In which the niceties of social interaction confuse me
Gah! I'm sure many of you know how maddening it is to write those cordial/friendly, semi-personal yet professional emails to people who are (1) really, really more powerful than you and (2) doing you a favor, which is incredibly nice, but whom (3) you don't know very well. And then there's the built-in over-familiarity of American social interaction, which I have never really come to terms with, exaggerated by the inherent informality of email.
Dear god, I can spend a quarter of an hour fretting about the salutation, which I know is silly and neurotic but I can't help it.
Dear god, I can spend a quarter of an hour fretting about the salutation, which I know is silly and neurotic but I can't help it.