A Non-Event Weekend: For the Win - Although there were four different SCA events scheduled today (and yippee, the rain stopped), I did not plan to attend any of them. Instead, a friend needed help packing a U-Haul for his move, and so I took the opportunity to dress down into jeans, tennies, and t-shirt (rather than my event garb of full-length dresses), and spend time with friends.

First, I only work about a 20-30 minute drive away from my sister's home. So Friday after work, I surprised her by dropping by to see everyone. My nephew was a little cranky when I arrived, but after a nap in his musical swing, 30 minutes later he was awake again and giggling at my antics. This was my first visit where he could really interact with me, smiling and giggling, and I was just thrilled to pieces to see him.

My nieces were both home too, and we had a side-splitting laugh fest when my eldest niece and my sister both put on their ballet toe shoes, and did some (attempts) at various moves on pointe. I nearly fell off my chair, laughing at the whole affair. It was truly soul-inspiring good clean fun with family. It amuses me to no end that my sister turned her living room into a dance studio, complete with wooden floor, wall-of-mirrors, and ballet barre. When I got on the road after about an hour, my youngest niece was changing into dance shoes, and the whole gang was working on choreography for some upcoming events and/or auditions. I adore my sister and her family!

My friends Kim and Kevin live pretty much around the corner from my Mom and my sister, so they met me at a local IHOP where I finally got dinner around 9:30 pm (grilled fish, veggies, and roasted potatoes), and then followed me home to crash at my place before today's adventure. In the morning, the three of us armed up with coffee and foodstuffs from the Bristol Farms behind my apartment, and drove the remaining 20 minutes south to Scott's place. We managed to fill a U-Haul with his woodworking and armor-making workshops of supplies and tools, the bed, desk, bookcases, and zillions of boxes. It actually went rather quickly, with seven of us working, and we wrapped up with some pizza and good conversation before sending him on his way. He's moving up to my shire, where a gang of additional friends were waiting to unpack the truck. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my SCA friends?)

Of course, one of the sillier conversations, while packing a moving truck, included everyone's plans in the event of a "zombie apocalypse." We've decide that the King's Hunt event site, in the hills of Santa Barbara, would make a lovely place to restart civilization. There are deer and wild turkey that wander through the park (food source!), water nearby, it's off the beaten path, and great open spaces and tree cover for setting up our shelters. Just remember, before we all meet up there in the event of the zombie apocalyspe, someone needs to send a truck to pick me up with the loom, spinning wheels, fiber and fabric stashes, and other clothing-production survival crafts tools. The loom is *not* going to fit in the Festiva. Good, that's settled.

Back at the house, Kim nearly finished the sewing assembly of Kevin's new doublet (ooh, reminder to self: Buy a non-electric hand-powered sewing machine for the restarting of civilization) and I finally unpacked the dry goods from coffee bar, and reassembled my cupboards again. Now the kitchen and nearly all the living room are picked up (again), so all that's left is my bedroom. Then I'll have the house in "party-ready form" once more, that state of cleanliness when you could throw a party for friends without having to stay home for a day to clean. This is one of my life-habit goals I'm trying to establish: "A house that is always (nearly) party ready."

I didn't realize how tired I was until after Kim and Kevin left, and I was trying to watch baby videos of Ceri's and David's son... some of the clips were only 20-seconds long, and I was falling asleep after hitting "play" and before the video was done. Yeah, um, tired! So I took a nap late this afternoon, and now I need to run to the store and find some dinner. Yes, at 10 pm. (sigh) But the house is clean and Scott's moving truck was packed! (cue laughter)

Tomorrow is a baby shower for my cousin Cindy, where we will have whole families in town and can enjoy more family reunion moments.

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About Online Friendships - So, in my RSS feed Friday, there was a post from FlowingData (by the way, thank you Teej, I *love* that site!) that included a graphic by Mike Arauz called the "Spectrum of Online Friendship"

* Passive Interest: I follow your work, visit your site, read your blog, follow you on Twitter, etc.
* Active Interest: I've voiced my interest in your work by leaving comments, posting Twitter replies, posting Facebook wall comments, etc.
* Sharing: I publish links to your work on my own websites and profiles
* Public Dialogue: We exchange public messages through referrals on our websites and profiles
* Private Dialogue: We exchange private messages through email, IM, direct messages, etc.
* Advocacy: I explicitly encourage my friends to follow your work
* Investment: Your wins are my wins because I share your arguments, and I care about the success of your ideas

I think there's some problems with this analysis --> There are plenty of friends with whom I have either Public and/or Private dialogues, who have no passive interest in following my sites, my journal, my twitter, my facebook, etc. In fact, one friend very specifically does NOT follow anything about me online, because she prefers that I visit her occasionally and tell her all that's been going on.

And I'm not sure there's always a line between Sharing and Advocacy --> those two are blurred on occasion.

But the notion of "digital friendships" and how they vary from traditional friendship is an important concept. When someone finds us through Facebook or an online journal/blog, there's a new element added to our the interaction and communication. We choose to make certain things public (like writing a journal entry or posting on twitter), and sometimes we forget what our social network makes public for us (like saying hello on one friend's "wall" on Facebook, and it appears on other friends' home/news feed). Then there are the various games and quizzes and jokes and memes (I know, so much jargon!) that makes some social networking sites more annoying than others --> I don't mind the occasional cute post on LiveJournal, but the new interface on Facebook is more than a little annoying. I personally have no interest in the myriad of quizzes, apps, and virtual gifts that I am bombarded with on Facebook. But because FB has made it possible for me to finally get to know some of my cousins better, or has reconnected me with several dozen college friends I haven't seen in more than fifteen years, I put up with the dross to find the gold.

Sometimes, I'll be having a conversation with a friend or family member, and we'll be talking about something that I've included in a journal entry. I *never* assume that people read this journal. I think that it's rude on my part to insist that someone follow along over here. Sure, if you're interested, I've made this adventure journal for you. (And you happen to be the people reading this, so you know I write this for you.) But for those who don't follow my journal, that's okay too.

So, all that to say I think that the "Spectrum of Online Friendship" graphic is slightly flawed because it doesn't indicate the dilemma of how "IRL" In Real Life friendships make that leap to taking advantage of online tools, nor how varied the blur is between our IRL friendships and our online involvement with one another.

I am endlessly amused that (a) I primarily remember that the audience for my journal is really my Mom, and (b) I finally joined Facebook because of my Mom. Heaven help us, if she decides to follow me on Twitter, too. *wink*

No, seriously Mom. You *don't* need to be on Twitter. You already text me and send me photos from your cell phone when you're on vacation. In the Eastern time zone. First thing in the morning. While I'm sleeping. Srsly.

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Today's Blessing That I'm Thankful For: Jan, Brad, Megan, Kara, and Jack