Why My Marriage is Pending -- On Facebook

Sometimes, social media gets me into awkward situations.
I blog, I'm on Facebook, I have a Twitter account and people keep following me even though I don't know why because I rarely tweet. You'd think that I am fairly savvy about technology.
But I can't tell you the number of times I've called my daughter Grace to say, "Fix  it!" I've usually posted something I didn't mean to or been tagged in a photo that I don't like or made some sort of awful editing error that will not look good for a writer.
One day, as Grace and I were looking at something on Facebook, she clicked on my profile and said, "Why is this pending?"
It was a request from Earl to confirm that we are married.
I mean, of course, we are. We've been married nearly 25 years.

I hadn't seen his request and had no idea when he sent it.
Originally, when I was using my Facebook page as an author page, I didn't include anyone in my family settings. As you know if you read my blog, I talk about my kids and their exploits. I didn't want to reveal to the world their last names, preserving them a tiny bit of anonymity.
But, now I have a separate author page, and I try to limit my personal Facebook page to friends and family, so I could safely acknowledge my husband on my Facebook page.
The only problem was, the day that Grace pointed out that I hadn't acknowledge the marriage request, well, Earl and I were in the middle of a fight.
It was only a few weeks ago, but I can't remember what the fight was about (of course). I told Grace I couldn't possible accept his request now because that would be a conciliatory act in the middle of an argument. The fight faded, but I didn't remember to go on Facebook and add Earl as my husband.
The other night when Earl was on his Facebook page, he clicked on his profile.
"Why is this pending?" he asked.
"Oh," I laughed and told him the story about seeing it when we were in a fight. He immediately pretended to be affronted and protested that I didn't need to acknowledge him if I didn't want to.
"I can't do it from my phone," I explained. My computer was all the way across the room.
But I updated my profile, typing in Earl's name as my husband, since I couldn't accept his request on my phone.
Now, our marriage is no longer pending. Facebook does believe that we were married in 2011 rather than in 1990. And if you were to click on the marriage statement, you'd see some pretty strange photos of me and Earl, like one of us standing on the top of an Indian head statue, Tecumseh, and accompanied by a French friend. Plus Earl's comment, "Beautiful day, beautiful bride." People must think, "Is this where they got married?" But his comments go with another picture and another post.

Like I said, it's all very complicated.
Very bizarre, but you can't always fix social media.
Here's an actual photo as we were driving away from Mom and Dad's farm to the reception.

Bright and Dark

I have been woefully absent from my blog. Finishing up a semester at one college, teaching four nights a week at another, preparing two boys to go to one college while my daughter goes back and forth from her apartment at another college.
Today, I'm attending a funeral of my running friends Noreen, sometimes called Stephanie. You may recall that Noreen is the one who dealt with breast cancer by running, and running circles around us.
Noreen's mother died last week of cancer as well. My friend Pam and I will drive two and a  half hours to support Noreen, cause that's what friends do.
I'm wearing a coral colored dress because Noreen asked everyone to wear orange and black in support of her mother's favorite high school. I don't have orange, so coral will have to do.
So here's a picture of some sunflowers from our community garden. Hope you all have a terrific weekend.

Blogging Every Day

No one may have noticed it, but I posted on my blog every day this month.
I didn't necessarily make that my goal, but once I started posting and I got so far, I thought I might as well continue and try to come up with something every day.
I've made a lot of blogging friends through my love of books, and I regularly participate in blog memes three days a week. There's my meme, Dreaming of France on Mondays, First Paragraph on Tuesdays with the beginning of a book I'm reading, and Saturday Snapshot on Saturdays.
That only left me four days to come up with other topics.
Before I became a book blogger and an author, touting my own novels, I wrote a lot about my family.
As a matter of fact, when I got busy writing about books, one reader said to another reader, "I guess Paulita isn't blogging any more."
What she meant is that the only thing I blogged about was books -- mine and other authors' books.
So I'm trying to hit a happy medium -- writing about my family, my life, my job, my dreams, my observations, and also books that I read.
I'm not sure it's made a difference, and I haven't really committed to blogging every day for the rest of the year, or even next month.
But I appreciate those of you who take the time to read my blog, and those who leave comments too. It makes me feel a little less alone in the world.

France Blog

Yay! Grace is blogging again. This time, about her trip to France.
Take a look to see France through the eyes of a brave, yet frightened, 19-year-old American.
Grace's Blog: Life Allons-y!

May in Review

This month, for the first time, I tried to blog everyday.
I succeeded, except for one day when Blogger was down, then stil down, then still down. And I didn't blog that one day in May.
What have I discovered?
It isn't that hard to blog every day. Some days my blog posts were a stretch. Nothing came naturally. Other days, I had interesting things to write about.
So, what do you think? Should I try to blog everyday or limit myself to those days when I have something pressing to share with readers?