Damn. I think I pissed Gayle off. That was not my intention. And I probably didn't actually piss her off; I don't matter enough to her to be able to do that, but I do think I gave her a WTF moment. Here's what happened. I was writing a post for this blog and The Gayle King Show was on my TV in the background. She seems "regular": really nice and fun and likeable and, at that moment I thought: "I bet she'd like my blog". Gayle is not a Spinster because she has been married and has children, but she has been single for awhile and seems to really enjoy her life. That makes her Spinsterlicious (minus the ex-husband and kids part).
So, here's how technology and all these ways of communicating with people can get you in trouble (and by "you" I really mean "me"). I went to her website looking for a way to send a quick note saying something like "Hey, Gayle: I think you're great. I have a blog about 'being single and not fretting about it', I think you might enjoy it. Here's the link."
Problem is, there was no way to do that. Her website only lists Facebook and Twitter as ways to contact her. Facebook didn't seem right. It seemed way too public and a little cheesy. I don't know why I didn't think the same about Twitter...but I didn't, so I used that, instead. The thing about tweeting is that you only get 140 characters to say what you need to say, so it's a ridiculous way to introduce a point that needs explaining and I don't know why that didn't occur to me until after the fact.
I tweeted Gayle and sent the link to this blog and said something awkward about being Spinsterlicious. I thought she'd see it, click on the link to see what the heck I was talking about and then would respond that she'd read it and enjoyed it. That didn't happen. Because tweets are truncated thoughts, that's also the way we receive them. They're skimmed, not read carefully. Apparently, all she saw was "Spinster" and probably thought "WTF?". But because she is too nice to tweet that, she responded, instead: "Spinster"?? Huh??"
My entire point had been lost and now she was annoyed. So I responded trying to explain what I meant, but you can't really explain much in 140 characters so I didn't really improve the situation. She didn't respond back, probably deciding that I am a nut, and maybe even blocked all further tweets from me. And here I was just trying to share my blog with what I thought was a like-minded sister.
For me, this is an example of how the 24/7 all-news-all-the-time blurring of celebrity tales and real news led me to think that I should contact a stranger and speak to her as if we are pals. I'm a little embarrassed, so I'm going to leave her alone. However, if you see Gayle, please tell her I meant no harm and am really quite nice..and mostly sane...and I still think she might enjoy my blog.
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2 comments:
Don't feel bad, the Internet is a strange place and because no one is actually speaking much gets lost in the translation. I once was giving a free lecture about something that I thought would be topical for a Meet-up group. I placed a quick note on the group's message board about it with a link to the event. Within seconds I received a very nasty email from the group leader and my membership to the group was terminated, something about me abusing my privileges. I don't know what the leader was thinking but it was clear she misunderstood my intention and reacted without absorbing the information. Perhaps Ms. King was multitasking at the moment, Oprah could have been on the other line.
@Cham: Thanks for sharing that...and for your support, in general!
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