Thursday, October 21, 2010

No Club.

A month or so ago, one of my highschool friends posted a link on Twitter that made me laugh myself silly, and I haven't looked at my in-box quite the same since.

If you do this in an e-mail...

Go on, check that out, and after you're done hitching and snorting, I'll be here waitin' for you when you get back.

Among my little group of knitters, there are three who are serious e-mail forwarders. It's mildly irritating to know that if I get some sort of forwarded or forwardable e-mail from one of them, I'm going to see it again two more times from the other two even though I (and presumably, they) can see my name and e-mail address in the CC's from the previous forward or forwards. It's so predictable it almost doesn't seem right to call it irritating. Now, whoever it is who's sending out boner pill spam that looks like it's coming from my domain, that's irritating… It's not that I have a problem with forwarded e-mails, I dig jokes and I heart LOLCats as much as the next Crazy Cat Lady, send 'em to me anytime ya want. It's not that I can't stand forwards, it's just that if you saw my name on it where the person who sent it to you also sent it to me, there is no need for you to send it to me again 'cause I already got it the same time you got it, and that whole mess about how you'd better pass it on is still bullshit! But anyway...

My awesome Librarian, who also gets the predictable forwards but almost never sends an e-mail that's not honestly personal, she noticed me checking out knitting books and Elizabeth Zimmerman videos when I first got started knitting. I got my start from books and the internet, and I picked up a thing or two from the videos, but I'd never knitted with other people until my awesome Librarian put a bug in my ear about starting a group at the library.

Another Librarian who worked at a different location came to get us all started. She was a highly experienced knitter, and the socks she had on with her jeans and loafers that day were my first glimpse of real hand-knitted socks and they were stunning. We had quite a crowd that first day, several experienced knitters paired off with the newbies and lots of folks got a start at learning to knit.

That was a little over two years ago; the group hasn't been that big again, but between the knitters and the quilters, there's often a decent group of us in the meeting room and we have a nice time. Occasionally we'll see a few of the faces from the first meeting, a few new knitters have turned up, but there have been several weeks where there were only two or three of us or even just me all alone.

At first, I didn't mind showing up by myself; I figure if I believe in it and want there to be people there, I should at least be there myself -- like Billy Joe Shaver said, "Wouldn't be no Kentucky less you didn't stick to it." I love the knitting, I like friendly people; I was proud to show my hats or socks or baby blankets to strangers who'd ooh and aaah and promise to come back the following week.

After being by myself a couple weeks in a row, I got to thinking about all the e-mails that got passed around. All those Fwd's, even the ones with the threats about how horrible things will happen if you don't forward this, all that e-mail, but nobody could send one out to say "Hey y'all, I'm not gonna be there this week." I mentioned that a time or two while being asked for my cell phone number, "Ya know, you can use e-mail for actual personal communication, it doesn't have to start with "Fwd" every time…" (I just don't want to give my cell phone number to someone who forwards that many e-mails and then end up paying a nickel each for forwarded texts.) I'm still trying to decide what I think about this, but the weekend I was going to be in Missouri for the hearse show, I stopped by to tell my awesome Librarian I'd be gone. That was the one week that someone else besides me got to be the lone knitter -- and she got instantly mad, leaving after about ten minutes, later grumbling to others about burning her gas to get there "all the way from Tulsa." Ehm, how many times did I drive in from Tulsa, or even Mounds to be there alone?

She sent out an e-mail a couple days ago that I just can't get out of my mind. It's not that I'm really touched by that stupid mooning scarecrow with the pumpkins for asscheeks; it was the signature that messed with my head. I encourage you to click this picture so you can see the full splendor of it all -- I blurred the name(s) and phone number(s) out of basic decency. See? I do have a little decency...



Really? You show up once every couple months at best, you've been here a total of, oh, what, five, maybe six times and you're thinkin' that's something you need to show the world in your e-mail signature? Pretentious, much?

I'm the only one, besides the Librarian, who was there for the very first time there were any knitters in that meeting room. I've been there since the very beginning. I stood up to the mean one. I invited people who peeked in from the lobby to come on in and knit with us.

Ya know what's in my e-mail signature?

Nothing.

I don't have one.

I think I'll put "Lone Wolf Knitter" in there…

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