Twitter, Social Media and Fruit Cake

Until about four days ago I was feeling pretty damn ambivalent about Twitter. I mean, I saw purposes, especially for organizations like @helpamotherout, Twitter can be a powerful tool. Putting myself out there personally just seemed a little strange. So why am I on Twitter?

What I like about Twitter
– I like it as a tool for screening which blog posts to read on a few various umm, news sites ex. @TreeHugger, @skepticscience , @theonion.

-I love the quick glance at local tweets about things going on in Tucson via @CinemaLaPlacita, @TucsonMama, @GreatMusic, @TucsonWeekly, @TucsonFoodie, @TucsonVelo etc.

-Following folks like @EzraKlein, @americnhumanist, @cdashiell, @clmerle, @kubileya, @strangebikes @helpamotherout and @clmerle gives me food for thought and inspiration

and then there is the fun, green, mama stuff of folks like @ottosmomblogs, @AmberStrocel, @oaktreewrites and @newurbanhabitat. All great things, but posting myself? Well that seems narcisstic. (Funny, given I’ve been writing a blog in this form or the Italian blog (alittlegnocchi) for the past two years.) The main thing I don’t like about Twitter?

Not so keen on about Twitter:
– Massive TIME SUCK. If you have good reason to be interacting in this way, you’re informing, raising awareness, then a time suck well worth the energy, but for personal use?

Twitter Revelation:
Then my mum came to town. In the wee hours of last Sunday morning 4 hours after her flight was supposed to arrive she showed up, but her suitcase didn’t. Not such a big deal eh? Other than inside was a once a year treat. Fruit cake. I was devastated. Forget my mum’s clothes and Bean’s gifts, my bloody Christmas fruit cake was in there damn it.

Before you sneer and question my sanity please know that Americans have rarely tasted proper fruit cake. I know you associate it with door stops and lead weights, but where I come from it is a much lovelier thing. Doused in whiskey every few weeks over a period of months (called feeding), it is rich and moist and yummy. At least it is if my step-dad is making it. My fruitcake was lost somewhere between Atlanta, where my mum had last seen her suitcase, and Tucson. I pulled out all the stops. I called Delta and checked online every hour or so to see if they had an info as to the location of the suitcase. I was met by a constant busy signal or a message that informed me that I would be able to talk to a representative in “one hour and twenty five minutes.” By lunch time on Monday I was desperate, my mum was waffling something about gifts for Bean from relatives, clean underwear and medications. Yeah, yeah, yeah WHERE IS MY BLOODY CHRISTMAS FRUITCAKE? I have this theory that the longer something is missing the less likely it is to be found and we were fast approaching the 48 hour mark. Wait, wasn’t there a tv series entitled that? Frustrated that I had yet to talk to an actual live person, I went to the comment/complaint section of Delta’s online site and that is when I saw it, the answer to all my problems.

For general travel help:

* Tweet us @DeltaAssist

Not sure if this is really general travel help, but what the hell. Off to tweet went I:

@DeltaAssist Elderly mother’s suitcase didn’t show up in Tucson when DL2031 arrived late early Sun AM. No info online. Phone busy. Pls help.

I would just like to note that my mother was the one who said she felt elderly at that point. Probably because she had put her medications (don’t do this at home) in the suitcase rather than her carry-on.

Within an hour we’d had several public and private message responses from Delta Assist. Within an hour and a half the baggage team Atlanta had called us to ask specific details of the contents.

Yes, yes there are two bottles of gin in the suitcase.
What kind of gin?
Beefeater Gin?
Beef. eater.
Yes, just as it sounds.
Oh, and a fruitcake. stunned silence on other end of phone Please, the fruitcake is very important. Be careful with it.

Three hours later they’d found the suitcase and the next day it found its way from Atlanta to Tucson all thanks to Twitter, @DeltaAssist and the baggage team at Atlanta. My mum is now a Twitter convert. Next time you’re having an issue, consider checking out the Twitter or Facebook pages of the company you’re dealing with.
The fruit cake? I can neither confirm or deny it’s presence in our home. Those crumbs, umm nothing.