Thursday, January 11, 2007

Mystery Michael

My undergraduate college was pretty small and almost everyone's email address was their first initial followed by their last name @loyola.edu. People with common last names like mine would have a number after their last name. I, however, had no number - just the normal email address like everyone else. But poor Michael, we share a last name and he had the unfortunate luck of getting the email address with the number (although he's two years old than me, go figure). So of course, I have been getting emails for the past five years wrongly sent to me instead of Michael. Usually about once a month I get one and without fail every time I forward him the email, and he replies "Thanks again Margaret".

You really start to learn a lot about someone after 5 years of getting their emails. I know he played rugby, I know who his roommates were, I know he was a finance major, I know who his academic advisor was and the times of a couple of their appointments, I know his English Lit professor misplaced one of his papers, I know what bars his friends go to for happy hour, and I know that his ex-girlfriend got married this past summer. Last spring his friends planned a booze cruise, sent a bunch of emails out, and then one of them realized they accidentally invited "Margaret" instead of "Michael" before I had gotten a chance to check my email and forward them on to Michael who usually would then email everyone with the correct email address. Anyway, his friends were being funny, and this time they decided to take it upon themselves to invite me on the booze cruise also. Unfortunately, they all still live in Baltimore, so I couldn't make it (Not that I would have gone anyway). The following Monday I got an email from most of the guys on the list saying something along the lines of "Margaret, where were you?" or "We missed you on the cruise, Margaret." I responded to the whole list thanking them for their cordial invite and informing them of Michael's actual email address, and signed the email "Margaret". I have a bunch of friends that are their year of school, but I can almost guarantee that not a single one of them knows that my real name is Margaret. I wonder if I'll ever get to meet Michael - I do know that he goes by Mike, but if I have to be Margaret, he has to be Michael.

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