(no subject)
I am mostly doing really well with my resolution to keep up with my email this year, and it helps that like 95% of my inbox is quasi-junk that I can just delete anyway. But. But every so often I get actual communications from actual people that I have to directly respond to with my own words, and I labor over this, I sweat blood. Trying to get a good tone, to respond to everything they say and not miss any details, to balance between humor and respect... and I hate it when the other person is older and/or formal and they don't use emoticons or even exclamation points, because then using them myself feels childish but... but without them it's so much harder to not sound sharp or cold or dismissive.
In my head I always think "oh, email is easier than calling or face-to-face conversations" but I don't know why I think that, it's the opposite of true. Having extra time to think and edit just gives me extra time to be neurotic.
And ugh, how do you end them. Even when I resist the part of me that got trained in 2nd grade to end letters with "sincerely," I still feel like I need a couple sentences of gratitude and well-wishing before I stop? How much of this is general neurosis, and how much is lack of practice, and how much is Minnesota-Nice gone feral.
In my head I always think "oh, email is easier than calling or face-to-face conversations" but I don't know why I think that, it's the opposite of true. Having extra time to think and edit just gives me extra time to be neurotic.
And ugh, how do you end them. Even when I resist the part of me that got trained in 2nd grade to end letters with "sincerely," I still feel like I need a couple sentences of gratitude and well-wishing before I stop? How much of this is general neurosis, and how much is lack of practice, and how much is Minnesota-Nice gone feral.