nothing is showing up in the notification area. I've signed into twitter and i have reminders set and i don't see anything. Is this a known problem? or does it take a while to work
I don't think it shows tweets that are coming in, it only allows you to post tweets. If you don't see the "Click to tweet" button, I think you need to scroll up to enable it, possibly.
As for reminders, I think they appear as they come in, so wait for the next scheduled one.
Are you getting your unread mail (if you set it up in Mail.app) in the sidebar?