Annoying Mass Emails = the New Xmas Card Letters. And no one likes either one of those!
I have become increasingly annoyed with a friend of mine. I have not seen her at all for the past two years, which is fine; we weren't best friends or anything, and that's not the part that annoys me. I didn't scrape her, she didn't scrape me, but we just haven't gotten together. The thing is that now, when I do hear from her, they are completely generic messages and I'd just as soon not hear from her at all.
Background: For the past two years, when my birthday would roll around, she'd email me an I'm-so-sorry-I-forgot-your-birthday message about a week late, and then she'd ask me when I was free so she could take me out to lunch, so I'd email back (within a couple of days) and let her know when I was available and ask what was going on with her, and then I wouldn't hear from her again for about two months. Oh, except for the various forwards and mass emails I'd get from her -- most of the forwards were of the "don't forget to get a mammogram" variety, though, not stupid jokes or hoaxes or anything, and the mass emails (which were always to about thirty friends/family) were always about how busy she had been and how much she missed us all. Both of those types of emails were tedious from the second they were opened. And then on her birthday, I'd send her a card and ask when I could take her out to lunch, and she'd get back to me a few weeks later to tell me how busy she was, and ask me when I was available ... get the idea? And really, it was fine. Frankly, I was tired of hearing about how busy she always was ... she works about 30 hours a week at a job she loves and she spends the rest of her time with her boyfriend, and that's pretty much it. I don't dislike her or anything. We used to work together before she got fired for playing on the internet all day, but that was several years ago.
So anyway, now she has moved to Colorado. I got a mass email about three weeks ago about how she was moving, and she gave her new address in it. And also it was all about how busy she was (but hey, moving is hard work). And sidenote, but the email wasn't even that informative -- didn't mention her boyfriend at all, or whether she was buying a house or working or what. I replied, and said congrats and that I was looking forward to hearing from her and learning about her plans for Colorado (I didn't ask her a bunch of questions, in case she and her man broke up or something, but I did let her know that I wanted to catch up). I should have specified, because a few days later, another mass email, this time about how she's going to miss us all, but we're invited to visit her and blah, blah (but no answers to my questions, either, and again that's fine ... but you know, kind of annoying). And then I got a forward entitled "Waxing: Too Funny!" In these past three weeks, I have gotten more emails from her than in the past two years, and all of them have been mass emails. Normally, I'd be inclined to give her a break -- hey, moving is a lot of work -- but it's not like this is something new. Also, she apparently does not care about what's going on with me at all. I say this because I sent her an email back in June, telling her about my assistantship and asking her about her job and her stuff, and offering to take her out for lunch or drinks whenever so that we could catch up. I never heard back from her until this latest stream of mass emails, and I think that's tacky, and frankly, it does hurt my feelings a little. I'm not trying to brag, but I was a very good friend to her after she lost her job, and we hadn't worked together all that long. But anyway, at this point, if I'm only going to hear from her in these generic group emails, I'd just prefer not to hear from her at all. I'm not upset about it, or bitter toward her, but really, this is getting old and annoying, and I'd rather she just lost my email address.
Background: For the past two years, when my birthday would roll around, she'd email me an I'm-so-sorry-I-forgot-your-birthday message about a week late, and then she'd ask me when I was free so she could take me out to lunch, so I'd email back (within a couple of days) and let her know when I was available and ask what was going on with her, and then I wouldn't hear from her again for about two months. Oh, except for the various forwards and mass emails I'd get from her -- most of the forwards were of the "don't forget to get a mammogram" variety, though, not stupid jokes or hoaxes or anything, and the mass emails (which were always to about thirty friends/family) were always about how busy she had been and how much she missed us all. Both of those types of emails were tedious from the second they were opened. And then on her birthday, I'd send her a card and ask when I could take her out to lunch, and she'd get back to me a few weeks later to tell me how busy she was, and ask me when I was available ... get the idea? And really, it was fine. Frankly, I was tired of hearing about how busy she always was ... she works about 30 hours a week at a job she loves and she spends the rest of her time with her boyfriend, and that's pretty much it. I don't dislike her or anything. We used to work together before she got fired for playing on the internet all day, but that was several years ago.
So anyway, now she has moved to Colorado. I got a mass email about three weeks ago about how she was moving, and she gave her new address in it. And also it was all about how busy she was (but hey, moving is hard work). And sidenote, but the email wasn't even that informative -- didn't mention her boyfriend at all, or whether she was buying a house or working or what. I replied, and said congrats and that I was looking forward to hearing from her and learning about her plans for Colorado (I didn't ask her a bunch of questions, in case she and her man broke up or something, but I did let her know that I wanted to catch up). I should have specified, because a few days later, another mass email, this time about how she's going to miss us all, but we're invited to visit her and blah, blah (but no answers to my questions, either, and again that's fine ... but you know, kind of annoying). And then I got a forward entitled "Waxing: Too Funny!" In these past three weeks, I have gotten more emails from her than in the past two years, and all of them have been mass emails. Normally, I'd be inclined to give her a break -- hey, moving is a lot of work -- but it's not like this is something new. Also, she apparently does not care about what's going on with me at all. I say this because I sent her an email back in June, telling her about my assistantship and asking her about her job and her stuff, and offering to take her out for lunch or drinks whenever so that we could catch up. I never heard back from her until this latest stream of mass emails, and I think that's tacky, and frankly, it does hurt my feelings a little. I'm not trying to brag, but I was a very good friend to her after she lost her job, and we hadn't worked together all that long. But anyway, at this point, if I'm only going to hear from her in these generic group emails, I'd just prefer not to hear from her at all. I'm not upset about it, or bitter toward her, but really, this is getting old and annoying, and I'd rather she just lost my email address.