Tag Archives: f2fb

March 23, 2012

a puzzling end to a facebook friend’s visit and i revisit the lexapro issue

By arlynnpresser

what a wonderful afternoon get together! thank you f2fb friend #307 tony adams with my father justin. tony is a wonderful friend and wanted us to try something special for lunch.

my father justin (f2fb friend #30) flew in from tallahassee this monday and planned to stay for a week and a day.  we had dinner with f2fb friend #306 oj dorson and justin made chicken l’orange in honor of the occasion.  the next day, we had lunch with f2fb friend #307 tony adams and then there was the fire. . . .

i went to sleep that night thinking that the visit with justin was going very well.  i had a brunch planned for sunday morning in his honor.  we were going to the movies to see the artist. then i woke at four o’clock in the morning with a migraine.

for those of you who don't know what a migraine feels like, imagine this cute blue dude having some fun with hammer, nails and your brain.

i didn’t come downstairs until seven where i found justin had already packed.  he said his wife barbara had a dinner that evening and wanted him to return home to join her.  he had already called the airlines and rebooked a flight for that afternoon to atlanta and then in the evening a flight from atlanta to tallahassee.  it seemed puzzling to me.  i felt uneasy.  i felt rejected.  i felt, and still feel, that i must have done something to offend either justin or his wife and it’s just a matter of me not knowing what it is.

feeling rejected is a good excuse for a pajama day. which includes pajamas, self-loathing, a paperback, television, domino's pizza and wine and going to bed at eight o'clock. this time i left out the pizza and wine.

i was proud that i didn’t call domino’s, prouder that i didn’t drink white wine.  i still have a migraine.  i still wasted time on hulu.com, went to bed at eight o’clock and never got out of my pajamas. . . but this morning, i’m back together except for the bedhead.  the temporary rules of my life are back in force:  work out every day, take a shower, no going to bed at eight o’clock.  otherwise. . . .

i have a prescription for lexapro which is sitting unopened on my kitchen counter. i really don't want to do this but some doctors believe anxiety disorder and agoraphobia are only controllable with antidepressants. including mine.

 

 

11 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

March 18, 2012

And the Winners Are…

By arlynnpresser

And the Winners Are….

 

i’m so lucky!  thank you so much to living4bliss for the hug!  i want to share it with you!

4 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

March 13, 2012

mama said there’d be days like these. . .

By arlynnpresser

. . . and maybe more than one at a time.

i’m on day two of a stay at home in my jammies streak.  the world is crazy, chaotic, overwhelming, loud, boisterous, jumpy, depressing.  i don’t understand how anybody actually gets out of bed and manages to slog through the next twelve hours without screaming.

so for the past two days, i haven’t tried.  well, i’ve tried.  and then failed.  and put my jammies back on and gotten back into bed.  hulu.com is very good for a pajama day.    so is a book.  so is a copy of vogue and a candy bar.

last year, i made a commitment to meet all 325 of my facebook friends.  some were people i hadn’t seen in years.  some were people i had never even met.  some people lived in my sleepy little town of winnetka, some lived in countries i couldn’t locate on a map.  i learned a lot of interesting skills:  karate chopping a wood block, opening a champagne bottle with a saber sword, boxing, and tolerance for people who try very very hard to forget that the world is crazy, chaotic, overwhelming, loud, boisterous, jumpy, depressing.

last year, i flew to anchorage on a thursday, rented a car and drove five hours south to homer, had dinner with a facebook friend, drove back to anchorage, flew up to nome, spent time with a facebook friend, flew back to anchorage and then onto chicago in time for sunday dinner. today, a trip to the grand grocery store four blocks away sounds too daunting.

there are a lot of people like me, i’ve discovered.  some take pajama days and some take pajama months and some just call it a pajama lifestyle.  i also have acquired new friends, enough so that facebook has shut down my account for receiving new friends.  when i click confirm on a new friend, i receive this message: Individual Facebook members can connect to a maximum of 5000 friends and Pages. To do this action, you’ll need to remove a friend or unlike a Page you’re already connected to.  i’m now thirty five messages behind on emails through facebook.  i might have to solve these problems. . . . after this last pajama day!

28 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

March 9, 2012

am i a person, an interest, a hobby, a hobbit, a barbie. . . or a friend?

