Tuesday, May 15, 2007

My New Best Friend

For the past few days, I have been getting e-mail from some lovely ladies in Texas who seem to be planning some kind of church trip. The e-mail address they have been writing to is not one I generally use: it is -R-.maidenname@toughluck.com. So at first, I just thought the messages were some kind of weird spam. But there are several ladies copied on each message, and they have been writing back and forth, making plans about where to meet and how to organize this trip, which I believe starts this week. I was worried that poor -R- MaidenName was going to be left out! She is probably sitting at home, checking her e-mail every 5 minutes, wondering why no one is sending her the details of the church trip. How will she know where to meet everyone? I am probably a little too invested in the life of -R- MaidenName. Maybe she is at home thanking her lucky stars that the weird ladies at her church have forgotten all about the trip and are leaving her alone. But I am worried about my new friend -R- MaidenName, so today I wrote back to the lovely Texas ladies. Oh yes, I did.

"FYI, you have the wrong e-mail address for -R-. I am a different -R- who has no idea what you are all talking about. Good luck on your trip."

I kind of hope that they will keep writing me so that I can find out whether they ever got the right address for -R- MaidenName.

Update: I received two messages from my lovely ladies this morning. They both apologized for having the wrong e-mail address. Should I write back and say, "Not a problem. I hope you have a great trip and are able to get in touch with -R- MaidenName. If you can't get in touch with -R- MaidenName and want me to come with you instead, just let me know"?

13 comments:

Stefanie said...

I have been getting all sorts of voicemail messages lately for Ruby SomethingOrOther. They sound important (or at least insistent), but not important (or insistent) enough for me to consult the caller ID display and call the number to tell them Ruby SomethingOrOther doesn't live here. If it was an email, however, I might take the initiative. So I commend you on your good deed.

Michelle | Bleeding Espresso said...

You think it would be weird to write again to say, "And could you please keep me posted on your plans? You sound like nice ladies and maybe I'll come anyway."

On second thought, that sounds like "forward to the FBI material" right there.

In any event, you're a nice lady too.

3carnations said...

One time we got a call from a lady across the state whose son had had a college roommate with the same name as hubby's. Somehow they got a collection letter addressed to this same-name-person at their home. She found our number, and called thinking hubby was the same person her son had known. He was not. I explained this to the woman, and the conversation ended. Fifteen minutes later, she called back and said that her son lives in our town, and what his name is, and where he works, in case we would ever like to meet him.

What the?!? We never contacted him.

I hope my mom, who lives out of state, doesn't call strangers here and try to get them to be friends with me like that.

lizgwiz said...

That was very nice of you! I've occasionally made phone calls in response to messages left on my answering machine in error. Which sometimes turns out to be more trouble than you'd think, since it often seems to be confused senior citizens I'm calling, and I'm not sure that they completely understand what I'm trying to tell them. But I tried, right?

M.Amanda said...

I've never gotten wrong emailed, but I used to have messages for a woman whose mother was in a nursing home. Every once in a while, they'd call and leave a message asking her to call back about her mother. I never called to let them know. I really hope it was never anything urgent. In those cases, they'd have alternate numbers to try, right? I hope. :-|

Noelle said...

I was still getting emails from a board I used to be on a year ago, and I loved reading about all these people trying to organize without having to be part of it. It was very nice of you to fess up.

L Sass said...

If they send you pictures after the trip, you should definitely post them!

Isabel said...

So, you going??

Anonymous said...

If they invited you, would you really go? Because personally, I think that sounds incredibly fun. In a stalker-kind-of-way.

Unknown said...

It was nice of you to let them know.

This morning I got a wrong call, and I loved it how pushy the lady was. She was looking for a girl, and then she went and told me 'Well, this is the phone number she left for us to call her back! XXX-XXA-XXXB'

To which I thought, damn, that's not even close to this phone number(different area code, even!), and I let her know, and then she got mad and told me why...get this: WHY HAD I ANSWERED THE PHONE THEN?

Paisley said...

I had a voice mail in college from some girl who thought I was her long, lost friend. I guess someone with my exact name (maiden) lives in Tucson and I am in Phoenix. She is the exact same age as me.

Nobody ever has my last name because the more common perception of it is spelled a tad differently and pronounced a tad differently. I was forever correcting.

I always felt bad for not calling her back.

For some reason, I think this whole thing with the church ladies is so cute.

metalia said...

That is awesome. Lately, I've been getting emails containing pictures of large women, who are looking for someone named "Big Beauty Lovah," who apparently has a similar email address to me. Fortunately, the big beauties are clothed.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely you should! I love when fate mixes messages like that. Maybe you were copied on those emails for a reason? What fun!! :)