Facebook Birthdays

Rosie will never know life pre-Facebook (or whatever social networking site is the rage when Jon and I finally break down and let her create a profile). That probably also means she will not find herself at age 30 + A (where A equals any constant between 1-9. Can you tell I'm taking a stats course?) and marveling at the newly discovered phenomenon of a Facebook birthday bonanza. For those of you not on Facebook (or like my Mom, have a Facebook account you've never touched!), let me explain.

Facebook has an "events" feature. When your "friends" have included in their profiles a specific birthday, that birthday shows up as an "event" on your Facebook homepage. I currently have 398 friends. That means I could technically have 398 events in my calendar just by having nearly 400 friends. For example, 4 of my friends have birthdays this week - one grad school friend, one friend who used to attend my church, one former coworker, and my Mom's former assistant director. Yes, she's my friend too.

Without Facebook, I would not have known when these four people's birthdays were. Maybe I would have heard someone wish the grad school colleague a happy birthday in the hall and had the opportunity to pipe in, but probably not. We don't tend to walk the halls here broadcastingour birthdays. We're more likely to discuss theory, methods, and literature reviews (like I did on the elliptical this morning with my friends). We're just that exciting, people.

BUT in the new world of Facebook, I can take 30 seconds to throw a "Happy Birthday" on their Facebook wall and bam!, I just added to their birthday merriment.

That is what happened to me yesterday. Sixty-three friends (16% of my total FB friends - stats again!) wished me happy birthday on Facebook yesterday. This included friends from high school, undergrad/masters/PhD world, former jobs, current church, childhood church, family friends, actual family, etc.

I marveled.

I made that verb selection with purpose. According to Merriam-Webster, to marvel is to become filled with surprise, wonder, or amazed curiosity.

I was surprised and curiously amazed at the wonder of Facebook and how it brings and keeps us together, how something simple like wishing someone a happy birthday on a social networking site gets them thinking, remembering about high school and college and old jobs and old bosses and old sermons and old shenanigans and old birthdays before Facebook when you ate cake and ice cream and read birthday cards from the select rank of friends who saw you that day or knew your home address.

Rosie won't know those days. On her first birthday, my parents were on Skype while Jon's parents held up a video camera capturing her messy introduction to chocolate frosting. I posted her birthday pictures, and a message to her, on Facebook! Pretty soon she'll get her own birthday text messages, email messages, Skype visitors, YouTube happy birthday renditions, and, yes, many, many Facebook greetings.

My dad, who is not on Facebook, missed my birthday. (I joked this morning when I called to tell him he missed my birthday that I would send him my shrink's bill.) The irony is that he was engaged in a different kind of social networking.

He was busy golfing with my Great Aunt and exploring back roads and forgotten Indiana cemeteries in a quest to locate the graves of his great-great-great-great (not sure how many greats to insert here but a lot) grandparents. He was looking at their "walls" - not the Facebook wall with its social comings and goings, but their small stones with just what's left - name, birth, death, maybe a few descriptors.

Those souls celebrated all their birthdays without Facebook. Rosie will celebrate all of hers in a world with Facebook or the next big thing.

There's a certain spectacle in the Facebook birthday bonanza, but there's also the opportunity to remember and be grateful for all those people who have come through your life.

So many blessings to be grateful for. And that's certainly one of the best birthday gifts of all to receive.

Happy Birthday, Daddy: Take 2

Today is Jon's XXrd birthday, his second as a Dad. (Until I get official permission from him, I won't reveal his age in this blog. Yes, we're getting that old.)

While I did my best to help Rosie greet her Daddy (when he returned from voting at 7 a.m.) with a happy birthday message, it sounded more like - "abadabaa, Dada." Of course, next year she'll probably be singing happy birthday! It's hard to imagine what two-year-old Rosie will be like. She's changed so much since Jon's birthday last year.

September 14, 2009: Rosie was wearing her 0-3 month clothes still. (Of course, she's still in 6-9 months at this point so we haven't changed all that much in terms of size!). BUT she was so much younger in so many ways. Last year on Jon's birthday, Rosie cried out when she awoke, snuggled in her sleep sack waiting for our faces to appear. This morning Rosie called from her crib "Mommeemommeemommeedaddeeeeeeeeee!" When I walked in the room, she was standing in her monkey PJs with a smile on her face, bouncing and dancing with delight that her greeting had successfully resulted in Mommy showing up! This year's Rosie could literally run circles around last year's Rosie who only rolled over but didn't sit up or crawl.

Last year she could giggle but not clap. She wasn't even eating rice cereal then and this morning ate peaches and blueberries by the handful. Last year's Rosie spent time on activity mats and in bouncer seats. Now she zigzags from toy to book to ball to blocks to puzzle to our laps with a book in one hand, toy in the other, and sippy cup dangling from her mouth.

And best of all, 15-month Rosie could offer the birthday boy a hand-blown kiss. Next year she'll probably follow up that kiss with an "I love you." Considering my heart nearly burst the first time she said "Mommy," I can only imagine my reaction to that magical moment.

Jon and I decided that our favorite birthday gift from each other this year (and every year) is simply Rosie.

A close second is simply Jon. I'm so grateful to him for being such an amazing and engaged daddy and such a loving and supportive husband. Sitting across from him at his birthday breakfast this morning after we'd dropped off Rosie at the nanny, I couldn't help but feel that same heart-bursting love. I had one of those overwhelming moments where you realize that you are living a life better than the one you'd imagined for yourself.

Birthdays are a good time for reflection on the past and the present. On the many blessings and gifts of the year (even the material ones like the new family car we bought last month).

My final thoughts on Jon's birthday are these: humble gratitude for him, for Rosie, for our family. Here's to another great year!



**Addendum: Here's a cute happy birthday banner that Rosie helped make with the nanny and her little buddy today! Notice the hand prints and scribbles. Too fun!

Year 3 of School Begins

On Monday I started back to school. It's year three of my four year program and my last semester of coursework.

Monday night was a public affairs management and leadership class that promises to be amazing taught by a professor who is on a first-name basis with the current U.S. Secretary of Defense. Nice.

Tuesday I met my students for my new class I've been prepping all summer. The good news is that I continue to gain confidence that I'm on the right career path. I absolutely adore teaching and talking to them about research and the profession (and their overlap). If I could just do research and teach, I'd be a happy working woman!

This morning a small group of us went to the gym together. Part accountability, part support group. Whatever you want to call it, it motivated me to get back on the elliptical for the first time in about 25 months, so that's something! My hope is that it will be good for my stress level and my physical health.

Tonight was the big stats class. It seems like it's actually going to be pretty good. I'm not saying there weren't formulas in that course packet that I'd prefer not to ever have to understand. BUT it's not going to be nearly as bad as it could have been (and was in undergrad).

Throughout the week there were also several meetings, course scheduling, book/course packet buying, syllabus tweaking, photo copying, article reading, and lots of driving and walking on a 95+ degree campus.

Tomorrow I've got jury duty so a colleague is taking my class for me, so I can head to the superior courthouse for the fifth time since I moved to D.C. in 2002. Crazy.

In the meantime Rosie is doing amazing. She's adapted so well to the new nanny and her new little friend. Jon's been doing drop off and pick up while we're getting into the semester routine, and the new car has come in handy for that!

We're looking forward to a visit from Jon's parents this weekend and next week so I'm sure there will be more photos and videos to follow.

And now back to homework...