fomo

When you look through the adds on Craigslist for room-shares and room-mates, you see a lot of things like “executive suite” (wtf does that mean), and “seeking female roommate in need of financial assistance”. I don’t know why people have to be so weird about these things. It should be easier to find reasonable accommodations without playing a guessing game or dealing with creep looking for a live in maid (sexual companion).

I remember one time post college, I went to check out a room for rent. A creepy man, upon meeting me, said “oh I thought you were going to look different from your voice on the phone”. How do you even respond to that? What exactly did that mean? He kept saying he had another place available that was out of my price range by a lot. When I told him that, his response was “well we can figure something out” ….what? I didn’t rent the room or ever follow up with the creep.

The internet can be a dangerous and toxic place to meander about. I was looking through instagram today and saw my old room mate post a picture of herself in Thailand. She’s in a bikini, looks attractive, lives in California, runs a macrame business and apparently travels around. I don’t know what she does for money. I do this though, sit and scroll through social media and see people’s lives that seem to be everything I want in my own. They’re interesting, do interesting things, know interesting people, have interesting jobs, live and travel to interesting places. Meanwhile, I work at a grocery store and live on a dirt road in the middle of nowhere, with my dad. Oh yeah, I’m 29.

It’s easy to get into this mentality of “gee why can’t my life be like theirs?” or “why does everyone else have everything I want?” In the back of your mind, you know no ones life is as perfect as the filtered reality of social media. One does have to admit that even though their lives aren’t perfect, they’re still on a beach in Thailand and you’re still just at your dad’s house, writing a blog post.

I meant to take a break from social media. I deleted all the apps off my phone and was doing well for a couple days. I guess I got bored or maybe I wanted to show someone something, who knows. The point is, I ended up with all back on my phone. I didn’t have a facebook for years but I created it again to keep up with events. I guess I don’t have many events to really justify the amount of time I waste on it and the FOMO it gives me.

Last night I saw Nosferatu with a live band playing music to the film. It’s the first silent film I’ve ever seen, which is weird when you have a degree in film studies. It was fantastic and extremely intense. I don’t know remember the last time I was that involved with a movie and it’s an incredible way to tell a story. So, maybe I don’t have to be on a beach in Thailand to have some pretty cool experiences in life.

I guess those are the only thoughts I have for today. Until tomorrow friends.