One thing that just came to mind. I used to be an e-mail whore, checking it day in and day out. I would try to get as many online friends as I could to e-mail me. But then I had this very... traumatic romantic experience with a dysfunctional, soul-wrecking person. Well... I don't wanna sound mean, but... well... yeah. When things started to flame out (and flame they did), every other day I got this horrific e-mail from her that would just destroy my day... sometimes several days. Whenever I'd see that she'd sent me an e-mail I'd go "oh no, oh no, oh no... what is it this time!?" And 99% of the time my paranoia was justified.
So now I go out of my way to avoid checking my e-mail. Even now, 5 years later. I'll have people call me on the phone and demand that I check my e-mail because they sent something important and work-related a week and a half ago. I'm a PhD student and one of the most prestigious theorists currently alive has been exchanging e-mails with me (having to do with my own research) ever since I encountered him at a conference last month... and as dream-come-true career-making as this could be, I have to force myself to check my e-mail. And it's not because I'm nervous about what he might say... I'm just as loathe as ever to check my e-mail, no more and no less, and it's nothing to do with him. Most others would be so excited that they'd be checking it several times a day with baited breath, even if they were otherwise bad about e-mail.
16 Apr 2007, 4:43 am
