"MySpace"

Setting up a MySpace page for Their Town (suggested to me by an arts marketing pro) has been like a quick and painful trip back to high school.* First, I spent a lot of time carefully constructing my page - inputting my likes and dislikes, a bio, a couple of blog entries about my play - then I scrolled down the page to see what it all looked like. Of course, my eye landed on the "Friends" section, with its taunting words: "You have 0 friends."

Well, damn, don't I look like a loser. I do have friends! I even had friends in high school! But nobody on MySpace cares unless you have the pics to prove it.

My friend and fellow writer Kathy Miller Haines (who has, ahem, 104 "friends") gave me some advice about finding like-minded MySpacers. Armed with her tips, I went through the groveling-like procedure of inviting a few dozen people to be my "friends." Now I am waiting to see how many of them accept or reject me. Stay tuned for the elation or heartbreak.

I'll probably dream tonight of forgetting my locker combination or getting to my algebra test late or standing naked in the auditorium…

*Completely off-topic footnote: High school was the last time I was actually in a theatrical production - both nonspeaking roles. I was a Jet girl in West Side Story and a suffragette in Hello Dolly! But I still have fantasies about acting... no, really of winning an Oscar.