For the Love of Twitter (or, 140 Characters or less)

My husband doesn't get Twitter.


And that's ok by me.


What do I love about Twitter?


Finding like-minded moms.. (One has me included in one of her lists, the one in question titled "parental genius". Ya gotta love that!)

Finding people who think I'm witty. (My ego needs a bump from time to time, like anyone else.)

Finding people who GET what I'm going through at a particular moment, and who will let me vent, celebrate or commiserate (in 140 characters or less).


Finding answers more rapidly (and efficiently) than I can Google them:


For example, I'm craving sweet tea. P&G Tips will not make proper iced tea, no matter how much you try to convince me of it. I want Sweet Tea, the likes of which you find at Chick-fil-A.


Now, I can google sweet tea, and get Wikipedia descriptions, video on how to make it, but no specifics of which tea bags to use. (I know its not Lipton, for I've tried it, and the tea isn't quite...there.)


I TWEET, however, the question of what kind of tea is used in Sweet Tea, and get an answer: Luzianne. Thankyouverymuch.


Its a resource for me, as this is one of many questions I can't very well walk into town and ask. (Once they recovered from the confusion of why I'd WANT to drink iced tea, of course, I get all kinds of really odd suggestions. Which, incidentally, also provides comic relief.)

Another example of the practicality of Twitter is that I can tweet something like "what is the average amount spent on a birthday present for a classmate in 1st year" - and in a matter of minutes, have 6-7 varied responses. Sure, I can stop a classmate's mum on the playground - but you don't know if they are cheap, or, conversely, extravagent by nature - and setting yourself up for embarrassment/discomfort in return.


Recently, I had the opportunity to go meet some of the people that I tweet with, people local to where I now live. They were lovely, and equally interesting in person as they are in 140 characters or less.


I unfortunately did not get to go to a Mommy Bloggers' conference this summer, where I would have been able to hang out with a lot of a lot of the lovely ladies whose blogs I discovered via Twitter. I'm still hopeful that I can make it to the '10 conference to be held in New York.


And, yes, I'll admit to participating in the absurdity of it. I have engaged with my bud @fudgecrumpet in a senseless stream-o-tweets of Monty Python's "The Holy Grail" lines, because I love the movie and was in a silly mood. But he started it.
And, my last point of defense is that my Dad is now in Twitter. And if @papamcc is on Twitter, well, how pointless can it be?