Hello, my lovely friends! Can you believe it's already June? Where the heck did May go? There was so much going on last month, it went like a blur. May was also the last full month of school for my little one--which meant, LOTS of school activities and events. Last week, I barely survived a field trip. This week, there was a musical play to go to, and an art exhibition later that evening (okay, I confess I skipped the exhibition. I already saw my daughter's artwork so there was no need to go back to school twice. Plus, I was starving. This mama's eating for two, ya know!)

Anyway, there's my excuse for being sporadic around the interwebz. Did I also mention that I've been napping two to three times a day lately? Can't help it, man. If we're driving somewhere that's longer than 10 minutes, I'm guaranteed to fall asleep in the car (I was in the passenger seat, people! I don't drive and snooze). Stopping by great-grandma's house to say hi? Yeah, I conked out on the sofa after giving hugs and air kisses *mwah mwah* Here's hoping I didn't snore...too loudly. Or if I did, they were all too polite to tell me.

Well, since I was forced to shun social media due to my "busy, busy, busy!" schedule (of naptimes and food breaks *snort*), it was only natural that I should turn to ANOTHER form of social media to avoid violent withdrawals. Eh? What's that? It doesn't follow logic? Whatev.

Introducing my latest addiction obsession entertainment:

Because, you know, I have all the time in the world...NOT! Actually, I downloaded the app on my iPhone, so while I was waiting at the clinic today for my prenatal appointment, BAM! Pinterest on the go. Pin this, pin that. Better than playing Angry Birds for the umpteenth time, I'm telling you.

But what I love about it is the ability it gives me to VISUALIZE stories.

I love Art. I love visuals. It's in my blood. I can't help it. I've been wanting to join Pinterest for-E-V-E-R but was too busy napping to ask for an invite. And now that I have it, I'm IN, I might very well go pin-crazy. You can kinda tell just by how many pins I've already managed to add to my board entitled: Inspiration for HIDDEN.

Yep.

Definitely pin-crazy.

Good thing there are no actual pins involved.

Are you on Pinterest, too? Or do you consider it another *gasp* waste of time?

People. Be careful of what you say or post online. The Internet is forever.

You've probably heard this piece of advice before, or even read some horror stories of social media woes. You probably paid attention and made a promise to yourself to NEVER EVER be the nincompoop who trash-talked her co-worker online, only to find out a day later than even without naming names, said co-worker knew she'd become the water cooler topic of the week, thanks to you. Or be the idiot who whines about the agents he'd submitted his mss to. Whatever may be the scenario, when you feel that itch coming upon you to rant/rave/raise hell/complain online--whether through your blog or Facebook or Twitter--STOP!

THINK!

AND THINK AGAIN.

It's all too easy to forget that what we say online can be viewed by MILLIONS of people from around the world. The thought doesn't even cross our mind when we press the Publish or Send button. Not when we're happily enclosed in our little writing shell, the four walls of our world literally the four walls of our house. 

Even when we don't name names. Even when we think we're so clever that no one's ever going to guess we're talking about our neighbor's spying problem, always assume that your readers are SMART, INTELLIGENT people, and someone somewhere will eventually figure it out.

So. Be cautious. STOP, THINK, and THINK AGAIN. You just might end up being the conduit to someone's misfortune just because of the things you carelessly let slip online. Or, instead of being the conduit, you become the victim. Whatever the outcome, someone's bound to get hurt.

Don't let that shiny screen in front of your computer fool you. There are people--real, live ones with feelings like yours--behind them.

So you're probably wondering if something happened to me. Nope, thank goodness no. (ahem) This is just a public service reminder.

Have a great weekend, everyone! <3