I leave you tweeps, my tweeps I leave you

Posted by: Patty on: August 17, 2010

• In: Social Networking
• 11 Comments

To steal blatantly quote from author Evan Mandery, it’s later than you think.

My mother’s diagnosis made me realize that tomorrow is not a promise. It’s an expectation, an act of faith, a possibility. I’ve been doing too much waiting for tomorrow but what if there is no tomorrow?

When I was in the process of buying my house, I waited weeks for a settlement date and finally contacted the seller’s realtor to find out why I’d heard nothing. Turns out the seller’s attorney was hit by a bus.

Yes, actually hit by an actual bus.

No one knew anything about the deals he was working on. No one knew to contact me. I was hanging on this date, had movers standing by. Worse, I was never able to learn if the man survived.

Last week, we lost one of our coworkers from a sudden heart attack. That got me thinking… what if the unthinkable happens to me? I’m no BFD (Big Freakin’ Deal) so there won’t be news coverage of my demise. What then? How will my tweeps know that you’ll never hear from me again? I need to do something so you won’t worry. Am I being morbid? Perhaps. But I prefer to think of it as pragmatic.

Worry might *gasp* go on indefinitely. Since I’ve joined Twitter, I’ve felt this kind of worry quite a few times now. Someone did not follow his or her usual patterns, which triggered my impersonation of a car going 0 to 60, except I ratchet from “Hmm” to “Holy #$!^&(@! Crap!!” in 0.9 seconds. What? Your imagination doesn’t snap into overdrive like this?

Turns out, the couple of times this has happened, it was just people busy with their daily grinds taking a Twitter hiatus.  It’s allowed.  Sorry for making you feel any sort of pressure but I don’t want anybody worrying about me.

I want you to care, but NOT worry.  So, I checked it out and learned Twitter has a death policy. So does Facebook. But that policy does little more than shut down accounts belonging to deceased users. So, for extra reassurance, I have left a set of instructions with my last will and testament that includes the passwords to both Twitter accounts, both blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and gmail. (Stop sending me porn, Tawna. (Kidding.)) My sons have been instructed to post something in case anything happens to me so you all don’t sit there lamenting, “Where is Patty? Her book review is due this week, she promised me a guest post on my blog and is critiquing my manuscript!”

Along with my engagement ring, my DVD collection of the X-Files series, directions to my secret chocolate stash, my unfinished manuscripts, and oh yes, my debt (sorry, boys!), my sons have now inherited… um, well each of you.

*sighs in relief* There. I feel better knowing you won’t worry about me.

Do you obsess over things that might happen when you’re gone?