Things I Have Learned From Twitter

Hi...I'm Sweetnote. I'm a Twittaholic. I have not been Sober from Twitter in ANY days... Such is my life. Well...that makes me sound a bit pathetic to some. I actually did take a hiatus from Twitter for a month and just prior to that month, I went in and Unfollowed some people who had 1000000 Tweeps and 125 Tweets...sent my Ratings on TwitGrader right down the tubes! I was in the top 100 most of the time for a full year, till I decided to Purge Myself of whom I thought were people I could live without. Then I slowed down on the Twittering to a trickle. My standard introduction to people on Twitter who chose to follow me was "Hello, I'm Sweetnote. I tweet A LOT. Please set all iPhones&Blackberries to Vibrate Place in front pants pocket and thank me later!"

It's easy to be clever on Twitter when you're limited to 144 characters. Everything is a one liner. I find some of my Greatest moments has come in 144 characters. I've imparted wisdom, knowledge, and some big Guffaws and some "What was she thinking?" moments in 144 characters. It makes me think life would be a LOT simpler if our speech could be restricted that way.

I've learned many things on Twitter. Number one and foremost, You are what you Tweet. I wished I had come up with that clever little nugget of wisdom, but I've seen it many times. In fact the last time was from a correspondence from Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. I consider Biz a wise man. It's good to know that someone can create something like Twitter and still remain WISE even in Properous while sometimes tedious times.

I've learned my children have mixed emotions about what I put on Twitter. One abhores it and one tolerates it. Both have said, well, it's not really like you. I have to laugh every time they say that. Do Children REALLY know what their parents are truly like? If you remove the rose colored glasses from their faces they are faced with a much more Colorful person than they had realized. At least when it comes to me. I have been given a license by being on Twitter, a license that says, it's ok to be flirtatious, funny, frivolous, serious, cute, sexy(Oh they HATE that one) and of course informative, helpful, caring, nurturing and all those other qualities that most children associate with their parent(s).

I've learned that while I thought I knew my daughter well, I discovered, to my amazement and utter happiness, that she is a LOT like me, only better! She too is witty, sexy, funny, instructional, ok...maybe not the nurturing part but hey, she has no kids to practice that on herself, so I give her an out on that one.

I've learned that some people you meet on Twitter Truly want to be your friend, others are there for that instant gratification moment of personal recognition. I swear some people are just happy JUST to be acknowledged as being seen on Twitter. I know this because I too fall into that category from time to time. I've even written things like, "Am I Tweeting in Invisble Type?" And SO thrilled when some poor soul takes pity and says, "No we see you, so shut up already!"

I've learned I have a LOT more to say to complete strangers than Hello, how are you. I take great joy in just Shooting the Bull with people. I know Twitter is not a chatroom, however sometimes it's a mini chat for me with my good friends. And I have a LOT of friends...I have near 7,000 followers. I am proud to say I didn't get them from "Join here and you'll get 10,000 new followers."

I made mine the old fashion way. One at a time, with some following me for my tweets and some following me for my Icon! Midwest Sweetnote Cowgirl Barbie I call her. She's so much more than I could ever be. It was a photo taken one day last summer on www.singsnap.com when, at the end of singing a song, it asked me to take a webcam photo. I was feeling a bit, shall we say, perky and ornery? I had my old straw cowboy hat on and pursed my lips and voila, the rest is history. God I wish I looked that adorable every day. Trust me, I don't. But I THANK HER daily for the many friends she has brought my way.

Through "Sweetnote Barbie" I've met Rocket scientists, truck drivers, astronauts, bullriders, football players, actors, directors, singers, everyday housewives, house husbands, entrepreneurs, and entrepreneur wannabee's. I so love my life on Twitter. If you are following me, thank you with all my heart. And if you read this and you aren't on Twitter, why not? It's a great way to meet people, advertise, find great links to great information about everything under the sun, as well as sometimes be a part of great events that play out on there in real time. My favorite moment, although heartwrenching was the massacre at Mumbai. We were tweeting links in real time to help people contact people. Then there was the Earthquake in China where we helped connect lost loved ones, or the crisis in Iran when dear Neda was murdered. We all felt we had made a difference in some small way by helping to protect those who were in danger.

