The First Step...

I hear, is admitting that you have a problem.

My name is Amy, and I am a Facebooker.

Holy cow. I don't think I've ever been so addicted to anything besides that chocolate cake that my girl Kelley brought last week.

I didn't even have a FB account until this summer. After a dinner with my peeps Tanya (who lives in one of those states with lots of tornadoes) and Laura (who lives here with me -- well, not in my house, but in the area) and I decided that we were going to do a better job of keeping in touch.

They both had FB pages at the time, while I did not.

I tried to get in on the MySpace thing, but I never really got it up and going... too much work for me.

Sidenote to panic attack: The last time I got on my MySpace page, my cousin Lindsey (who is the apple of my eye) tried to help me find a background to suit. Since I l.o.v.e. shoes, I thought I'd find one with cute shoes.... and I did -- a leg/foot in a red stiletto on a black & white background -- very chic....

Or at least, I thought it was... until I posted it to my page and realized it was more Hooker-in-Red-Stilettos than I-Love-My-Red-Stilettos. When it posted, the little bitty thumbnail picture turned out to be a large picture of a lady's leg encased in fishnet stockings, standing in what appeared to be a very sassy pose in front of a man's pants legs.

About the time that I recovered from my shock and tried to delete it, the connection was lost, and I didn't get to take it down.

When I started this post, I remembered that, so I tried to log on. My school kids use MySpace all the time, and the last thing I need is for them to think their English teacher is some kind of dominatrix.

The problem started when I pulled up my page -- and the background was gone.

Now, that means one of two things:
1 -- I took the background off.
2 -- I have two MySpace pages, and I can only remember the log in to one.

I'm thinking it may be the latter because I am prone to forgetting log in info and then creating another account.

This makes me panic because you hear horror stories about companies and employers searching MySpace for their employees. Now, there's nothing on my page, but still... it's not like I want my students or co-workers or -- Heaven forbid -- my principal or superintendent to pull up my page and see that.

ANYWAY -- back to Facebook.

So, Laura and Tanya tell me I need to get a FB page, and I oblige. At first, because I didn't know how it worked, I wasn't too obsessed.

I checked it pretty much every day and doodled around here and there with games, but it all exploded when I got home from the hospital on maternity leave.

I think it's because I have had very little contact with adults other than K or my parents -- but I'm not really sure.

I also don't think it helped that we moved the computer downstairs... so now, while K watches 74 hours straight of TV, I can Facebook for 74 straight hours as well... and again when he goes to work... and again when the kids are napping... and again while dinner is cooking....

K, for the record, is annoyed. He has lodged minor complaints like, "Do you think you can get off Facebook long enough to help me load the dishwasher?"

No. Probably not. I might miss a chat.

To be fair, my contribution to household chores has significantly decreased since my obsession with Facebook began... not that my contribution was great, anyway.

I hate housework.

With a passion.

But still -- I don't see much difference between my obsession with Facebook and his obsession with TV... and movies he's already seen 97 times... or sleep.

I think we may have to sell our worldly possessions and become Amish in order to settle this fairly.

So, as it stands, I am addicted to just about everything. Gaming. Chatting. Messaging. So much so that I'm starting to recruit people to join FB just so I can talk to them.

Sigh.

I think it might be time for me to go back to school.