Confirmed as a Friend

It's how we communicate today....my son just confirmed me as a friend on Facebook. (And my daughter did, too.) Of course the two of them have a zillion friends: who knew? (Actually, my house is filled with sleeping teenagers at the moment, so I am not surprised.)

My friends are all in a flurry these days, finally creating Facebook pages. I blame this on Barack Obama, who I guess has more friends than anyone on the planet: God Thanks for That! (as my husband would say.) I am Barack's friend, too...and I never thought I'd say that about a president-elect. And of course he has the Facebook founder on his team: brilliant.

I was very impressed with Obama's first press conference and was thinking about Jon Stewart's next problem: "How do we make any of this funny?" So what do you think: what if Barack just wore sunglasses? The mirrored kind?

I mentioned that to my friend, Dylan, who is one of the wittiest people I know. He holds the honor of being my first Facebook friend under the age of 18. (I adore his parents and little brother, too.) He told me that he loves it when Barack wears sunglasses. We engaged in a bit of banter wall-to-wall.

I resisted Facebook for a long time, afraid of more background noise and lost time at the computer. But my friend Lisa suggests that Facebook "is all about fun and jackassery" – and that suddenly made it irresistible. Anyway, it's one of the "who knew?!" ways we communicate today.

Oh, and that kid on Jack's shoulders? Perhaps the Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea someday! (Maybe following in the footsteps of his Dad and/or his Bubu Charles, either of whom might get there first.) Remember this name: Thierry Lepani.