[The title may be reflecting some dissipating grumpiness about getting asked if I was pregnant over Thanksgiving.  That wasn’t a maternity dress and the stuffing and pie was just really good, ok?!]

Back to the point of the post.  It all started with an innocent email from a co-worker.  She knew about my SNAP challenge, and sent me an email to let me know that the mayor of Newark, NJ was going to take the SNAP challenge.  Just a simple little forward.

A couple days later, I googled “Newark Mayor SNAP challenge.”  I read a little more about his challenge and how it was prompted by a twitter exchange.   I checked him out on my twitter account and saw folks cheering him on in his SNAP challenge, which will start December 4th (and he will share his story through twitter and other social media).

So I decided to add my support.

And that was it.  So I thought.  Until this popped up on my twitter feed:

Cory Booker retweeted me!!  I tried to keep my cool.  I mean, it’s probably actually some intern who works for him who retweeted it.  And then another co-worker told me that he actually mans his own twitter account.  Wow.  I mean WOW.  My tweet was actually retweeted by the Mayor of Newark.  I felt like a celebrity by association.  This is the mayor who let hurricane Sandy victims crash at his house and watch movies.  And volunteered to shovel an old man’s driveway after a request on twitter.  And let’s not forget how he ran into a burning building to save a woman.  Ya know, all in a day’s work.

So I felt pretty special.  And then something else special happened.

This is the stats page of my WordPress account.  Note yesterday’s slight increase in page views.  I might have only had 12 views the day before.  (I’ve had days over 100 before, they were just in October!)

We’ve heard of the Colbert Bump

Well, I got the Booker Bump!  

Stay tuned if you enjoy SNAP challenge stories like mine, cause you know I’ll be following my pal Cory starting December 4th.  He’s challenged his twitter follower @MWadeNC, a user who describes herself as a “Daughter of the American Revolution (DAR), fighting against any and all forms of socialism/communism.. Army Veteran, Army Daughter, Army Wife,” (and has since made her account private) to do the SNAP challenge with him after she commented that “nutrition is not a responsibility of the government” and indicated that food stamps should be enough for a family to afford breakfast.  I’m looking forward to this one!

Of course I must also thank Mayor Booker.  Not just for quadrupling my views on my busiest day stat, but also for bringing national attention to this issue in a really human way.  Over a million people follow his twitter account and will watch him struggle with the SNAP budget for seven days.  That beats the 1,800 views my blog had before he bumped me.  I really am excited to hear about his challenge and watch the nation respond.

Now I wonder if I could get Stephen Colbert to retweet me….