funny, right?

The third week in February was a great week.  Nearly my entire family (sister, brother, kids, in-laws, grandkids, nieces, etc.) converged on Redington Beach from New York, Denver, Orlando, Austin and Jacksonville.  So fun, so many memories, so many laughs.

My sister Jane and I got to catch up on our kids’ lives, our current employment and which one of us looks more like our mother.  We both know which one of us acts more like our mother!  And we reminisced about our ‘dumb bunny’ days growing up.  I’ve blogged about those exploits before.  We talked about some of our antics in high school and were giggling out loud.  And I believe we BOTH think each other is very funny.  We both always wanted to be considered funny.  Meaning that people would laugh at our clever sarcasm, our quick repartee, our side-splitting imitations of our parents, etc.  But wait!

Our brother Fred caught up with us later in the week, and just like so many long-ago reunions of my mother’s family, my brother, sister and I were laughing away about old times.  But when we looked around, we discovered our adult children now holding their sides laughing at US!  And no!  NOT because they think we have a good sense of humor, or are necessarily witty.  They were in hysterics because they think we’re so old-fashioned, dim-witted, out-of-touch, non-tech-savvy, and the list goes on.  And honestly, them laughing at us is the good news.  At times we irritate them with our diminished hearing, our slowness with cell phone cameras, our penchant for ‘telling them how to get to a place instead of just texting them the address’.   When did the tables turn?  The two oldest adult children have children of their own, so maybe that’s when it starts.

I’m bothered by it and I’m not.  A part of me (wants to) think that I’ve still got it.  After all, I BLOG dont I?  Doesn’t that earn me a social media gold star?  Nope.  Just today I told my son — “I’m ON Instagram, but I don’t GET it”!  Truly, I love to see other people’s pictures, and would post mine if I thought they were good, but I don’t buy into the business aspect of it.  And how many ways can you tell your ‘following’ where you are?  Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, texting.  When do you ‘check in’?  Before or after you’ve ordered your drink, or your dinner?  And how do you remember to snap a picture of your delicious dinner before you bite into it?  What do I check first?  I get even more sidelined on Facebook than I do on the Internet.  You know, you start looking for something, then follow a link, then another link, and then . . .  wait, where was I?  By now I’m reading about some amazing weight-loss results from some product that ‘made it’ on Shark Tank.  Which Facebook friend was I even looking at?  Sheesh, no wonder our kids have those bemused smiles on their faces!  Funny . . .