The Power of Online Social Media (Namely, Twitter)

If you know me at all, you know I Tweet (as in use Twitter like it's part of my religion.) But somehow it didn't dawn on me that Twitter could be the answer to all our problems or at least some of them.

The story goes like this.

Over a year ago, Heather Armstrong (yes, the Dooce) raised a hub-bub when she tweeted about the problems she was having with her very expensive Maytag washing machine (the link is to her blog post about the whole episode.) She received a very quick response and got it fixed. The thing was (or what I remember getting out of the situation), people were up in arms that she was able to use her webbernet famedom to "bully" a brand into getting what she wanted. In the past week, I've learned that you don't have to be an internet icon to have Twitter work for you.

For about a month and a half, Pat and I have been getting almost daily automated calls from Compass Bank. The recording references a person who does not live at our number nor is a person we know. It reports that their account is in arrears and they need to visit their local branch to fix the problem. For over a month we put up with this. We've tried yelling at the recording as well as (more logically) calling our local Compass Bank to get it to stop. Of course, the bank employee who answered really couldn't fix the problem. But, we tried anyway.

Last week, after ANOTHER one of these calls, Pat suggested "Why don't you tweet it?" So I typed in:

"I REALLY wish Compass Bank automated call would STOP calling us daily. We don't know they person they're calling & they're NOT at our # !! "

Within MINUTES of that tweet, I got a response from @bbvaCompass asking me to follow them back and then DM (direct message) them the information. We DMed back and forth a few times, and by the next afternoon I was informed that our phone number had been removed from their database. Since that date, we have not received another one of those automated calls from Compass!!

The power of Twitter did it.
I've been on Twitter since the end of 2007 and do sometimes get frustrated and annoyed when I get an auto-follow from a wine lover's group because I mention I'm drinking wine or an auto-follow from Realtors of America because I tweeted that our house if for sale. (Please note, I'm making these groups up. . .no offense to anyone in particular if these are real groups on Twitter.) However, when something like this happens, when we're able to solve a problem by simply tweeting it, it really makes me see the power of online social media. Granted, the reasons I tweet are the social aspect, being nosy by glimpsing what others are doing/thinking, and promoting my jewelry. But, come to find out, it solves problems too. AND, you don't have to be Dooce for it to work!!

**As a side note, I want to say that I am not affiliated with Compass Bank, was not paid or asked to write about this, and do not even have an account there. Yet, they did make our days a little less annoying!! And also, @bbvaCompass agreed that I could blog the positive experience I had with them.**

Titles are Hard, Here's a Post Instead

Today's the day people. I WILL have some items in my shop by the end of today. I'm fairly sure I've done just about everything on my list and all that's left is to price the pieces and list them. I got some good advice yesterday on pricing and I'll see how it goes!!

Highlight of yesterday? Helping a friend out, who ended up helping me out.
See, this friend of mine runs Just Another Geek Site and reviews tech products. She was sent several iPad cases by Proporta, and she asked me to come over and help her with the review. I've been looking for an iPad case ever since I won mine from Southern Fried Snark. However, I just couldn't find anything that suited me well or had all the bells and whistles that I demand. It seems that Proporta often sends her products for review (that's how I got my iPhone case!) The cases that were sent to her ROCKED! I won't say which one I liked the most and ended up staying on my iPad, but I was a happy girl when I left her house. What can I say, free stuff and a couple hours with a friend make for a VERY HAPPY HOPE!!

Time to make the doughnuts now (AKA - time to get to work!)

A Word of Gratutude and A Roll-up Recipe

I felt a lot better about the new direction of my life after the last post.
There were so many of you who gave me support either here, on Twitter, or on Facebook. For that I thank you!! Stick with me and soon you might be able to buy some of the jewelry you saw yesterday!!!!

Yesterday was spent getting organized AND making one of the dishes I plan on taking to the marriage of Sara and Paul (the most talked about wedding on Twitter) this afternoon.