I hadn't written a blog for awhile. For that I apologize. One reason is because, like "Midwest Sweetnote Cowgirl Barbie" I never know when to Shut Up! I've learned many more things on Twitter. Perhaps sometime when I'm in this same mood again, I'll share those things with you as well! Peace.

Why Sweetnote?

So, some people have been wanting to know where "Sweetnote" came from. Is this something I just picked from a hat or what. Well yes and no. I have sung semi-pro for too many years to tell you or you'll think I'm too old to do this. When I used to sing back in the OLD DAYS hubby put a CB radio in our car and invested in a home base unit, a great mic, a large antenna and the redneck regalia that goes with all that. This was WAY before anyone had cellphones. Cellphones were something that you'd see in a James Bond movie or some futuristic SciFi flick. I'd talk to him from the time I left home till I reached where I was going and from the time I left till I got home. Everyone had a "Handle" (name that one would be known by in code just like an online moniker). Hubby decided to call me SweetNote because of my singing...well...actually it was my idea, but it's always such a sweeter story if I say he came up with it! And then we got to know a BUNCH of truckdrivers on my route and they dubbed me "the Singing Beaver".....oh yeah...I know...it was cute, kind of dirty but I loved it. Used it when we used to talk "skip"....look it up! ANYWAY....I've used Sweetnote as my alias for over 20 years. Yes I'm only 30...LOL! Hubby was BlueGoose or Bowhunter, my daughter was TaterChip. That was another lifetime ago. And when I stopped all the traveling and singing and CBing, I still loved the name and when I went online, I decided to resurrect it. Now I still sing, but only on SingSnap and yes you'll find me under the name SweetNote. And yes, I'm a ham, always have been always will be. I fronted several bands and I haven't met a stranger in years. It's served me well. So I remain Sweetnote...and being from Illinois I decided to use a double entendre and say SweetNotes from the Midwest. Clever huh? So now you know all about me, well all I'm willing to share for now anyway! Thanks again for stopping by! Catch ya on the flip....that's CB talk for See ya later!

The 101 on Surviving Family Reunions!

Sorry to be gone all day yesterday. We had family reunion. Yes, it is it's own kind of hell. Our family has moved from the large park with the lakes and rolling countryside to a small park in the hometown of the organizers of the event. Don't get me wrong, that's fair. They've been working on it every year for several years, so if they want it in their own hometown, that's cool. It's a small city park with a few swings for kids, a pavilion to keep the rain off, a woman's bathroom with two stools...one taller, one shorter...no stalls just two stools, and one sink where a lone bottle of hand cleaner stands. The paper towels are just that...a roll of paper towels. It's quaint when you think about it and it's not too dirty. The concrete floor was swept before our arrival. You can tell because of the pattern's left from the broom.

The biggest challenge came from the "Swat as many flies you can before they lift off the food and carry it away" game. We've been going for years but I swear I have NEVER seen the quantity or the voraciousness of flies like we saw yesterday. Someone brought a large fan which they put at the end of the tables thinking the heavy breeze would blow the flies off. Not these flies! These aberrations of nature, while small, seemed to defy the laws of what their little wings should be capable of! Imagine one of those scenes from Hurricane Katrina, without the rain, where the reporter is standing in the Wind Tunnel of nature just trying to stay upright while reporting the strength of the wind. So was our trip down the smorgasbord of food at the reunion! It got to be pretty funny actually. I stood alone fighting the intrepid hoard for awhile, plastic plate in hand and waving furiously at the onslaught of flies. Now for our scientific portion of our blog:The Midwest has seen it's share of large rains and flooding over the past few months. Due to the vast amounts of water, we lost many farm animals, wildlife and assorted things that crawl all over central Illinois. Hence the large influx of little wiggly things that turned into massive quantities of Flies. Then those little flies flew off, landed on other things, made more little flies and then winged their way to the Carter Family Reunion in Abingdon, IL. Ain't nature amazing?

