well i can’t believe i have re-started blogging, joined flickr under a new alias, and signed up for twitter all at once. But i’m happy about it. it’s a little sad but it does make me feel more connected with the world and other people.

it’s sad because while the internet connects people, it is also a daily reminder of our alienation from ourselves and our communities. People used to get together and talk face-to-face, in fact it used to be the only option. Now there are so many options for observing and commenting on the lives of others, it seems we don’t need to be actively involved in the actual lives of our friends.

Friends used to mean something different than it does now. And communities were about knowing everyone around you, whether you liked them or not.  Sometimes it seems like that community feeling and activity is still the norm in my new home neighborhood of Beverly. Richie’s mother MJ makes an extra serving of dinner and takes it over to an elderly neighbor almost every night, and on every block people take care to park in their own unofficial parking spots and not take their neighbors’ spot, you know stuff like that is nice and it feels good to live there.

I feel like i’m a bad friend. I’ve been broke and living far away from my old northside haunts for so long it feels like i’ve lost all connection with my peeps. I feel like I don’t see my niece and nephew enough, i feel like i don’t see my brother and his awesome wife enough… but maybe i’m being too hard on myself. i do have a job now, and i do the vast majority of the housework at home, and taking care of Richie and our ELEVEN pets certainly takes up a lot of time… but still, i should make more time for socializing and seeing friends. I have some friends who i haven’t seen in so long i’m just assuming that we aren’t really friends anymore 😦

i guess internet presence is better than nothing!

shirley templeton on the left, debbie hairy (aka Blondie) on the right