FACEBOOK

When I was first inundated with requests to join Facebook by many different friends and family members I simply ignored them. I was under the assumption that Facebook was the same as MySpace, and what I had heard about MySpace was quite unsavory to say the least - a bunch of teenagers chatting back and forth to eachother about inappropriate topics, posting inappropriate pictures, etc. I was hearing it was even a dating service of sorts, and not a very "clean" one. Just seemed like it was pretty much not for me. So you can imagine why I had no interest in joining Facebook.

That is until an old friend of Mr. Shelton's convinced me otherwise. How did she convince me you ask? She made her case in favor of Facebook by stating that

1.) It is a great place to share pictures of the kiddos with family members you don't see often, or that you don't get a chance to get pictures to. This sparked my interest right away as some members of my lovely family (you know who you are) get upset that I don't get to Target often enough to print pictures off and present them in hand.

2.) It is a great way to reconnect with old friends from gradeschool and College. Now this does not appeal to everyone as some would rather not be reacquainted with such people from their past, but for me it sounded quite fun. What would be better than being able to click on a page, see your old friend, pictures of them and their husband, and kids all without an akward phone call, or weird chance meeting at the local Target.

I was convinced, and so, I joined. And up until today, I have had quite a nice experience with it all. Reading people's status updates, writing my own, checking in to see what "Kate" wrote to "Bob" - which seems sort of snoopy, but I guess that is sort of what the site is all about, right?

Anyway, back to the reason why I have been having a nice experience up until today.

I was scrolling through all of my friends status updates, when I came across this one.

Doug: 10 days until PD Pappy's opens for the season!!!!!

A little background on PD Pappy's for your reading pleasure: PD Pappy's is a local bar here in the lovely city of Stillwater, which is only open in the Summer. It is a very popular place with the local's, and is also known as the biker/boater bar. Why you ask? Because if you happen to come upon this little gem of a bar you will most likely see tons and tons of motorcycles parked out front of it. For some reason the bikers enjoy this watering hole, which is just fine, no big deal. you will find many a boaters as it is located right on the beautiful St. Croix River, so they enjoy docking their boats and walking to the bar for a drink and some grub. They have wonderful bands that play there on Friday and Saturday nights which tends to draw huge amounts of people, on top of all the regulars that go there just because.

What I am saying is it is a loud, rowdy, crowded bar. Which is great if you like having to stand all the time, squished inbetween a few people, and yelling to try and carry on a conversation with whomever you have gone out with that night.

This, my friends is NOT my cup 'o tea. I tend to favor somewhat quieter places. Places where you can get a table, have a drink, an appetizer, chat with friends, and have some music playing quietly in the background. Call me boring, old, whatever, this is what I like.

SO, after reading Doug's comment about PD Pappy's opening, I decided to comment back with this:

ME: PD Pappy's sucks. I know, I will be killed for saying such an awful thing as most everyone in this world (including Brian) LOVES the place. The only time you will see me going there is if it is a Sunday and Kurt Jorgensen is playing - love this band. :)

This is me poking a little fun at PD Pappy's and Doug's comment. No big deal, Doug did not think so otherwise.

Doug: "I know, not everybody likes the place but the biggest thing is that it's opening day signifies that summer is almost upon us etc!!! Plus they do get some good bands in there and I love going there on Sunday's too, to see KJ! And you can't say that you don't love the 'people watching!!' It's always very amusing seeing drunk boaters and bikers mingle !!!"

All in fun, right? Wrong. After a few minutes, this comment popped up underneath mine. A comment from someone by the name of Russell Lalevee. [I should mention that I have no idea who this person is as he is a "friend" of Doug's. ] It's a real doozie if I do say so myself.

RUSSELL: "Hey Maria, sorry this place isn't some top 40 bar with trendy people in Minneapolis or some lame suburb. One thing you have to admit, where else can you go to a bar around here in which, 1) you are on water 2) you are in the beautiful St.Croix river valley 3) cheap drinks, somewhat 4) half price burgers on Tuesday and half price chicken sandwiches on Wednesday 5) always free to see bands play 6) considering on Saturday and Sunday afternoons, with all the bikers and the drunk boaters, and lame people like you, I have yet to see a fight there ever in the past 15 years I have been going there, it is amazing, everybody gets along, unlike more of the bars around here 7) you eat poop and drink your own pee8) you fart a lot, so there !!!!"

Ooooh. Them are fightin' words. Things like this really get my blood boiling. Even though I did not want to justify his response with a response of my own, I could not resist. JERK.

ME: Russell - sorry that you feel the need to be so insulting to a person you do not even know. The reasons you gave as to why you believe I do not like Pappy's are VERY wrong. I do not like Pappy's simply because it is extremely crowded most every night of the week and there is not a place to sit, relax and just chat with friends. I live in Stillwater and love and appreciate the beautiful river and other bars in the area. When I do go out for a night, it is in Stillwater and not in Minneapolis at some "trendy top 40 bar". And you do not need to go over the perks of going to Pappy's, as I know about them all. My friends frequent the bar quite a bit and so does my husband. Not to mention, this comment was to Doug, and was not to be taken so seriously by other douche bags who happen to come across it. And as for #7 and 8 - REALLY?? Sorry Doug, but your "friend" is just plain old rude.

Later, Doug posted this.

DOUG: "Hi Maria, one of the worst things about Facebook is what just happend here. Russ is an acquaintance and someone I do not hang out with. I actually forgot he was on here. Ask Bob or Bill about Russ and they will tell you he can be a fun person sometimes but he is a complete idiot most of the time with his inappropriate comments. I am sorry that you had to be subject to his crass comments. Hopefully you won't feel less about me. :-) Oh and yeah, I think it's delete time for him."

So HAH Russell. You just lost a "friend". Juvenile? Yes. Could I help myself? No.