When you meet people, whether it’s other people from your military member’s squadron or if you’re spending time introducing yourself to your students – so they know what they’re getting themselves into – it can be tough to encapsulate personal information into small enough and interesting enough nuggets to leave your audience with a point. Hell, it can be hard to do in a blog, too! But, fear not my friends! I’ve found a place where all that work has been done for you. When your mate’s new squadron commander is dragged over to meet you and asks you the dreaded “Tell me about yourself,” you can just steal information from your email inbox instead of ummmming and errrring like a guppy yanked from the fishbowl.
Think about it; where else does such a microcosm of who you are as a person exist? Of course, those of you who are scrapbooking fiends are covered already. You have all kinds of ideas and pics stored at your fingertips. And, I enjoy looking at the ones my sister-in-law has put together digitally, as well as some of the books my friends create. I’m just not that organized, therefore, I’m reduced to scavenging though my own inbox instead. I spent a little time scanning through the entries prior to cleaning it out to see what I could learn about myself. Maybe you can do the same thing and see what surprises you.
First, I came across a story (a very LATE story) sent to me by one of my students. Keep in mind that I’m not even teaching this semester, but one of my former students had completed his assignment last year but neglected to turn it in. He thought I still might like to read it, so he sent it yesterday. Crazy kid!! But…it turns out he was right! The assignment had been to write a story about how you were going to defend yourself when the zombies come to take over the world. He decided to write the story from my point of view. He put me in my basement with my cats, my iPhone, loads of weapons, great costumes, vegetarian MREs, and my husband. The only ones who survive his story are me and my cats. (Sorry, Baby, apparently it came down to you or Zoe…but, I love you! :-> ) I laughed a lot as I read through this nutty tale, and then began to wonder WHAT I had told the class about myself for him to peg me as a gun-toting, iPhone clutching, cat-loving vegetarian who values Renaissance Festival clothing enough to drag it into the basement prior to the Zombie Apocalypse. How did he peg me so perfectly?
His story drove me to dig a little more deeply into my inbox to see what I could find. Hmm, twice a week I get an email from The Gun Source touting “Pistols and Carbines Starting at $149 – Tough, Reliable, Affordable!” and “Smith and Wesson Tactical Pens Are Back! – Now Available in Three Different Colors!” Okay, I’ll admit it; I looked up info on their Tactical Pens…and for 24.95 I may have to get one in every color! (I don’t want them to clash with my outfits!) I also found the instructions from my hubby’s twin on how to take the Kevlar he sent me and turn it into a bullet-proof vest of sorts. (The family that shoots together wears Kevlar together?) So, yes, score one for my student and his terribly tardy story. He got the gun-toting part right, as supported by my inbox.
What else does my inbox say about me? It does, indeed, contain multiple emails on the new iPhone apps I can download at my convenience. There’s a wine tasting application that my friend Drew sent me that will come in very handy when I can figure out how to download it by myself. It’s not that it’s very difficult…I just don’t remember the password to get into the Apple store online. Sigh…perhaps my student should also have put a computer and a baseball bat in the basement with me in his tale of the Apocalypse. I‘m sure I would have spent a lot of my free time practicing my swing on the computer. Literally! (I thought computers were going to be a fad that fades away, people!!) So, iPhones and their ilk permeate my inbox, too. Score another one for my student’s overdue yarn.
I’m almost afraid to dig more deeply into my psyche as supported by the inbox. But…let’s just see how many pictures of cats, mine or otherwise, are sitting there…with their cute little noses and scruffy little bellies! Ah, distracted by cats, yet again. Welcome to my brain, folks! Okay, on May 15th alone, I have nine pictures of Lucky that I sent to myself from my iPhone camera. Lucky in my luggage, Lucky in a drawer, Lucky in a box, Lucky in the cabinet, well, you get the idea. Lucky is in my life. And, I wouldn’t change a thing. He’d be great in a zombie attack, too. He’s quicker than the other two because he’s about ten pounds lighter than Zoe and ten years younger than Neekie. So, yup, my student gets that one right, too. Cats in my inbox, cats in my brain, sometimes I even find cats in my pants…don’t ask! (And, too funny, as I finished re-reading this paragraph, he hopped up into my lap. And, I just took another photo, with my iPhone camera, and mailed it to – you guessed it – my inbox! And, people think I make this stuff up!!) Maybe there is a twelve step program for people like me. Hi, my name is Kristen, and I’m a Cat Lady. Actually, never mind! I hope there isn’t. I’d rather not be cured, thanks. So, yes, cats everywhere, check!
Here we go, back to plumbing the depths of the inbox. Once a week I receive an email from the Food Network detailing all the vegetarian recipes they have added. I think I have as many cans of beans in my pantry as I have pictures of cats in my inbox. So, any excuse to do something new with them is a great thing in my world. I also found the directions to a diner around here that makes their own vegetarian green chile that I’m sending by the twelve-pack overseas right now. There are also periodic messages from a magazine I get called Vegetarian Times. Damn, I’m getting the impression that my inbox knows more about me than I do! I’ve always been a little afraid of Big Brother…and I think it might just have become a reality. I’ll ask my inbox, it seems to know everything else about me.
Of course, it also is filled with notes from friends checking in on me during the deployment, love notes from the husband, great stories from my parents who are gallivanting around Mexico right now, and requests for letters of recommendation, from students, even tardy ones. And, even though his story is about a year late, I think I’ll write him the letter he asked for. Anytime you can make me laugh, I’m willing to go the extra mile for you!
So, if you’re looking for a quick answer to the question, “Who Are You?” You might just spend a few minutes digging through your inbox to see what you can reveal about yourselves. I found a cache of guns, a stack of vegetarian recipes, a passel of cats, and more friends than I can count on all of my digits. I’m pretty happy about all I discovered. To all of you who send me kind messages: Thanks for joining my inbox! You’re in good company!!
No comments:
Post a Comment