By arlynnpresser

five thousand is a rather arbitrary number.  sure, it’s the largest isogrammic number in the english language, meaning that the letters that make up the name “five thousand” don’t repeat.  a five thousand dollar bill, should you ever be so lucky to have one, will delight you with a picture of the fourth united states president james madison–you would have to be awfully lucky because that bill is no longer in circulation.  and for facebook?  five thousand friends means you are no longer a person.

this morning, i was surprised to discover that i am “an interest”. . . .

this is my profile picture as ArLynn Leiber Presser interest. i can "like" this page but i can't post on this page. i am completely clueless as to what this means. . . . can i be somebody's hobby?

 

i have no idea who created the page but it is accompanied by a wikipedia biography.  i have a facebook friend who has created a “public figure” Arlynn Leiber Presser page.  apparently, this will become massively important if i ever end up with five thousand friends.  over the course of the last year, as i have visited the original 325 friends i have acquired some more new friends.  but i’m really unclear as to why that means i have to be a public figure.

i'd rather be an action figure but i'll settle for being a barbie doll. i find this really confusing. . . .

 

today i went to lunch with f2fb friend #304 tracy lynn deis, who IS a public figure because she is a photographer with more than five thousand “fans”.  and yet, she seems like a really nice friend.  she works out of her home, designing online courses for professors who work out of their homes for students who will learn out of their homes. . . . probably everybody lives next door to each other they just don’t know it.  tracy and i talked about how sometimes it feels like we can spend days without leaving the house and . . . it feels okay.  it’s a choice.  but then it’s hard to work up the energy to get out of the house.  i was grateful she did. . . i was grateful i did.

my car is fixed so i can travel. i have a full backseat. at five o'clock i sort of had to fish or cut bait on seeing tracy lynn and i had the usual plethora of excuses for weaseling out and staying home. . . . so was tracy lynn!

and she told me the most insane facebook romance story ever. . . and i’ve heard a lot!

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

March 7, 2012

the most beautiful present from a facebook friend and angels make their intentions known

By arlynnpresser

in the christian, muslim and jewish traditions, the archangel gabriel is often responsible for relaying messages to mortals, such as when gabriel told mary that she would bear a child and his name would be emmanuel. this picture is not of that moment.

my cracked windshield has been repaired although i’m not supposed to drive for a while to allow the glass to “cure”.

as angels so often take many forms, it is possible that the archangel gabriel, or some sort of messenger, has taken the form of a slow moving geico insurance claims system and a really slow safelight glass repair shop. because my son joseph has been saying "you need to stop traveling and sit down and start writing a book about what you did last year." maybe the only way it can happen is if my car is disabled and my airplane slush fund emptied.

but i’ll be on the road tomorrow visiting facebook friend #304. . ..

last night, as i drifted to sleep, i believed that the angel gabriel and a few others had come to fly over my head. nope, it was bats, i think three of them, i was pretty hysterical at the time. swiping the air with a broom didn't intimidate them and crying left them unmoved. maybe i could ask these bats to guard the house, intimidating any robbers while i am away.

tomorrow i start to make plans for trips to new york (with a side trip through pennsylvania) and nevada.  but i think there is something to what the angel gabriel and my son joseph have been telling me. . . i need to write a book about last year because it was the most wonderful experience of friendship.  if you know a publisher who would want a book with embedded videos and photos, or an agent with imagination, or ryan gosling (i just want to meet him, okay????)  tell me all about it.

yesterday, i did receive the most wonderful present from f2fb (face to facebook) friend  #301 brenda jeffries.  she is the gal who has agoraphobia and lives in detroit with the help of her surviving children (her daughter raven was murdered several years ago).  i picked up that her oldest son in particular felt that physical exercise and the experience of the “high” you get when you’re really working out would be good for her.  i sent a present.  this is the result:

a lot of people who have agoraphobia feel comfortable outside so long as they are with a "safe" person. my two safe people are my sons and brenda feels safe with her children. tim and brenda are going bike riding. i'm so happy for them. if you're in detroit and you see her tooling around on this bike, wave to her!

thank you brenda, you MADE my day, my week, my month!

16 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

March 6, 2012

home for the holidays. . . .

By arlynnpresser

winnetka is a very sweet, very small town on the edge of lake michigan, scant miles but many years away from the modern world.  everyone knows everyone else.  the word “appropriate” is used a lot and not in any sort of ironic way.  education is important.  it’s why we’re here.  and i haven’t spent a lot of time here in the past year and a half even though i love my little home.  

the windshield on my car was blown out and dealing with geico and safelight is a little like dealing with the two of the three stooges.  but one day the pratfalls will stop and i’ll get my car back and can hit the road.  in the meantime, i realize i am home for one of winnetka’s most cherished holiday weeks. .. .

