As I mentioned previously, I had a few hours to kill on New Year’s Eve waiting for midnight. The family had conked out, so I sat on my couch with Ryan Seacrest in the background and played around on my iPad.  I checked email, browsed Amazon, and fired up the Kindle app hoping something I felt like reading would magically appear. Nothing adequately entertained me, so I opted to get lost in Twitter for awhile.

I started a Twitter account solely because I read an article on Cory Booker, the mayor of Newark, and decided I wanted to be one of his millions of “followers.”  Eventually, Twitter became my go-to procrastination tool and as of now, I follow a whopping 456 people. Ridiculous, I know. Especially in light of the fact that I only have nineteen followers and have tweeted a mere six times.

Regardless, while lost in the Twitterverse I love to check out the trending topics, mostly to get the news (#patheticiknow, #justbeinghonest). For example, as I type this, Roger Federer is trending, as are CNBC and “McDonough.” A quick tap reveals that Andy Murray beat Roger Federer today in the Australian Open, there’s some sort of live telephone call-in ruckus between billionaires happening on CNBC, and Obama named Denis McDonough as his fifth Chief of Staff.  See?  Now I’m informed.

Back to New Year’s Eve. Out of pure boredom, I checked the trends and saw this:

#jariana

Huh? What the heck is a “jariana”? Usually when I don’t recognize a trending topic, it has something to do with soccer.  Ahh, maybe “Jariana” is some footballer from Europe.

I tapped into the trend.  Guess what?  “Jariana” is a nickname given to Jai Brooks and Ariana Grande.

If you are a so-called “grown up” like me, you are probably saying to yourself, “Who?”  Well, this Ariana person I’d never heard of had four million Twitter followers as of New Year’s Eve!  (Note:  today, she has 4.5 million).  How do I not know this person?  I’m old, but I have a pretty high I.Q. in the category of “Useless Celebrity Knowledge.”

I tapped around Twitter and discovered that Ariana Grande is a beautiful and talented nineteen-year-old singer and actress who stars on the Nickelodeon show Victorious. Who’s Jai Brooks? Jai is a portion of the Australian YouTube sensation group “The Janoskians,” famous for recording pranks and skits and jokes. Jai’s cute, seventeen, and in my opinion resembles The Biebs (but I think that about all teenaged boys).

Anyway, as I worked my way through profiles and the numerous tweets concerning “Jariana,” I learned that these two lovebirds met on Twitter! Imagine that! He tweeted something about her, they DM’d each other (that’s Direct Message for you non-Twitter folk), and they declared themselves boyfriend and girlfriend, even though they lived oceans apart.

AND GUESS WHAT? On New Year’s Eve, as I sat there under a blanket on my couch, Jai and Ariana were going to meet for the FIRST TIME EVER in New York City!  What’s more romantic than that, Blogtropolis?

Tweeting tweeny-boppers went nuts waiting for the big moment. Twitter was a-flutter with O-M-G’s and “I CAN’Ts.”  We . . . I mean “they” . . .  shivered with anticipation and excitement.  As the night went on, “they” became anxious and somewhat angry when nobody posted an update or a picture of the happy couple. WHAT IS THE HOLD UP?  His plane landed hours ago.  We knew he was texting her from the plane.  For God’s sake, TWEET A PICTURE.

I stayed on the trend, pulling my screen down to refresh over and over as I waited both for midnight and the moment that Ariana set eyes on Jai.  One snarky tweeter noted that the “Jariana” followers were more excited for this meeting than Jai and Ariana themselves.

Damn straight!  They were just so darned cute (by now I had Wikipedia’d and Google Imaged them, and I was on board with the budding romance). A “fan,” such as Jai starts a long distance relationship with his (apparently) famous dream girl and they Skype and fall in love and declare themselves “boyfriend and girlfriend”?  Don’t you think it’s incredibly adorable that they were meeting face to face on New Year’s Eve in New York City?  (Does anyone sniff a Nickelodeon/Janoskian’s PR set up here?  Hmmm….)  Oh to be young, and cute, and rich, and famous, and have such an excited social media following!

Finally, after, like, 4-EVER, information appeared on Twitter via various fans, friends, and relatives of The Couple. They had met. They kissed. A picture was posted. Oh thank God. Everything was fine and they were so happy and OMG aren’t they just the BEST couple EVER? A picture of them kissing on New Year’s racked up 14,500 retweets and 10,900 favorites, as well as replies of “I’M DYING,” and “AWW,” and “STOP YOU ARE KILLING ME.”

Teens in love. Sigh.

Since New Year’s Eve, I’ve added Jai and Ariana to my 450+ following on Twitter and I’ve checked up on the happy couple. You’ll be relieved to know they had a wonderful two weeks in NYC together. They even posted a silly video of him doing her makeup which got over two million views on YouTube (me being one of them). Alas, though, soon it was time for them to get back to work on the opposite sides of this cruel world, so they parted ways with a kiss at the airport, captured by the paparazzi.  Ariana was so enraged by this intrusion into her personal life that she wrote some strong-worded tweets aimed at the press for making her feel uncomfortable and upset, and accused them of having “no respect 4 ur privacy/personal life.”  It was all very dramatic, Blogtropolis.

Today, Jai tweeted that Ariana was “the most beautiful and sweetest girl in the world” and that he loved her. She tweeted back that she loves him more, and that “this big ass ocean ain’t got nothin on us.”

Ahh, how sweet.

Will they last? Only time will tell, but I’m rooting for the young couple. I’m very grateful for the diversion they provided me on New Year’s Eve.  And they really are adorable.

You can play along too on Twitter by following @arianagrande and @jaibrooks1.  (Just don’t invade their privacy (:))