"under my house?"

Last night, I spent about 40 minutes on the phone coaching my mom through cropping and uploading her first Facebook profile photo, and writing her first wall post.

We started with a photo of her and my dad. I emailed it to her.

We talked about how to toggle between windows and applications, where her downloads go, where to save things (she said the lady at the Apple store told her to save them "under my house" -- VERY good way to describe it), and how to crop pictures in Preview.

I know she's choosy (an artist), so rather than cropping the picture for her, I talked her through the steps (but still followed along with my own copy). She sounded doubtful when she was done.

"I wish I could touch it up a little."

"Why, did you crop it really close? I mean, you can have some of the scenery around it."

"Yeah, but I want it more on my face... I don't want Dad in it. I want people to see me. Will you look at it?"

So, she emailed her pic to me. (Minute 17.)

"I think it's good, Mom! I like the way you cropped it close-in."

More hem-ing and haw-ing...debating pros and cons...and... "Will you send me yours?"

Her curiosity never ends.

Me: "Oh my gosh..."

Mom: "I like options!"

Me: "I was gonna say...this is like planning your retirement party all over again."

So I sent her mine. (Minute 20.)

"Oh, I like that!" She wanted hers more like that, but not quite that one. So she bravely forged ahead without my guidance.

"Wait...let's see...now...wait....oh gosh, now how am I gonna do this? Shoot....wait... Okay, I'm gonna download it...and then I'm going to...oh...what was it where it did the..."

She was wanting to know how to crop her picture again. (verbatim -- around minute 22.)

When she got the rhythm down, it got easier. Her first crop was followed by a second -- "Now it really looks like someone was chopped out of the picture" -- which was followed by a third. "My head was too far off to the side, that's what was concerning me."

And finally...the last crop. Uploaded and everything. "Oh, there's my thumbnail! Oh cute..."

She was proud, and I was too. But apparently the process had been arduous.

Me: "You should write something on my wall!"

Her: "Oh, hell..."

***

That is the saga. I love talking to my mom... She is such an earnest, urgent learner, so inquisitive. She's not afraid to ask and learn. And she has a way of phrasing things that cracks me up. I'll leave you with this gem:

"I gotta start growing my friend base... I have five."