This morning I received two emails, one which highlighted an email pet peeve and the other which has made me a little giddy all morning.

The wonders first. Eleven years ago I shared an apartment in LA with two roommates: Dada, who I have kept in touch with and stay with when I go back to LA; and Greer, who I was actually closer to when we lived together but who we lost touch with.

We�ve often wondered where she ended up and occasionally I�ve done a google search for her name with no luck.

So this morning I get a call from Dad who proceeded to read and forward to me an email he got from someone else within his company. He works for a large international company with a big web presence and this email had come from the person who handles the customer feedback emails from the web site. She had received an email through the feedback link from Greer, who was trying to track me down and had remembered which company my Dad had worked for, looked him up on the web site, and sent a speculative email hoping he was the right person and that it would find its way to him, and to me. And it did.

I have now spent a large chunk of the morning emailing with Greer and Dada and generally catching up. Turns out she�s back in LA, so when I go over in Feb all three of us can have a reunion. (It also settles that I will be going to LA in Feb, which I was previously still only pipe-dreaming about.)

On to the peeves. My main email peeve (leaving spam in a whole other category � my ISP has a pretty good spam-filter so it doesn�t both me as much as others), comes largely from my mother. It�s those mushy chain emails sending sad or inspirational, supposedly true, stories. Or teddy bear pictures. Or poems for friends. You know the type of sentimental crap. I cannot stand this stuff. I have never been able to stand it. My mother has known me for more than 30 years, she knows I hate it, and yet she continues to send through mush email after mush email. I reached the point some time ago where I pretty much delete them without opening them.

I will concede that that is more a peeve I have with my mother which is email-related, rather than a peeve with the emails themselves. I don�t care if they circulate the globe giving hope, inspiration and annoyance, provided none of them get sent to me by people who ought to know better.

On the same note: people who send really bad jokes under the subject header �this is not my fault�. It is your fault. Delete it. Don�t send it on. It�s easy.

I�m off now to start properly planning my LA trip, or do some work, or a little of both. Next entry will likely be �Things I Love About LA�. First thing on that list is the current state of the US dollar and how that enhances my ability to buy more shoes.