Tuesday, February 05, 2008

The Family On-Line Together, Stays Together

Every once in awhile something happens that breaks you up in the GOOD way,
meaning you laugh until the tears are rolling down your cheeks.

So last night I'm on-line, reading email. I get an email from Michelle.

You know Michelle. Michelle Obama.

She wants me to see Barack's new video on YouTube, Yes We Can. The video is truly slick, a wonderful example of how a confluence of art, politics, entertainment, and emotion can produce something that will probably be the next President of the United States.

But this isn't a political blog, as one astute reader has assiduously reminded me, so I'm not going there. It's just a part of the story.

Michelle writes to me, and Barack does, too, for the record. Today he reminds me to vote, and while I'm on the way to the polls, to grab a friend to come along.

Go out for a sandwich.

Anyway, our immediate family emails as a group. I realize that there are better ways to communicate these days, Skype conference calls, Face Book, Twitter, etc., but we've managed to get a charge out of old fashioned email. I started this thread going with the following:

Subject: Well, I think it's funny

http://health-in-action.blogspot.com/2008/02/jeder-braucht-therapie-whlen-eine.htmlHow to Choose a Therapist in. . .German????

All I sent was the link. A blogger translated my post, How to Choose a Therapist, into German. I thought it was pretty cool.

Son #1 chimes in with:
Wha? Wha? What does it mean???
I write back:
I'm telling you. I think it's a direct translation of a post I did just the other day on how to choose a good therapist. But since I don't know German, so I'm not sure. But the paragraphs look the same, and I saw the word OY! which I used in the post
Son #1:
Gut een hemmil!

Me:

I just got an email from Michelle, Michelle Obama, of course, who sent me to the
following link. If this is what we get the next 4 years, man, o man. Can you
imagine?

http://www.blogger.com/I

Son #1:
Does Michelle read your blog?

Son # 2:
Anyone else notice that Israeli girl at 1:46 who says “Anu Y’Cholim”?

Son # 2:

Okay, let’s play I Spy…

John Legend
“Michael” from Lost
Scarlett Johansen
“Ashley” from Fresh Prince
Xena Warrior Princess
I think one of the guys from Black-eyed Peas

Anyone else?

(These are the performers on the video.)

Son #1:

B-actress Aisha Tyler
Annoying actress Kate Walsh
Kareem Abdul Jabar (I
think)
Barack Obama (I think)

Me: Should I be afraid?

Then, the coup de gras', from we're not sure whom, but we know his name. He shares the very same name as a son who HASN'T joined the conversation.

Jonathan:

who are you people? and why are you putting me on your email list?

I apparently spelled Son #3's name wrong when I sent out the original group email . So this OTHER Jonathan got it by mistake. Son #3's name isn't really Jonathan, but I felt that I should change it for our purposes here and keep the family anonymity.

Before I can correct the situation, Empath Daught has posted:

Jon, all you have to say is YES WE CAN!
(Oh!)
YES WE CAN
(hmm!)
YES WE CAN
(we can, we can)...
I quickly write to the other Jonathan, the one who is not in our family:

Sorry Jonathan. We have a Jonathan (last name) in our family with a gmail account, and I mistook you for him. Forget you ever met us. If that's possible.

Son #1:
Truth is, I'm so sick of the candidates, I'd vote for King Abdullah before ...
I've corrected the addresses so that Son #3, our Jonathan, is now on the list. I write to all, since all of us get all of this,

Do you believe this? Someone ELSE named Jonathan (last name) got this entire
thread by mistake! I am capable of worse, but not sure how. There are great
things lying ahead for you people. I think I've corrected the error.

Son #1:
OMG that is hilarious!

I vote we just keep sending him our (stuff).
And Rac chimes in:

LOL I think it's very funny! Poor Jonathan. LOL
And Empath Daught:

OH MY OH MY OH MY .
That is the funniest thing EVVVVER. Did you guys see what I wrote back to him?!
And Cham:

LOLOL oh man good stuff
#2 son:

I second #1's motion in adopting a second Jonathan. If you read his email
carefully, he clearly seems interested in being part of our family. Empath's
response was hysterical.

Okay. I should stop here. I really should.

