition, I have some issues surrounding abandonment and stuff like that that makes it hard to just *click* ..."


You can block them, Angie... That's one thing I LOOOVE about facebook - you can customize your privacy settings. There are a few people who I do NOT want following me on facebook, so I've blocked them as a preemptive measure. They have no idea I even exist on there.

You can also customize photo albums. I have on at least one of them (a family reunion).

I said what I said about reconnecting because there are people I've reconnected with whom I realized I missed more than anything. If I get a friend request from someone I wasn't all that friendly with, then fuck 'em.

Facebook brings up a whole lot of rejection-type issues amongst people. I deleted a so-called friend because I realized that person hadn't changed - she was a twat then, is a twat now - in the years in between. She created a mini-shit storm over her deletion. Spare me the drama, kids.

Facebook can be very fun - and it is great to connect with people from back then, be it high school or college or whatever. There are some randoms, though - I can't get over how many people link up with me that I don't even remember!

My biggest gripe about Facebook - who are the idiots that think it's a great idea to post these horrible pictures from middle school and high school?!!?!?!? (And if you are one of those people, I apologize in advance.) If I wanted people to see pictures of me when I had braces and Princess Diana hair, I'd post them my own self! And how about the horrid class photos from 4th grade and 5th grade? Ugh!

{okay, rant over - thank you}

Boy, do I hear you Youndyc!

Please, post no yearbook photos of anyone but yourself, thank you.

That just seems like something everyone would understand. But then, I guess not.

Ive done it. Recently in fact. Memories sake really. Included mostly pics of me but other "friends" in facebook, having seen so many of my other friends do it! Fact is..if you cant handle that that may happen, get off facebook. Simple really :).