Category: Random

So the other day I was looking at Facebook, like I do eleventybillion times a day, when a comment on my cousin Shelby’s status caught my eye (Shelby, or, “the Shelb” as I like to call her, is my much younger cousin, the daughter of the illustrious UP of Redneck Latte, and is a cute little RN living in the great state of Georgia who wants to meet a nice boy from OHIO who wants to live near his mother so she can settle down near ME.  But anyways.)  Here’s what I saw on Shelby’s status:

It wasn’t the status itself that caught my eye, but her commenter. Now I’ve used my advanced Photoshop skills to blur out the commenter’s last name, so we’ll call her Amy Snickerdoodle.  Seeing her picture and her name, I thought to myself, “I wonder if she is the sister of Maria Snickerdoodle that I knew in college.  She has a sister named Amy.  I remember she came to visit Maria once when she was maybe 15 or so. That picture looks like it could be her.  I think they were from Virginia though, so it would be weird if it was her since she is apparently now in Georgia.” My old college pal Maria  was a couple of years younger than me, but I met her because her brother was married to my suitemate Angie’s sister, so Angie took her under her wing when she came to our college.  Anypoops – Maria is one of my Facebook friends.  So I clicked over to Maria’s profile to see if Amy was her sister. And YEP, sure enough – same Snickerdoodle!

So, I messaged my cuz the Shelb, and I’m all “How do you know Amy Snickerdoodle? Cause I know her sister from college and her brother is married to one of my good friends.”  And the Shelb wrote back and she was all, “She’s my ROOMMATE.”

Crazy, right!?  Then I have to message my friend Angie and tell her that her brother-in-law’s sister is my cousin’s roommate.  And Angie and I were like, suitemates in college.  I mean we shared a BATHROOM!  And they share an APARTMENT! It’s like history is repeating itself!  Or something.

So, it’s a small, small world.  Made smaller by teeny Christian colleges and social media.

Have you had any wild six-degrees-of-separation Facebook moments?

So I totally dropped the ball on posting today. I think Jenny might fire me. I just couldn’t think of anything to say!

Well, here’s one thing I could tell you about. This past weekend I went to Chicago to attend the Midwest Moms Media Brands and Bloggers conference. It was great and I learned a lot of stuff (like about how blogging is out and vlogging is in, a theory Jenny and I are hesitant to get behind). I went on the trip as a guest of Verizon Wireless, because Jenny and I have signed on as “Midwest Moms” and over the next few months we’ll be telling you about how we use Verizon’s mobile technology in our lives. So, Friday I spent the afternoon learning about their latest and greatest gadgets, and then they took us to dinner at the Signature Room, which is on the 96th floor of the John Hancock building. Here’s the view from the women’s restroom:

Dinner was amazing. I had the filet. Wine that doesn’t come with a screw off top is really good. Who knew! And then we went back to the Hard Rock Hotel, where we were staying, and had a nightcap or ten. I haven’t had that much fun in a long time. The next time you’re in Chicago, go there and order a Cool Kid. You will thank me, I promise.

The next night a few of us went to Giordano’s Pizza, holy yum.

And then I flew home and took like a three hour nap. It was glorious.

What did YOU do this weekend?

Because I needed one more website to become addicted to, I recently joined Pinterest.

Pinterest is essentially online bulletin boards – a place to stash ideas you may want to come back to later. In their own words, “Pinterest lets you organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and organize their favorite recipes. Best of all, you can browse pinboards created by other people. Browsing pinboards is a fun way to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests.”

I have boards for books I want to read someday, clothes I like, vacation ideas, food & drink, and stuff to do with my kids. I’ve found it to be really handy – now I don’t have to search through the entire internet looking for that cocktail recipe I came across the other day. I pin the picture to my board, and it automatically links to the original website or blog, so I know where to find it. Brilliant!

Here are a couple things I’ve pinned recently.

2011 Summer List

Painting with corn syrup (Sam did this at school and it was really neat!)

Crescent roll hot bacon poppers (I made these this weekend and zomg they were so good.)

Vacation memories in a jar.

It’s social in nature because you “follow” other people’s boards, and it integrates with Facebook and Twitter so it makes it easy to find your friends. When you see something you like that someone else has pinned, you can “repin” it for yourself so it shows up on your boards as well.

Very cool!

Are any of the rest of you on Pinterest? What do you like about it?

Right now Pinterest is invite-only, so if you’re interested and want me to send you an invite, leave a comment below!