If I been warned Twitter might occasionally be akin to a cyber office water cooler or worse high school with adults would I have gotten an account? My short answer would have been, no, No, NO! With a Follow up of, Are you crazy? I work at home to avoid those situations. Thank goodness I did not receive this warning until long after I had become part of the social networking phenomenon called Twitter. The heartfelt truth is that I would have missed out on events and people that would forever alter my life.

What got me interested in a Twitter account? Our local TV stations current events show used it to promote audience interaction. Months of watching and dying to respond I finally mad me give in and sign up for a Twitter account (@thehillers) so I could participate. On the first day I sat staring as all the data rapidly passed with every update. Mesmerized by each of the passing 140 character tweets containing personal messages, links to blogs, photos, products, and news left me wanting more. It was a buffet of delicious information delivered in rapid tasty bite size data snacks.

I was thrilled that each tweet I sent out with a closing of Hugs & Love resulted in an increase of my follower numbers. My nightly ritual was clicking on tweets of people I thought were interesting and follow them in the hopes of being followed back. Soon I had 100, 200, 300 followers. Once I reached 500 I realized to keep from missing favorite tweets I would need Tweetdeck software. Instantly I had multiple columns of tweets streaming data in front of me and like a director choosing characters for a film I sorted those I was following into groups I could manage.

As a part of my daily routine was Twitter becoming a necessity? Oh Yes, I needed to meet more people so I could discuss animal rights, patriotism, poetry, humanitarian causes and humor. Each day I was chatting daily with a variety of interesting people who were engaging, loving and witty. An amazing group of individuals that began to feel more like a family and I looked forward to learning more about each person.

An important moment can be missed in the blink of an eye online, especially in the accelerated micro-blogging world of Twitter. If I had blinked I would have missed a wildly funny infidelity cartoon posted by Rick London (@ricklondon). The illustration depicted a cockroach discovering a matchbook from the Roach Motel in her husbands jacket. I knew he would have to be my next follow. Rick as it turned out was a master of the humorous Tweet and I looked forward to our daily exchange of puns & double entendres. From sushi to pens and Ink every night we tried to raise the level of repartee.

One DM (direct message) sent by Rick asking me to retweet something would set in motion an incredible series of events. I clicked on the DM (direct message) to respond when I noticed his Twitter background was a horrible gray. Ricks cartoons were fantastic and colorful so I included an offer to create a new background for him in my DM reply. As he told me he had no idea which cartoons to use I created a collage of my favorites from his London Times Cartoons. 2 hours later I contacted Rick and he seemed surprised that I had actually followed through with my offer to make a background. The email to send the background led to phone calls as he was unable to upload it to Twitter. That day we spoke twice for an hour in an effort to ensure the layout was to his satisfaction.

I was perplexed next morning when an email arrived asking if he could call me immediately. That phone call lasted 3 hours and each day after that we spoke longer and later like old friends trying to catch up on each others lives. Our friendship grew daily while we were exchanging favorite poetry, telling jokes, writing and working on a plan for our new SEO article marketing business idea (Pen and Ink Inc.). One night while Rick was showing me how to publish an article we realized our friendship had blossomed into love. Not more than three weeks later PenAndInkInc.com was born. In cyberspace, this thing called twitter, we had built a foundation for love and a new business in which we have already gained clients; most of whom have come to us on Twitter.

As our relationship was growing Rick was already working on a grass roots campaign with his sister Kathy Ireland Citizens For Dame Elizabeth Taylor For The Presidential Medal Of Freedom. Early on I was invited to join the Twitter campaign which filled the White House mailbox with Emails sent from (most likely) tens of thousands of fellow Twitterers within our networks and other networks connected to ours. Stories of it appeared worldwide from MSNBC to my article in the Herald de Paris (@Heralddeparis).

A few weeks later we decide it was not good to hide our love for each other. We agreed it was time to bring our love out into the open on twitter so it would no longer be a secret we kept from our friends and acquaintances. We sent love notes in open tweets and it felt so wonderful and filled my heart with joy each day. (These are verbatim actual tweets from Twitter) @thehillers There is beautiful & there is lovely. And then there is Lee = exquisite. @ricklondon Love is trembling happiness. ~ Kahlil Gibran – I Love You, Your Lee xx00xx. @thehillers Kahlil is singing 2 us baby. I love you. Ikea’nt wait 2 cu. @ricklondon Waking up to your voice & hearing your love for me in your wit warmth & wisdom makes my soul sing I Love You, Your Lee xx00xx. @thehillers I can look at a sky full of shining stars and then your face, and in your face I see the whole universe. Love Your Rick

How could love provoke hostile behavior in others? At fifty-one the thought of going back to high school was not a thrilling construct. On Twitter it was worse as its adults that are playing the games of gossip and innuendo. Although 99.9% of close friends and acquaintances on Twitter were extremely happy for us the other 1% left me feeling betrayed with their vile words and deeds.

Their obsessive habits have included following our network of friends to gain access to sending DMs. The detractors had a wide range of concerns about our relationship it was bad for us, bad for them, I would break his heart, he would break my heart and we cant possibly be in love we needed to date others. Comments of displeasure of course were not expressed in open tweets to us. Instead they tweet gossiped, sent DMs to us, DMs to others, left voice mail and sent emails professing their doing these things out of love for us. After weeks of a small group interfering and meddling in our relationship Ricks Sister Kathy decided to act on her own plan.

You could say our engagement was nothing as I imagined it might or would ever be and would be an understatement. It was our nightly ritual for Rick and me to speak on the phone while typing out our final tweets of the day. Then a tweet caught my attention and I told Rick he might want to read what his sister had just tweeted me. After a brief silence Rick said to me, Well, baby, as you know I was going to ask you anyway, but it’s a nervous time in a man’s life (to ask a woman to marry him), and it was a relief to have a third party (Kathy) do it for me. That’s what sisters are for. Will you marry me? My reply, Yes! I was engaged to my Rick the man who loves me and as deeply as I love him.

(These are verbatim actual tweets from Twitter) @thehillers Darling Lee…Will you be my sister in law? Sending love and prayers 2U. Angel…walking in light..8:19 PM Jun 19th from web in reply to thehillers. — @kathyIreland Sis Lee says “YES!” & TY Sis 4 asking as it is a nervous thing ya know when a man asks. xx00Blessing Ur Bro & Sis In Law xx08:25 PM Jun 19th from web — @kathyireland I would Love to be your Sister In Law Rick @ricklondon just asked on phone & I said Yes Love to You, Lee & Rick xx00xx8:27 PM Jun 19th from TweetDeck in reply to ADD @ to kathyireland. As Rick reminded me that night he communicates with his Sis, author/entrepreneur Kathy Ireland often. She already had knowledge that he had planned to ask me to marry him in July. Her Tweet thrilled us both.

Is a social networking for you? You will have to decide for yourself. I can only say you never know what you might be missing if you dont try. My adventures in Twitterville have been blessed with true love, new family, new friends, great conversation and opportunities to help others. How could it be better?

Tags: e, engagement, h, humor, i, inspirational, l, love, m, micro-blogging, n, o, r, relationship, Relationships, romance, s, social networking, Society, t, tweet, tweet love, tweeting, twitter, twitter friendship, twitter love, W, Womens Issues