I'll See You on Facebook!

 I'll admit, I'm always a little bit behind the times when it comes to most things.

I didn't start feathering my hair until the eighth grade, though feathering had been popular for quite some time.

I wasn't a U2 fan until I became an adult.

And I just recently discovered the wonders of Facebook.

It's not that I don't like new things. In fact, I'm fairly adventurous when it comes to trying different foods, and I love to check out the latest fashions - but only when other women are sporting them.

So when requests to join Facebook started appearing in my inbox last year I ignored them. I finally managed to open an account and set up part of a profile, but then that went largely ignored - until last month.

Last month, while talking to a friend of mine, I learned the wonders of Facebook. He told me how he had connected with people he hadn't seen in a while. He said he keeps up with traveling business partners on the site, and that he can upload photos for family members and friends to view.

Since we were leaving California, I decided to really check it out. I thought it might be a way to keep in contact with my friends from that area, all of whom are pretty much members of Facebook. So I signed in one night when the family was asleep and three hours later had not only created a profile but had added comments to everyone's Wall, uploaded photos and, well, become a Facebook junkie.

Now, I'm addicted.

If you haven't joined yet, you should give it a try.

I have not yet mastered the site. I don't know if there is a way to designate one set of friends as friends and one set as business partners, as I'm sure my business associates don't care to know my kids threw up all the way across the country (unless they are hoping to avoid the hotels in which we stayed!)

Business associates probably don't care about seeing my friends' pictures, or reading personal comments about my political views and/or the things that I do in my spare time.

Yet so far, for keeping up with friends and family members it has been a great tool. In fact, I've even made converts of some of my friends!

I'll have to say that over the years of living away from everyone in my immediate family I started using Shutterfly for photos. People can sign in, check out your photos, and then order them if they want, which has worked well for us since I'm really bad about downloading pictures I take and then printing them for everyone to keep.  We also give our family calendars each year to our family members, so I can make them quickly on this site, and coupons are generally available.

But for keeping in touch with everyone at once, Facebook has actually become easier than email. So, if you are ever around and about and lurking, send me a note! Who knows, maybe we have a mutual friend in common that we don't even know about!