IS THIS A GREAT WAY TO KEEP FAMILY TOGETHER OR WHAT?

Oh, they'll be so mad at me for posting this, I just know it. So perhaps not.

I have to get to the polls. There's for sure an extra beat in my step. Yes We Can?

NOT A POLITICAL BLOG, NOT A POLITICAL BLOG, NOT A POLITICAL BLOG. Honest.

It's a free country. Go out and vote.

therapydoc

16 comments:

PsychoToddler said...

We do the same thing. We all have Yahoo Instant Messenger, most of us are on facebook, and now we all have blogs (except the PT, but she basically has mine).

We are constantly emailing/IMing/commenting to each other and I think it's just great.

You can really see the different personalities emerging through the different blogs, and even the private stuff is a lot of fun.

I think it has made us much closer as a family. Our dinner table conversation (sadly, with kids in dorms or across country, not as common as it used to be) is much more lively and fun.

I have never been closer to my daughter than I have been since she moved 900 miles away. We chat every day.

I think also that, seeing ourselves through the eyes of others, namely bloggers who also chime in and comment on our pages, really gives us a better appreciation of what we have as a family.

bakersfieldmom said...

I, too, keep abreast of my children and grandchildren's day/week by computer. I have a webcam, gift from stepson in Holland when we left to live in USA. We are on the messenger, so we know when someone is on computer. The best thing is, we don't have to talk if we don't want to,by using "busy" or whatever. It hurt at first that my stepson didn't want to say hello every time I'm on the computer but with 9 hours difference in time, my daytime is his time for bed. He surely doesn't want to talk to mom-in-law at 2AM his time.
Emails are great, but so are the links to other sites where we put family pix and grandson's pix from paper when he wins a race. We DO NOT talk religion or politics, however. Too diverse in opinions,and each are strong.
I wasn't sure about your post as I got into reading it. At first, it looked like an endorsement for Obama, which I highly resent ANYONE telling me how they or I should vote. One step back from democracy, in my viewpoint. So I read further and got the rest of the story.

therapydoc said...

I'd never tell anyone who to vote for, or even who I'm voting for, really. It's a for me to know, kind of thing, and I think a lot of people feel this way.

Jay said...

That's cute.
We're like that, but on facebook, where unfortunately other people can read (and judge) along.

therapydoc said...

Jay, I think I lasted about a week on Facebook.

Jack Steiner said...

I keep getting copied on emails from a mother whose son has the same name as me. As you can imagine his email address is different, but not by much.

therapydoc said...

Wait. JACK. Is your name really Jonathan?

Radical Reminders said...

Hahahaha, this post was great. I was really confused for a while, when i finally caught up, i couldn't stop laughing... i don't know if you meant it to be funny but i loved it! ;)

Radical Reminders said...

oh and i forgot to ask: how in the world did you find that awesome translation of your post on a different blog?!

therapydoc said...

And I left off the really funny parts.

Like why I GET these emails from the Obamas. I was reading blogs at the Obama website and wanted to comment. So the only way to comment is to register.

Once you register, they're got ya'. They ask for money, support, hope, prayers, love.

It's unreal.

therapydoc said...

FEM. I found it at technorati.com If you register over there and insert their cookie into your template, you can log on whenever you want and find out who linked over to your blog. It's also how I do the Back 'acha post.

Batya said...

political spam
have they hit the cellphones yet?

therapydoc said...

I understand that our privacy is a thing of the past and we should just get used to invasions.

The Merry said...

therapydoc,

This is a cool blog! I just wandered over here from Cranky Fitness, and already I wanted to thank you. So far, I especially appreciated your posts on dating.

Haven't had the politicians calling or emailing me yet. Maybe, having just moved, they'll have lost my address and phone number? Something to hope for. If I weren't so convinced it was my responsibility to vote, those automated messages on my answering machine would have deterred me.

Guilty Secret said...

I had one of my posts translated into German too! Weird...

We converse via group email in my family too. Oh, what a stranger copied in by accident would think!

Dr. Deb said...

What a great post!

And I believe, "Yes We Can!"

  Bring them home, the Homeland Concert There's not much to say. Wait, I take it back. There's SO much to say it is too much. There ...