Anyway, now on to the reunion itself. Family came from Texas, Wisconsin, Missouri and Illinois for the reunion. That made it sound huge didn't it? Well it was a nice turnout, perhaps thirty people if I could count them while they were being blown away at the lunch line. It looked a bit like a scene from a three stooges movie. Plastic plates in hand moving down the line with their hair blowing straight back in the breeze, swatting at flies and trying to keep their plates level as they traversed the potato salads, the fried chicken and the jello's. Plates were upended into the belly's of some as they thought it best to put salad on their plates first, not knowing that the lack of weight would indeed go against their aim of getting to the baked beans and that they would be wearing ranch dressing down the front of their white shirts. Moving on to the seating arrangements. These wonderful families who chose to come all the way to Abingdon, Illinois to see all these relations they haven't seen or even met, sat together with their own families away from all the people they came to see. And with that might I add that the people who see each other every day or at least regularly chose to sit together as well. Me, I haven't seen some of my family for awhile, decided to sit at a table in the center of things. I fixed a spot for my hubby and I and walked away from the table to also run the gauntlet of food and fly. I returned to find that one of my uncles, God Love Him (family phrase), had chosen to sit at the table with us. That was fine. This uncle was severely injured in an auto accident in the 1970's. My favorite male cousin was killed in the impact between a semi tractor trailer and a midsize car that strayed across the center line during a thick fog. Unkie had a severe brain injury and I sat in intensive care for days mourning the loss of my cousin and worrying about my uncle. I felt my cousin would have wanted me to watch over my uncle so I took the duty seriously. Even when he appeared wide awake he would speak of heaven and hundreds of thousands of men and women standing around the thrown of God. Now this was very disturbing to me as my uncle was NOT a religious man at all at this time, and his words were both inspirational and scary as hell to an 19 year old! ANYWAY back to the reunion, so this uncle is the one across from me, he doesn't still talk nonsense, but he's not ever been the same. He uses a cane now, has cancer, has the shakes, sometimes bathes and drools. So this was my lunch date. I always hug and treat him like I used to before the accident. It's my duty to my cousin you see. But here he sat across from me with assorted things down his large belly that didn't make it all the way to his mouth and then as he reached for his large glass of Coke with ice, tipped it over directly into the path of my plate. It was a kodak moment. He couldn't move, I was in shock and couldn't move and my hubby, who had since sat down beside me, looked at me as if to say, "so you gonna get up and get something to clean this up or what." So I bounded up from the picnic table and grabbed the only thing I could find...paper thin paper napkins, by the handsfull because, of course, the glass was full to the brim! After several trips back and forth to the paper napkin pile, which by the way were being held down by stuff to prevent being blown away by the WindTunnel, we cleaned up the place. Unkie was mortified of course, and I felt so terrible for him.

The highlight of the reunion was a spirited game of Bocce Ball and a few people who decided to play "Hit the ball over the fence and land on peoples cars" Game. There were also those amazing moments when we all gathered in front of a video from 1989 that showed everybody that isn't with us anymore and the people who haven't bothered to come to the reunion since then. There were tears.

Why do we put ourselves through this regiment year after year? I think there are several reasons actually.

1. We like to let people know we're still alive.

2.We like to brag on everything in our lives to our family!

3.We miss that sense of family that we constantly try to recapture.

4.We go to see who else will show up.

and 5. LOTS of REALLY good food, even though this years was covered in Flies.

I'd like to have a nickle for every time someone said, "Oh don't worry...they can't eat all of it! They'll save some for us...or don't think where those flies were before they flew in here and landed on Aunt Eleanor's Chicken and Noodles!

I won't be going to as many family reunions when I move to California. We talked about that on the way home, along with how sad it was to see how much things have changed. When we were kids the reunions were HUGE and no we didn't know half the people who came, but we recognized them year after year and looked forward to seeing those same faces. What I'd give to be able to go back to that woman that I was in 1989 and kick her in the ass and tell her to go up to every one of the people there and tell them how much they've meant to her. Even the one's who's names she still didn't know when she was 37 years old! For that I am ashamed now cause they're all gone. All gone except for a video from 1989 that showed us what Family truly meant one August day in the Park.