5 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

March 3, 2012

the star, the sun, the enquirer. . .

By arlynnpresser

i admit to many addictions:  white wine, chocolate, fettucine alfredo, the office, 30 rock, vitamin water zero, angel perfume.  and my friday morning addiction:  the star, the sun, and the national enquirer.  the grand grocery store in winnetka even knows to set aside one each because i’ll be there by seven in the morning.  then i hustle over to the community house to while away an hour on the stairmill.

the national enquirer was founded in 1926 and has a circulation of approximately 650,000 readers. this is not this week's cover.

i got a double dose of pleasure on friday morning.  don gentile, a reporter based at the enquirer’s florida headquarters, has been following my facebook adventures and he put together a story about it.  when it came out this week i had twin feelings:  excitement and a great notion to hide.  so i did both.  stairmill first, then a pajama day.  sometimes the very thing you want is the very thing that is so scary.  sometimes i have to remember to keep the emotions of excitement and fear separated.  and i also have to remember that every day that i hide in the house makes it harder to leave the next day. . . .

 

 

 

don gentile writes human interest stories. he doesn't usually dig for dirt, which means he knows nothing about that sex tape with reg bush, the time i told kim her butt was too big or all that red bull i gave to demi. shhhh! this is just between you and me!

 

everything i have done in the past fifteen months has been possible because of my facebook friends.  every time a facebook friend posts encouragement on my wall, hits the like button or pokes me, i feel it.  and i have been so grateful to the facebook friends who have met with me, taught me things, showed me their spiritual side, talked to me about what really matters to them–i have been blessed.

12 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized

February 25, 2012

for every facebook friend who has never seen snow. . .

By arlynnpresser

the before. . .

the after. . .

i was really really surprised by what i found in detroit but this is before that. i am grateful to my facebook friend for seeing me.

and this is now we do it!!

6 Comments   |  tags: , , , | posted in Uncategorized

February 23, 2012

sometimes it’s a strategic retreat not a full scale sprint to safety

By arlynnpresser

so i blew into oberlin, ohio expecting quality time with f2fb friend #1 my son eastman presser.  unfortunately, he was dealing with some major drama (girls), work (do they actually do that in college), and rehearsals for a concert he hoped i’d attend.  i had a full day to kill and it got to me.  i descended into my own personal form of darkness.

a chorus of voices in my head, each having their own lines--you're a bad mom, you're a failure as a writer, you have squandered your youth, you will never find happiness, you are going to die alone and broke, you gained ten pounds and look disgusting. . .

oddly, i was at the computer so i posted a status that i was having a major anxiety attack.  i was looking up where the oberlin hospital is located.  i wondered if they had state of the art cardiac and stroke care.  then i noticed lots of messages and comments popping up from facebook friends.  breathe, a great many suggested.  take a hot shower.  watch the movie enchanted april (hey, if i knew how to get the television to work in my room i would!), go out and sing the national anthem, someone wrote and pretend you can do it better than whitney houston.  well, i can but that’s only because she can’t do it anymore at all.  hugs, many sent me and others sent me their own experiences. i’m not alone.  i was really really really touched.  this is exactly the sort of thing that makes mark zuckerberg’s creation meaningful.

i pulled it together to get to eastman’s performance at a recital by michael pisaro who is visiting from the california institute of the arts near los angeles.  what he does with a two minute “rest”–well, he definitely solves the Mozart problem of too many notes.

an hour and a half of experimental, atonal music–very modern and sophisticated.  my stomach growling drew the attention of several audience members.  an hour and forty five minutes no intermission.

and then i went back to the hotel room, took two ativan and got into bed.  thinking about pennsylvania.  the trip, the hours, the turnpike.  took another ativan.  looked for something to read.  the gideon bible.  but too much stuff about being struck down dead.  and then the yellow pages for oberlin.  sort of funny.  under elderly care they had something called the scooter shop!

i enjoyed the image of oberlin citizens of a certain age getting out their hog scooters and terrorizing the neighborhood!

 

this morning, i had no sleep and was frankly more exhausted than when i went to bed.  i made a decision.  onward to detroit.  it’s closer to home.  i’m feeling a bit bruised.  i think this is a strategic retreat, not a dive for the covers of home.

9 Comments   |  tags: , , , , , | posted in Uncategorized