As many of you know, I have a love-hate relationship with Twitter. #ilovewaffles

(1/2) Some days, I’m tempted to relinquish my membership for reasons that will remain mysterious, (2/2) and other days, I eagerly watch my Twitter feed as if it were the latest episode of “Glee.” #gleek!

But until the #AAASmtg, I didn’t regularly contribute to the site, tweeting only occasionally and seldom more than 1x/day… Weeks went by without a @slugnads-tweet. Once, I nearly forgot my Twitter password.

But that changed on Sunday, February 20, 2011, when I tweeted a AAAS symposium. The little blue bird finally bit me.

Now, I have no desire to revisit my Twitter doldrums and instead risk being pulled over and ticketed for DWT.  #shhhh

@anyone: Pry…me…away…please!!

The turning point: a session (http://tinyurl.com/4c232m7) on religion, exoplanets, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. (1/2) Speakers discussed the potential impact of finding extraterrestrial life on Christian, Jewish, and Muslim theologies, and (2/2) we heard about Kepler and the likelihood of finding extraterrestrial intelligence.

Here’s a summary from NASW undergrad travel fellow Raina Khatri: “Will citizens of Earth be unfazed by alien contact?” http://bit.ly/i5DYJ0

It was a fascinating three hours. Evidence: I didn’t stand up or go for a walk – not once! (I’m usually pacing, fidgeting & generally acting antsy.Blame it on years of over-exercising and vestigial hyperactive muscles)#bigwordalert

Instead of jumping around, I was Tweeting – a total of 20ish tweets, and my first real-time excursion into the Twitterverse.

More exciting: I was in great company. My row was kick-ass.

Sitting on my left? Mitch Waldrop, features editor at Nature News (@mitchwaldrop). On my right? Wired.com’s Lisa Grossman, one of my favorite writers (@astrolisa). Next to Lisa? Slug-mate and fellow champagne partner-in-crime, Danielle Venton (@danielleventon).

I was the growing dust cloud amidst a Twitterverse of shining stars. #toowriterly?

We were all tweeting and re-tweeting and sharing bits of information coming out of the session – a total rush. I knew my little 140-char messages were reaching people – right away! – since @slugnads gained some followers while the session progressed.

Tweeting Meetings is a peculiar form of reporting, and not easy to do well. (1/2) I attended several #AAASmtg sessions vicariously through Alexandra Witze and Eli Kintisch,  (2/2) journalists who use Twitter effectively to communicate information in real time. It’s gotta be exhausting, man. HT @alexwitze @elikint

Since AAAS, I’ve been tweeting…a lot. #trueconfessions

I’m more than entertained by some of the randomness out there (check out #hipsterscience posts, which are hilarious)…

…and have had some fun conversations, like this one:

Right now, I am squarely in Twitter’s Love corner. Tomorrow? Who knows. It’s not you, it’s me, Twitter. And I’m Twitterpated. Again. #besos