Facebook

Sometimes I think facebook is evil. It's a hate/love relationship I have with it. I know I spend too much time on there reading people's posts, commenting, updating. I'll get around to deleting it when I feel like making the time to back up my photos. I feel that facebook is redefining friendships. We get offended when people don't respond to our comments or "unfriend" us. Words are interpreted how we choose them to be, so anything you say can be taken the wrong way. We put our own voice to the words we read and I have found that to work against me quite a few times. I have no energy to debate or argue anymore and it truly makes me resentful when this happens. What started as a fun way to talk to my family and friends who live nowhere near me, is now a place for debates/arguments and needless "stalking." The people who matter know how to contact me and I know how to contact them. So there's no reason for facebook anymore. My family doesn't use it. Frankly, I don't know why they even have one. It is nice to peek in and take a look at their photos of what they're doing, but that takes the fun out of catching up. I'd rather have a personal invite to check out their photos.  Otherwise, it's online stalking. I could probably be doing better things with my time without facebook. One less distraction from studying.

Also, more than half the people on my "friends" list don't deserve to know what's going on in my life. They make no effort to keep in touch with me, so it really does confirm that I'm just wasting time by reading what any of them are posting. It doesn't matter. I should be focusing my time and energy on people who care and love me and I love them back. I have a nice little hand full of fabulous people in my life and they are who matter. If I'm bored, that's who I should be writing to, sending a card to, or having a Skype date with. We should all be making a better effort to keep in touch with people who matter in our lives. Typing is cheap. Phone conversations are real and organic. E-mails are more personal. There's limitations on facebook with what you should post and you have to be careful with what you say. In other words, I really can't be myself on a public website like that. This one doesn't count of course. haha.  The fun has slowly gone away and I don't want people I work with in my business. See what I mean about the redefining of friendships? I feel a courtesy obligation to accept friend requests from people I work with, even if I barely talk to them. That way, I don't offend someone and make things unnecessarily awkward. I'm a low maintenance gal and this is becoming a high maintenance activity. I'm pretty much over it.

New Year 2012

I realized I forgot to talk about my New Years Eve! Ron and I have a tradition now with the Coombes family. They are a fun, wonderful Filipino family that live up North in Pittsburg, CA. It's about an hour north of San Jose. We were invited over for the 2010 New Years Eve party. It was SO MUCH fun. They made home made everything... lumpia, panset, pandesol, babinka, etc. I don't care too much for Filipino food but I like lumpia and pandesol. And they also made spaghetti because Ron is vegetarian. It worked out great.

They had one room for karaoke. Upstairs was for games. The kitchen was food and shots. The dining room was cleared out for dancing. One of the kids had professional DJ equipment and he knew how to work it! They turned down the lights and had Christmas lights on the walls. I danced for hours. It was SO MUCH fun. This reminds me of my Uncle's house in Brazil. I remember dancing samba outdoors in his outdoor kitchen and eating some mangos off the tree in his yard. I love people from different countries. First generation foreigners are so different from Americans. They bring their love, culture, and friendly values with them. Since that night, it has become tradition to spend New Years with them and their family. This year, they came down to a cousin's house in National City (half hour from where we live now). This house was the same fun! Same EXACT scenario and setting. I danced for hours. I didn't really drink much this time. I had one shot and one beer.

I don't drink patron, so I knew I could only handle one shot or I would be sick. It didn't stop me from having a fabulous time. They had party hats, silly string, glow necklaces and bracelets. It was really a lot of fun. Their was triple the amount of food here. We even had a roasted pig head and home made cake pops.

They feel like the family I never had. I fit right in with these people and I can truly be myself. This family reminds Ron of his mother. I probably would have been great friends with his mom.

Mama Marilou =) 

 Melissa & AJ

Mama Marilou & Papa Edwin

Gettin' ready for shots! 

That's Bonehead on the right... AKA Mikey

This girl was crazy fun.

Don't they know how to have a good time?!