Bodacious Boomer

Well, it’s May 11th. May 9th was really busy for me, what with Mother’s Day and working. Then yesterday I got a call from Amanda. “Mom, remember when you offered to do some cooking for us? Well, we could really use it right now. We’ve been eating nothing but fast food for a month.”

Amanda and Nate are both in college and this week is finals. I think they’ve been living off Taco Bell and Little Caesar’s pizzas. They have a great little kitchen in a house not too far from us. However, when finals approach Amanda gets kinda panicked and just doesn’t cook; all she does is either study or work on projects. She doesn’t know how to give 100% at school. With her it’s 150% or nothing.  She did a 21 page book report in 5th grade.

She gets that “over the topness” from her father. That’s why she makes straight AAA’s. That’s why he has over 300 ties.

I told her that I’d be happy to help and I was. But I had to plan what to make, then get to the store, then get it to them, doing all this while trying to coordinate with Doug, since at this moment I don’t have a car. On top of that, I was asked if I could help looking up some info so she could review business management. No problem again. It was 90 questions. I started it last night and finished it this morning. It was mind-numbingly boring, but I persevered.

I was feeling pret-ty good about myself and all I’d accomplished until I got a call about 10am. It was Brett.”Hi, what’s up?” I told him everything that’d going on and that I was tired but almost done with the third thing I was cooking for them. “What’s up with you?” “Not much. Hey, what’s the date?” “May 11th.” As soon as I’d said it I had a sinking feeling.

“Oh no, I’m am so sorry,” I said. Yesterday was our only son’s birthday and I forgot. Bad mom, very bad mom. Luckily Brett really doesn’t want “stuff” anymore; at least nothing that I can go to a store and get him; he just wants cash to improve his DJ equipment. So I just transferred money from my account to his in attempt to ease my guilt. It helped- but not very much.

He was actually laughing and said he understood, that he’d spoken to Amanda yesterday (when she’d called to wish him Happy Birthday) and knew I was helping her out. He got 75 birthday wishes on Facebook, so he wasn’t forgotten by everyone else, just the woman who’d given birth to him. I felt like pond scum. I called Evelyn to explain what I’d done and as bad as I felt, I think what she did one year on Nate’s birthday topped my forgetfulness.

She said she and Nate had just gotten in the car when she said “Nathan, your 7th birthday is just the best birthday ever! It was my favorite!” Then, as she backed up they felt a bump. It wasn’t a toy. It was his cat. (Sometimes some birthdays are more memorable than others). Almost 20 years later they can kind of laugh about it now. Then of course, not. But after hearing her story  at least I don’t feel quite so bad.

Has anyone else ever forgotten their kiddos birthday?

My Facebook photo

I think most of us are creatures of habit. My morning routine is pretty much the same 6 days a week. First I check my email, then I go to CNN.com to see what’s been happening in the world. Finally, I read USAtoday.com to see what CNN didn’t deem important enough to cover. After all that, I usually do the USA today crossword and Brainiversity in attempt to keep my ancient neurons talking to each other.

Of course, if I’ve gotten a message from gmail that says I have a Facebook message then I go directly there and check it out.  I’ve been on Facebook for a year or so now. Brett AKA Beef, urged me to set up my page. (Frankly, I hadn’t really felt any pressing need to do so.) I thought that the people in my life had plenty of ways to find me already. However, following his advice I went ahead and set up my page. You only put details on your page that you’re comfy with being made public. You can also post a photo of yourself or anything else if you wish. As you may have surmised, my photo isn’t exactly “current”. (However it is my best photo ever.)

I must say that it’s been interesting. People that I hadn’t thought of in years have “friended” me. “Friended” means that somehow they’ve found/seen you on Facebook and would like to get back in touch. You have to “confirm” them as a friend before they can leave you a message or see your entire page . I’ve read that the average number of “friends” on Facebook is around 100. I have 61. Beef has 861. (Of course I’m not the social butterfly that he is.)

A lot of the baby boomers I know see no reason to do any social networking of any kind. But overall I’d say that it’s been a positive experience for me. I’m just trying to stay at least a little connected to what’s going on with the MTV Generation so I can relate to my kids world. Do you Facebook?