There's someone out there who has the same name as me. Actually, there are several people out there who have the same name as me... probably hundreds. In fact, I know of two of them who graduated from my high school alone (although they were there long after I was). There's also someone out there with a very cool and distinct profession (which I can't say if I want to keep any anonymity here) who has the same name as me, including middle name, except for ONE LETTER.

Despite the hundreds of us out there, I got on the gmail bandwagon very early on and my personal email is stephanielastname@gmail.com. I repeatedly get emails from people thinking they are emailing someone else with my name; I'd guess an average of one a day. What really bugs me are all the newsletters and mailing lists my email address ends up on that I never signed up for... meaning these people cannot even enter their own email addresses correctly. One person even bought a flight and sent the confirmation to the wrong email address. Seriously, I could have had a free flight from Texas to Buffalo if I checked in and printed out that ticket first. (Which is kind of scary when you think about it... so much security, yet someone else could totally use your ticket if they had your name and confirmation number. Like, literally had your name.)

One of the most interesting email chains I've accidentally been on was one where people were planning the filming of a movie. I actually got this email on the day that TS and I ended up going on our first "date" (although we didn't know it was a date at the time). We were gchatting and I kept sending him bits and pieces of these emails. Here are some of the items listed on the "Props and Costumes" list that was included on that email (I swear to god I am not making this up... if I was skilled enough to turn the spreadsheet into an image to prove it to you, I'd do that):

Gregg's costumes
Pimp Hat
Karate Outfit

Shawn
Cool bike for tricks
Hockey uniform

Laura
Rollerskate outfit

Nelson
Leprechaun outfit (or did he say play a Leprechaun)?

Claudia
Lots of interesting artifacts, full straw pig, funky stuffed monkeys, etc

Three Horses
Trailer
Two Jet Skis
Two Kayaks
Two wet suits
Nude lady bong
Hidden closet passage way
Cows across the street
Saxophone
Two wet suits
Tommy has lots of Martial Art weapons but may be out of town

What kind of movie do you think they were making? Having two wet suits was apparently very important to the plot, as they were included on the props list twice. I am also curious about the Pimp Hat/Karate Outfit character... perhaps I'll make this my next Halloween costume. Also, I am a little disturbed by "Lots of interesting artifacts, full straw pig, funky stuffed monkeys, etc" -- what on earth is the et cetera?!

I eventually told them they were sending these emails to the wrong email address. I was a little hesitant to be removed from the list, given the entertainment value. This Stephanie Lastname has a gmail account with my name, but a middle initial in the middle. (If I recall correctly, it's actually my middle initial.) She lives in Austin and apparently runs with an interesting crowd. I've gotten a few evites to their parties and they look pretty fun.

There's also the Stephanie Lastname who belongs to some church that apparently had a lot of elderly parishioners. I was getting so many emails a week asking for prayers because so-and-so was sick, or so-and-so had passed away. It took me a long time to convince these people I was not the person they were looking for, and those emails were especially annoying. I don't need constant notices of the declining health of complete strangers. There were also several uber-religious emails that just grated on my nerves. It took some harsh emails for these people to stop emailing me... and of course, I felt guilty for being rude to these religious people. Religion -- making everyone feel guilty is apparently its specialty.

Today, I was dealing with emails from a group of women trying to plan a baby shower. What was frustrating about these emails was that they KNEW that one of the StephanieLastname email addresses they were using was wrong, yet they kept sending emails about planning this party to someone they knew was a complete stranger. The email specifically said, "I think I have Steph's email wrong in this Blockbuster address book...would explain why she didn't get emails from us about Lucy...I will make that correction!!"

So I emailed her back with my standard "This email was sent to the wrong address" message and she removed me from the later emails.

But then, then, the other Stephanie Lastname responded to the email with MY email address on it and even started out the email with "Yes, my email is StephanieLastname1@gmail.com. Apparently there is already a Stephanie Lastname out there. Go figure. So, any emails that you sent about Little Lucy were definitely read by her and not me!"

ARGH! She of all people should know that I AM NOT HER! I mean, really! Yet, she included me on that email. GAH! So I got yet another email from these women today. So annoying. My doppleganger is an idiot.

Posted by: Lise | August 27, 2009 12:05 PM