How Twitter Saved Us Hours.

My sister called me last July and said "Lynne, you have to get on Twitter!" Because I dislike following any trends, I immediately said "no." (I'm waiting for the trend of wearing ponchos to run its course since I've been wearing ponchos for the last decade and I really miss wearing them!) So my sis called me the next day and then the next. So I caved and opened a twitter account strictly to follow her and her business (kidzaw.com).

I sent out about a dozen tweets with the '#' or the "@" in front of her name or keywords. But it did not matter because I had no followers, except for one. And that one follower was my sister! So she was getting all those "promotional" twitters about herself, sent to herself by her sister.

Then, February rolls around and I've been writing my blog for awhile and other blog writers are linking to my site, and two of them asked me to guest blog on theirs, and many asked why I was not on Twitter. So I asked Twitter to resend my password (because I could not sign on since I forgot the dang password because my memory is horrible) and logged back on. So I started following a couple people, who followed me back, and then I started sending out Tweets.

After a week of tweeting, or twittering or twiending (still don't know what you call it) I was hooked. And I was finding other fellow twitterers whom I knew! (and ones who knew me but I could not remember who they were - remember, my memory is horrible). So that was a kick. But during that second week of being on Twitter, we experienced a positive advantage of belonging to this social network.

We're traveling I81 on our way to the Georgia Basketry Convention. Eric sees a sign saying there is an accident 50 miles up. I jump on my Blackberry and log onto Twitter. I then search I81 and see lots of posts about the accident! Including this aerial shot showing both sides of the highway shut down.

So I tell Eric that people are twittering about both lanes, north and southbound being closed due to an accident involving 3 semi's with one carrying toxic materials, and it's backed up for 10 miles! So I grab the map and then we make the decision to get off the highway right before the 10-mile backup! We got off at Route 11 (I think) and it followed right beside the highway. And for 10 miles, we watched all the cars and trucks at a complete standstill while we were traveling on the side road at a comfortable 40 - 45 miles per hour!

So thanks to Twitter, we saved ourselves at least 1 - 1.5 hours, and made it to Atlanta at 8:00 pm. If we would've been stuck in that traffic, Eric would've been frustrated and we would've arrived well after 9:30 pm, and then the next morning he would've been cranky (can I say 'would've" one more time?). So Twitter saved us time and contributed to our happy marriage!

Also, it was good for my ego when the Discovery channel replied twice (yes, twice) to my tweet about how I believed their "thinkgolditsFriday" tagline for their show Gold Rush was a typo and should be "thankgolditsFriday" and the Food Network's very own Robert Irvine of Restaurant Impossible replied to my tweet wondering if he knew Lou Frerrigno with a response and a "LOL."

I'm loving twitter! (if you would like to follow me, visit @brushandbasket on twitter. I cannot guarantee that it will benefit your life in any way, but it will help a poor basketmaker's wife feel a little more popular!.)