The trials and tribulations of facebook...

So, I finally broke down and created a facebook account about 4 or 5 days ago. It's been quite a trip down memory lane, touching base with old friends long-forgotten, and people I went to pre-school with...

It's also been a very, very sobering experience.

In the last 24 hours I've connected and reconnected with the two people I least expected, one, an old Camosun friend who shall go unnamed, has had a rough time of it since I saw him last. Health problems abound, and he's still fighting the ghosts of a failed steroid-treatment for an autoimmune neuromuscular disorder, and withdrawal from the medical morphine that was given to help him with the pain. Either of those things on their own, I suspect, would be more taxing than most of us will ever know; I feel glad that the worst I ever have to deal with is a particularly bad cold.

On the other side of things, I received a message out of the blue from a niece (by marriage), Yolanda, that I didn't know I had, and saw pictures of my two great-nephews for the first time ever... I didn't even know their names until today (Indeo and Ryven). Oddly enough, this latter connection happened through entirely non-family channels. It seems Yolanda is friends with the Cheimak family, the younger members of whom I went to SMUS with. We're going to try and set up a meeting of some kind before I leave on my trip, so I can meet Indeo and Ryven, and their dad Jubal, who I've only heard passing mention of until now.

Facebook is a strange, strange place. I've gone from getting horrible news about good friends, to being connected with "new" family in the space of one evening. I don't think I've had this much of an emotional up-and-down day in a long time.

Some days the world seems huge and daunting; others it seems so small I feel like I can just reach across it. Today's been a bit of both...