Thursday, November 26, 2009

Queen of teh Internets. Not.

Today it finally happened: I misfired an email so that something personal went to the wrong, wrong, wrong person. Doesn't this happen to everyone at some point? Did I think I would be spared, just because I'm the resident Professor of Internet Culture and Printer-Hookup and Switching People to Macs?

Sadly, no.

A month or so ago, a bunch of professors from all across campus got hauled out of our quotidian lives to Do a Big Favor for the Dean in a public presentation. The presentation exceeded expectations, I guess, and so today I got an email from some admin support staff in the Dean's office, a mass-email to all of us who participated, inviting us to a cocktail shindig of gratitude. It runs from 4-6. Okay.

Being an excellent and thoughtful wife and partner, I forwarded--so I thought--the invitation to Pynchon, with the following text added at the top:

"Can I go to this?
[M].
xo"

Yeah. That didn't go to Pynchon. It went to the admin assistant--at least, THANK GOD, I didn't hit 'reply all'. She promptly sent back a reply:

"Of course. You were an important part of the presentation in September."

Oh dear Lord. I wrote her back immediately explaining that I had meant to be asking my husband if he could do the daycare pickup, and that while she seemed very nice, I didn't think we were yet on kissing and hugging terms. I told her I was embarrassed, and I apologized for the awkwardness. I did NOT sign off with kisses and hugs.

She wrote back:

"LOL"

So, Internet friends. I feel like an ass. Send me your stories of how and if and when you've pulled a like manoeuvre on the World Wide Embarrassment Machine. That'd make me feel less silly.

9 comments:

Cloud said...

Oh, I've mis-sent far too many emails to count.

After a particularly embarrassing one, I instituted a policy- I don't type the email address into the "to" line until the end. I type and proofread the email first, then type the addresses. I am very strict on this at work, a little less so at home.

The policy works well. I recommend it highly!

Mimi said...

good idea -- wouldn't have saved me though, as I inadvertently hit 'reply' instead of 'forward'. maybe i should just double check in any case!

Debbie said...

I've never done it, but my brother-in-law works with a Debbie and I am always getting his e-mails to her.

I know more about his work than I should.

I often err by hitting 'reply' when I should be hitting 'reply all', and then only one person gets something that should have gone to out a bunch of people, essentially leaving them out of the loop.

Patti said...

I constantly receive emails from my City Councillor, intended for his Admin Asst., which is pretty funny.

Also... my clean-living, well-mannered, happily-married, mother-of-three sister recently received two text messages, right in a row.

The first one said, "S'up f****r?"

And the second one said, "Oops, wrong number."

Jenifer said...

Clearly it happens to everyone! At least it only went to one person. My Hubby thinks it is his life mission to convert everyone to Apple too. He is not pushy, he just can't fathom why anyone would not use a Mac, iphone, etc.

Kyla said...

Ha! That is pretty funny.

My biggest email issue is premature sending...I tend to scrutinize my important emails so sending them halfway through a rough draft form practically makes me pass out. LOL.

the new girl said...

Oh, I will email you the MOTHER of all embarrassing wrong-person emails. It's not my story and is too racy for public consumption...lol.

I'm still laughing about the 'S'up F***er?' 'Oops, wrong number.' I'd have totally thought that text was from my husband.

lmao.

alejna said...

Um, yeah. You are not alone. I had my own first email misfire about a month ago. Someone had posted a funny video, featuring bleeped out bits from Sesame Street. The results were pretty suggestive. It made me laugh, making my husband (sitting across the room frome me) wonder what was so funny. I decided to email him the youtube link. A few minutes later, he still hadn't gotten it. When I checked my sent messages to see what was up, I saw that I had sent it to my advisor, instead.

For the record, I don't usually send my advisor clips with sexually suggestive material, even if they involve g-rated muppets.

(If you want to see the video, I'll make you go check out the post I wrote after the incident.)

Beck said...

A friend of mine - NOT ME, thankfully - sent a lurid, pornographic email to her husband's work email.
And hit "reply all."
He changed jobs shortly thereafter.
(again, not me.)