52 hours...

Not that I'm counting.

But approximately 52 hours until I can don my walgreen's readers (duane reade to you new york types) and scroll through pages of posts... How long would it take to read a month's worth of status updates? And if I followed all the links, listened to every song (which I rarely did anyway), read every article, looked at every photo... What's the facebook etiquette on commenting on a post that's 4 weeks old?

How to approach 12:01AM March 1st? Do I post right away? Should I sneak on and be wunnadem lurkers? Slip in quietly in the wee hours like nuthin' happened, like a teenager who has stayed out far past his curfew?

I met a friend tonight for a short supper and a beer and some nice conversation. She asked me about my month off. I've been pondering it for the past several days. I'd have to say it's been eye opening and somewhat disappointing. Facebook has replaced ordinary email (which replaced ordinary snail mail) as the means of communicating. The world of communication has been reduced to bits. Shorthand. Snippets of conversations.

The people who always emailed me still emailed me. A few picked up the old keyboard and responded to emails. Some said thanks for letting me know - see you in March. And plenty didn't notice or didn't have the means to contact me because my email disappeared. A few realized later that I was gone and sought me out (thank you!). And a few followed me here (yay!).

It has been an interesting experiment, but I'll be back on facebook, just not as much. I don't think I'll shout so much into the wind.

I hope I can resurrect those scrabble games. I was winning.

How's the Weather?

The biggest drawback to being facebook free is not knowing what the weather is doing in the rest of the country. Like I'm gonna tune in to the weather channel?

Poof.

Day 2 without facebook?

It's easier than I thought.

I miss a friend who operates her page like a salon, often asking questions of a personal nature and seeing how people respond. It's always interesting and her friends are sharp and thoughtful, too. One of my favorite things about her is that she changes her profile picture every day. Whether it's a funny cartoon, something of historical or current political significance, or a photo of something or someone from her life, I'm always interested to see what the next day will bring.

If she were to deactivate her account, all that creative intelligence and insight would be zapped in an instant. I couldn't go find that picture she posted on August 23rd - you know, that funny cartoon with the whale in it? poof.

The 30 comment threads on the first album you bought. poof.

Or, in my case, my brief announcement that I was withdrawing from facebook for the 29 days of February. If you missed it, it's not there any more and maybe (hopefully?) you're wondering where I am and what happened to your scrabble game. poof.

If you were off busy having a life and my little two line status was too far down in your queue and you didn't scroll far enough... poof. It's gone. I didn't un-friend you (what a weird word). I still like you.

So my pictures are gone and my status updates and my notes. poof.

I'm not sure if my snarky comments on your posts are still there. I think I'll talk to someone in real life and find out.