Hi, Facebook, it's me, Sarah!

So I may be the last living American under the age of 50 to join Facebook, except perhaps my husband. And my daughter. But she's only 9 months old. Really, though, I joined today and found myself spending way too much time exploring and trying to figure it out, feeling like I had stumbled into some living, breathing high school yearbook. Which is the point, right?! Like the whole "status update" thing. Jane wants you to know she is drooling on her desk. Joe thinks you'd be interested in the fact that he is driving while typing, and you better hope you're not in the car behind him! Mindy wishes her husband would pick up his dirty socks. Linda likes pink but only if it's verging on magenta and isn't too opaque or reddish ... or like, PINKish. I don't know. I get wanting to stay in touch with people, and to that end it's a great tool, but the idea of being chained to Facebook to the point where you're constantly providing personal updates feels kind of sad to me. (The irony of the fact that I find all that SHARING sad and then turn to my blog and go on about it is not lost on me, by the way, but all five regular readers of this blog know I am rather haphazard about posting.) Anyway, you can also send each other little "gifts" of pictures of flowers and stuff. Very interesting. Really, it is.

I also got sucked into the world of LinkedIn and was looking up all sorts of random people with whom I've lost touch. I'm afraid they may know I was peering at them on cyberspace. It's just kind of bizarro to me. Although I had claimed that LinkedIn was a big popularity contest, as was Facebook ("I have more friends/connections/contacts than you do, nya nya nya nya nya nya") but again I can see it's useful for connecting with long-lost friends. I even went so far as to contact an old friend with whom I lived after college for a while, but she hasn't responded. So now I kind of wish I hadn't. [See this article, "The Advantages of Closing a Few Doors."]

Why wait for spring?

We took advantage of a much-needed dip above freezing (one degree, but who's counting) to get outside and visit our neighborhood playground. Madeleine was obviously having a blast!

Can't we all relate, on some level?

Sometimes you just have to get creative.

Lookin' Good

Today as Jolene and I were driving to work, we noticed that someone had written on a sheet and posted it on a pedestrian walkway over the highway for motorists to see. It said:

"You look nice today"

We both thought that was kind of cool. So I'm passing it along ... you DO look nice today!

Don't let the door hit you ...

Romney drops out, saying:

"If I fight on in my campaign, all the way to the convention, I would forestall the launch of a national campaign and make it more likely that Senator Clinton or Obama would win," he said. "And in this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror."

Yeah ... Bye bye.

Obama in '08

Each day I grow more and more convinced that he's the right choice for our nation. Yes, I'd like to see a woman become president. A lot. And possibly unlike the generation above me, I side with the generation below me who take it as a given that it will happen, soon. But this election, I just can't resist the appeal of Barack Obama. In the words of Hendrick Hertzberg: "Hillary Clinton would make a competent, knowledgeable, and responsible President. Barack Obama just might make a transformative one."

And regardless of who you support, get out there and vote tonight!! It's exciting to be part of a primary/caucus process that really matters.