It Ain't Ozzy & Harriet!

Oh God! I've done it! I've been wanting to have a "Serious" Blog for awhile but haven't been sure just what I could add to the Millions of blogs online and why on earth would anything I'd have to say be of any interest to anyone outside of my immediate family? I've been approached by several people on Twitter and told that perhaps my ramblings might be of greater interest if they were put into Blog form. So here I am, undertaking the next phase of my ever changing, ever wonderful life. I won't bore you with a lot of my past, but there are some things I will share with you just for the sake of making a point on whatever topic I may choose to discuss on any given day.

I'm over 45, ok..over 55 and YES that is me in the photo. The biggest joke of my life is truly that photo. Everyone assumes from the photo that I am a real GlamGal, but in reality the blond behind the glasses is just a midwest housewife, married 37 years to a wonderful guy who grew up in a farm family. The blond has two beautiful and amazing daughters who live and work in/near Los Angeles.

You can check out my eldest daughter at www.shoutingintothewind.com. She is not only a computer genius, she is an accomplished writer/blogger/and wine connosieur. My younger daughter works for a new production company in LA and is on the fast track to fame and fortune and becoming a producer herself. Both daughters have been successful writers, and both daughters are single and live together in LA. Both born on the same day three years apart! I tell you this because part of what happens with me is directly in response to what happens to them.

I thought at this stage of my life I would be settling down into my hubby's retirement plans and sitting in a big easy chair rocking grandchildren to sleep. But that was before the reality of life took over and my daughters announced they had bigger plans than staying in the midwest and becoming housewives tied to home and children!

They moved away from home, over six years ago, with one living in Chicago and one living in Orlando. The one in Chicago went to college in Chicago to eventually go to work in the entertainment industry, while the other went to work for the largest amusement park company in the world. When my youngest daughter came home one day and announced she would be looking for work in LA it was a day that changed our lives forever. In less than four months, she moved got work and took up residence. About a year later, the eldest daughter announced she was ready for a big change and that she would be working on a transfer to California. I'm pretty certain the world began spinning faster and faster after that. Sometime later I'll tell stories about the nightmares I've had about my two beautiful daughters living and working in Los Angeles. It's been over six years now. They aren't moving back. Their lives have gone through some amazing transformations over the past few years. Some things we'll talk about and other things will remain private for their sakes and for their security.

I'm pretty sure the shock of their "MOM" having a blog will take a bit for them to get used to. It's going to take awhile for me to get used to as well. I've not made this kind of committment in a long time, but I truly feel I have information for those women who have hit the age of 50 and older and perhaps feel they're caught between being one of the Desperate Housewives or maybe Jamie Lee Curtis or Betty White. I want to try out some products that are made especially for us "Mature" women and report my personal findings. I want to discuss a bit about current events including the movies, politics, religion, weight, sex, fashion, movie/tv stars and all those other things we've been told we shouldn't discuss if we want to get along with each other in this world. I want to have some contests with some great great prizes. I want to report on great Free or almost Free Stuff you can find and great websites for us over 50.

I want to talk about some of the amazing women that I've had the great fortune meeting here on the internet and give you a look into what has made them the successful women they are today. I want to focus on women who really didn't start having a life until they hit the age of 50. I want you to read what I have to say, get inspired and go out and start your own business, build your own website, start your own blogs or whatever will take you from that place you are in your life today and help you become the woman you never imagined you would be at any time and especially after you've reached an age over 50.

I guess that's enough information about what this things going to be about. I plan on posting every day I can. If you have a website with products geared towards women over 50, please feel free to contact me with information, samples, prizes or whatever! I'm talking ANYTHING that you would like to promote to we women of great worth! If you are available for interviews I'd love to talk to you! I am hoping to do a podcast somewhere down the line and post those on this site. If you are 50, almost 50, dating someone over 50 and have anything you would like for me to investigate, discuss or try out, please feel free to email me as well.

Thanks for stopping by for your first, and hopefully not your last visit! We'll all get through this together!