Since I'm fairly sure my organization is nothing to boast about (YET), I thought I'd share the recipe for the dish I made (that's kinda in the realm of crafty.)
It's one of those EASY things you probably already know how to make or have another recipe for it. An online search yielded a TON on different recipes. They go by many different names: pinwheels, rollups, spirals, meat-with-cheese-in-a-tortilla-thingies,and so on.
All they really are is a tortilla with cream cheese, layers of lunchmeat and cheese, rolled up.
Here's what you need (Ingredients)
Tortillas (any flavor and size are fine - I used garlic & herb ones for most of these)
Cream Cheese (softened)
Lunchmeat (I used both ham and turkey)
Cheese - thinly sliced (I used American and Swiss)
Aluminum Foil

Process:
Place a tortilla on a square on aluminum foil and spread the cream cheese.

Layer the meat(s) and cheese(s) (can just do meat, or just cheese if preferred)

Roll the tortilla with the stuffing as tight as possible

Roll the foil around the rolled tortilla and seal the ends

Chill in the fridge for several hours
Then; remove, unwrap, and slice so they look like this. (You can see I didn't get a tight enough roll on the ends, but the one in the center looks GREAT. In any case, they are TASTY!!)

So, that's as crafty as I got yesterday before I headed out for the "rehearsal dinner."
It should be an interesting and fun time today!!

Without a Safety Net (TRT)

I’ve discovered a secret. . .to get LOML to clean the house, invite people over. It's as simple as that.
He’s planning on having a few old bandmates over tonight to go through some music and possibly work up to some gigs. As such, we want the house to be ‘presentable’ enough for other people. Usually, it’s just livable.

So, when I got home yesterday, I was pleased to discover that he had DUSTED (awesome since I have a severe dust allergy), cleaned the kitchen, picked up the living room, and was working on de-gunking the fish tank. After dinner, I cleaned the litter box and cleaned up the dinner stuff while he VACUUMED the living room and hallway.

I hate to say it, but there’s still so much that needs to be done around the house and I just can’t seem to find the time to do it. Lately it has seemed as though life is a balancing act of what needs to be done and what has to be done. I know I need to keep my house in order enough so that we don’t become sick, overwhelmed, over stressed, and just plain gross; but I have other interests that I want to pursue as well. After work, I run by the store for any food items we need, come home and cook, eat dinner, and spend time with the hubby before it’s off to bed. Squeezing some craft time time into that schedule is hard enough. And, then there’s blogging in the mix. I want to share my daily life, I want to share some tips, some funnies, etc and I even have more to share for my other blog than you could imagine, but just getting this one done is quite a task to say the least.

I wanna know how other working women handle it. Those with kids have it even harder, I know. Do you have some sort of schedule of what chores to complete on what days so that it doesn’t all pile up? Do you have a certain day of the week that you do it all? Do you just know what the most pressing tasks are to get done and do those only? Where do you find the energy? Where do you find the time?

So, my question to you is: How do you perform that high wire act where you juggle all the stuff, keep your balance, and still reach the other side? Was there a class in high school I missed? Maybe an after school program? Or even a secret club I should have joined? How did you learn this and how do I learn it too?? Help me please, I want to regain my life and my house. Is it possible?

*****Disclaimer- I do NOT live in filth. I just don’t do things like dust and vacuum on a regular basis. Dishes get cleaned and clothes get washed, but I have difficulty finding time for other household chores.*****

As if that wasn't random enough, here's some "Totally Random Tuesday" bits:

• Minas Tirith recreated in matchsticks. (It's a Lord of the rings thing for those of you who are not on the geek level with me.)
  
• Odd grocery specials
  
• Mis-spelled college ads
  
• 21 office supplies too awesome to exist (some NSFW) -
  
• Twitter- how to get unfollowed.

That's all for now. But, seriously, if you've got some cleaning/time management tips and tricks, please leave me a comment. I's love to be able to have a clean house and still enjoy other activities. HELP!!