Reunions in the Age of the Interwebz

Thanksgiving is a wonderful holiday because not only do you get more than your fill of family and feasting, but you also see friends and acquaintances you haven't seen in a very long time. It's the one time of year everyone goes out to the "popping" bars around your hometown, which are normally vacant but now magically there's a long line to get in. I hadn't been home around this time for a few years so the experience was magnified. 

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving I met some friends at a local bar. It was so great to see and talk to a handful of people who I care about and live in different cities all over the country. However, the extreme comedy and awkwardness arises when you see the rest of your hometowners who you totally forgot about and didn't necessarily have any intention of bumping into. There's always the few girls who are dressed in ridiculously short dresses and impossibly high heels who are clearly trying way too hard for a Connecticut suburb. There's the geek who became muscular with his 5x weekly gym visits and is now infinitely hotter than the last time you saw him 3 years ago, and the cheerleader who gained 30 pounds and isn't so cute anymore. The jock who's now a baby daddy. The girl from science class whose name you can't remember but she somehow remembers every little thing about you. 

And then there are the dozens of people you're facebook friends with, who you know threw an awesome halloween party last month and stayed home and cooked a traditional Italian meal last night with their significant other, yet you don't have anything to talk about in real life. That's pretty uncomfortable. You make eye contact, giving each other that nod of acknowledgment that you have a not-so-secret window into their personal lives yet you don't actually know them. "Hey, how's it going?" is code for I know the sweater you're wearing was purchased today at the mall sale cause you tweeted a picture of it earlier. A friend turned to me at one point and said "Ugh, I hate that girl, I'd punch her in the face if I could." I didn't even know they knew each other, and it turns out they don't. When I asked why, she told me "Because she inappropriately "likes" everything my boyfriend posts on facebook and I've had enough. If I could "DISLIKE" her right now I would. Gotta love when reality and the internet actually intersect.