So it's time to write a sequel to the e-mail I sent last month, except this one is considerably more awkward than the message I wrote last time. I don't know if my previous awkward message produced the desired outcome (my teammate didn't do as much work on the project as I had hoped, but she also had some real-life issues that affected her participation), but I am definitely glad I sent it anyway. Because of one detail I previously wasn't aware of, however, I feel that I need to send another e-mail about a touchy subject. My class is in its final week, and since I likely won't see this classmate again, I could "leave well enough alone." However, there's at least a couple of compelling reasons to give her a buzz:

1. If I never tell the individual in question about this, there's an excellent chance it'll cause her a great deal of confusion, frustration, or general awkwardness at some point down the road.

2. I'd feel bad if I never said anything about it.

3. If she doesn't like what I say, the class is nearly over and she can't hit me hard on the performance evaluation if I end up making her mad! Plus, there's an 85% chance I won't have her in a future class anyway.

4. Lately I've been sending about a dozen e-mails per day, and they've made some awesome things happen, so I'm addicted to sending as much mail as humanly possible. So awkwardness can still be fun, especially when it involves rambling about Twitter.

"Empathetic," "Friendly," and "Wordy" are the most plausible options, but I'm curious if anyone will choose "Insulting" or "Seductive" (I'm definitely not going there!). While the e-mail wrestles with some uncomfortable and unpleasant things, don't take this topic overly seriously. So have fun.

i like that i'm not the only one to pick seductive on this, haha

since i was just foolin with what i picked on the poll, i think you ought to be as professional as possible on this one

I don't know whether I was seductively professional, or professionally seductive! But yeah, "professional as possible" seems like a sensible piece of advice. Even though I sometimes use slang and idioms, because I'd go crazy if I didn't, I do try to be semi-professional whenever I'm using my student mail account (or when doing administrative things on MFGG, but that's another story for another day).

There's so many ways to look awkward when sending messages akin to "you might want to update your Twitter profile because you're not married any more, and someday it's going to cause a ton of confusion, because people do look at Twitter." But if this message rubs her the wrong way, at least I've found a new way to write about amazingly awkward things.

(But in all seriousness, getting this e-mail sent off feels good, and now I can forget about school stuff for a full 12 days.)

Flirty is always the way to go

I'm sure you handled it in the best way possible! Your semi-professional kindness usually comes off really well.

I pick Flirty. It's how I always write my job interview-interest mail (I don't know the word, yay), and that always works out so well that they don't even bother to call!

When I show up at their store later, they always act surprised. Funny people to work with!

If I had work there, that is.

:'(

For those interested, it took a little while, but my sort-of-friend did respond earlier this week. Fortunately, she neither cussed me out for discussing a taboo topic, nor did she beg for my hand in marriage. I didn't think either one would happen - she's a fairly sensible and laidback individual - but getting a reply to an awkward message is always a relief.

This also inspired me to go back and update or purge some of my own hopelessly outdated social media artifacts, a task that had been sitting in my Note.TXT file for several months. I've never posted anything particularly scandalous or inflammatory online, but I did see a couple of empty profiles that didn't need to live forever.