Folinazzo

I had to see what the fuss was all about. I joined Twitter for the first time about a year ago and just didn’t get it. So I deleted my account. I tried again a few months later; I still wasn’t getting it. But then I noticed that so many organizations and individuals I have an interest in were saying, “find more information on Twitter,” “get updates on Twitter….” I figured the third time would have to be the charm and, sure enough, it was. I finally “get” Twitter and I’ve become an active participant. I’ve realized, too, how useful it is in keeping up with the latest information from and about, say, my favorite sports teams and animal welfare organizations. But I’ve also realized that there are a whole lot of self-important people out there, seemingly self-proclaimed experts, compiling numbered lists of the “best of”, and dictating “the dos and don’ts” of this and that. But my favorite (sarcasm) tweets or tips of all are the ones that outline how to tweet and what exactly to tweet about. The explanation most provided is that your followers don’t care about petty details, or you shouldn’t clog your followers’ feeds with stuff that doesn’t matter. Well ya know what, followers? It matters to me, and if you don’t like what I’m tweeting or how often I tweet, then unfollow me. I don’t take myself that seriously. My bio lists that I’m a working mom, travel nut, animal advocate, and sports freak; I don’t keep any of that a secret, and that’s what I’ll be tweeting about most of the time. If that’s not what you’re into, then, again, unfollow me. It won’t hurt my feelings.

And, yes, I do follow Alyssa Milano on Twitter. #dontjudgeme

Posted by Francesca

Lucia was not exactly 100% perfect on all three of our flights out to Arizona. On the first leg, which was Chicago to Minneapolis, she got a little cranky. She cried a bit but nothing too crazy. There was a man sitting directly in front of me; he looked to be a few years younger than Mark and I. He kept turning around and looking at Lucia. I thought he was giving one of those can-you-please-shut-your-kid-up looks, and that was making me anxious.

We landed in Minneapolis and as we were taxiing to the gate, the guy in front of me turned around and said to Mark, “How old is your little girl?” Mark told him that she just turned one, and he said, “My daughter is 16 months old. I enjoyed listening to your daughter, talking and stuff. It reminded me of my little girl.” That’s when I started feeling really awful for thinking he was upset about Lucia crying. Then he said, “My wife refuses to travel with our daughter. She thinks she’s too young. Now I’ve seen firsthand that it is possible to travel with a baby.” I wanted to hug him.

A short time later, Mark and I were in the terminal trying to figure out to which gate we needed to go for our next flight. The same guy from our flight came up to us and said, “Hey guys, I have one more question. Did you need to buy a special car seat for her for the airplane or anything?” Mark and I explained to him that we used Lucia’s regular, everyday car seat on the plane; no special seat is needed. Judging by the look on his face, I’d say that bit of info made his day. He thanked us profusely and said he couldn’t wait to tell his wife that it really is okay to travel with a baby. That made MY day.

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