Loving my sleeping lump o' love.Congratulations! Through a friend, you've discovered a local place where, for not a lot of money, you get very decent food and the atmosphere is good, too. Yes, local! It's right around the corner--right in your neighborhood! Another great thing about this place is that everyone knows your name. Yes, like that: NORM!
Every time you go, you run into a friend of yours. You keep your cell on you because it's a lot easier to put numbers in than just writing them down--besides, you also have a bunch of pics on your phone that are fun to show people who haven't seen your kids or all places you've been since graduating. You are seeing people there that you haven't seen in years!!! People you never expected to see again, even. It's almost a shame that there are so many people you know, because it limits the amount of time you have to catch up. Sometimes all you have time or energy for is a wave or a shared nod of acknowledgement.
The place is jumpin! Any time day or night, you can step in for a drink to see and be seen. You give a shout out to your peeps and feel the love. Of course, there are people there who seem a lot more popular. It's like they know EVERYONE, but on the other hand, maybe it seems like you know everyone to other people. That's always the case with popularity contests, isn't it? Look, there's that study buddy you got through History with! She looks great!!! Does she recognise you? Yes!
This place, let's call it BaceFook... it's a good place. But you start to notice that you keep getting the same food, only they keep charging more and more. It gets so you've blown your budget for the month on who knows what just so you can hear your high school peeps shout out your old nickname. You love that nickname! It's very ambiguous, which makes it an exclusive joke and hey, who doesn't like being on the inside of an inside joke? Besides, what would you be doing at home? Laundry? Haven't you already done ike 270 loads of laundry already this year? You going to read the Dora the Explorer book again to your kid? Does she even listen? Go to the gym? Take the dog for a walk or heaven forbid, a run? At BaceFook, they only see what you want them to see. You DO still look like those photos you posted from a few years back! Those were taken professionally, and they were worth every penny, 'cause you look gooood.
Here's what I'm trying to internalize though this little exercise in supposition. I get 24 hours in a day. Subtract a portion for sleep. The rest is what I have to make a difference in the world today. It's sometimes more of a temptation than I care to admit to blow my 24 hour budget on stuff like perusing a book of faces while I forget about my 271st load of laundry. But that laundry matters. The books I read my kids matter. Reviewing pictures of a college roommate's trip to Barbados? My old landlord's grandchildren? Mmmmn. Maybe not too pressing. For that matter, reading the latest gossip about the Grammy's can probably wait, too.
