A Facebook Birthday

Here are two facts: #1-This past Saturday was my birthday.  Hold all your bells and whistles, please, because we're long past celebration time.  Let's face it, there's already been a major holiday since then; I'm small potatoes.  And, really, Hallmark's selection of "Happy 5th Anniversary of Your 29th Birthday, Weirdo!" are slim to none.  And #2-I like to receive emails.  It's kind of a bummer to see "Hello, Rachel!  There are no unread messages in your inbox" for days at a time.  I just don't think Yahoo! has to be so uppity about it.  It's not like I lose sleep or anything over a big fat goose egg, but it's on the same level as checking the mailbox and hoping for a letter or something other than junk.

So, what do these two facts have to so with each other?  The Facebook birthday, of course!  For the past couple of birthdays, I have looked forward to checking my email to see how many Facebook friends have posted a birthday wish on my wall.  There's always that short moment of fear of  opening an empty inbox! Oh!  The anticipation!  This past weekend was no disappointment, either....over 100 comments, thankyouverymuch!   Anybody remember before Facebook when you'd get about 7 "Happy birthday" wishes?...in a phone call?...or a card in the snail mail?...or (gasp!) face to face?   Remember how having a summer birthday meant having the elementary principal read your name over the PA system on the last day before vacation with every other summer baby instead of having your own classroom party?  What the...?  Did I just let that bitterness seep out?  Sorry...

How do you feel about the Facebook Birthday?  Do you look forward to it?  Maybe a little too much?  Maybe not at all?  I mean, let's put this all in balance...some of these well wishes came from people I either hardly know or haven't known in 15 years!  Most of them, you know, are the obligatory post simply because the (sometimes dirty) Facebook sidebar reminded them that it's your special day.  In such an age of social networking, is it a nice touch to have that virtual connection to hundreds of people or kind of an insincere way to get people to stay connected?  Does it cross your mind how many of your FB friends didn't post anything? 

At the end of the day (literally), I enjoyed reading all the kind words and didn't waste time questioning the sincerity or the originality of the post-er.  This is just one of those funny things that goes through my mind in any given day and wonder if the same is true for any of you.  I'm done rambling about nonsense now, carry on.