Living the Tweet life....

The I'm With Coco Facebook board went absolutely nuts just a few short hours ago, and I happened to log on right in the middle of it. News was sweeping through the posts like a hot knife through Cocobutter....Conan had just Tweetered....er, Twitted.....you know, he posted something on Twitter! He had sent a short but hilarious message about the state of things at O'Brien central. Actual words had come down from our deposed hero! The excitement was electric, there was hypothetical dancing in the imaginary streets.... There was so much for us to say and do and process....What did this mean?? What significance did this have to the core of our collective being? I imagine this is what happens in Vatican City when the Pope sends out his annual "Tweet to the Masses.... "
But before I could even get my feet back under me, it was made quite clear by my fellow celebrators that in order for me to truly feel the depth and breadth of this great historical moment, I would need to do something that was at once terrifying and yet somehow horrifying.....I needed to start a Twitter account. Now, you have to understand that I had once balked at the idea of ever setting one cyber-toe in the world that is Facebook. Friends hounded me for years (months? How the hell long has it been around?) to join, and I always laughed. "Ha ha ha," I would say "I am too mature, busy, and important in my own mind for such an endeavor." Of course, I buckled, and was ever so overjoyed to have such instantaneous information at my fingertips - People I work with are eating dinner! Folks I went to school with all those years ago have found lonely cows on their cyber Farms! Somebody I kind of know through my husband wants me to join the Mafia (I hope this is a game of some sort....?) My world had never been so full.....Then, of course, the Tonight Show atrocity happened, and I found a whole new facet to "social networking" - my Coco page, filled with kindred spirits and not one lonely cow anywhere on the horizon!
But Twitter.....that always seemed way too trendy for my taste. Young Hollywood people with chihuahuas in their handbags were doing it. Not really my scene.... Well, that, and the fact I am technologically inept. Tweetering (?) seemed to involve knowledge across a wide range of media - internet, texting, abbreviating.....things I have a passing relationship with, but not a comfortable one. I can talk socially on the 'net but I am always afraid of hitting the wrong button and inadvertently marrying someone in prison or buying a toaster oven. And I can "text" but it takes me about ten times as long as it would to just call the damn person, and 99% of the responses I receive are in a cryptic code I can't decipher -LOL! BRB, TTFN, UR#Iy7XPickle.... No, in my world, Twitter has been a lot like skinny jeans - I am well aware they exist, and I know they are popular, but I have no business taking my ass anywhere near them.
And yet, there I was, faced with another opportunity to show my loyalty to Conan, and to show the world that I am not too old to figure out new things. 40 minutes later, and with a lot of support from my younger online friends (That's good Val, now push "send".....no, SEND. S-E-N....) I was face-to-face with my very own Twitter account. I even learned, with some coaching, how to write (Twit?) a message to Conan himself. I told him not to talk to squirrels as some have rabies. In hindsight, I wonder if technology is a good thing in my hands. I may not be ready for the awesome power that it yields.....On the bright side, I seem to have a new toaster oven coming my way soon. So, it seems everything works out in the end!