Don’t press “send”

The “drafts” box in my gmail account is very full at the moment.

I’ve been writing emails that express what I REALLY think, then not pressing “send”.

I keep it safe by not putting anyone’s name in the “to” box.

It’s really quite cathartic, because I tell myself I will send all those emails one day, when the time is right. In the meantime I keep popping into them to do bits of finessing along the way.

I have quite a lot to say in my draft emails. They are really quite pithy and to the point.

Fortunately, sensible me knows deep down that no good would come of my pithy drafts.

I wrote a particularly fabulous one last night. Totally in love with it. It started with “One day you will realise …”

There are so many places you can go with an email that starts that way, don’t you think?

Sensible me disagrees and has strenuously advised against proceeding.

Occasionally, sensible me screws up and lets reckless me press the “send” button, then spends countless hours mentally flagellating herself about it.

I am an awesome mental flagellator. Champion.

If mental flagellation was an Olympic sport I’d be a gold medallist.

It makes me feel slightly better to know I’m not alone on the ill-advised pressing-send-decision-making front.

Like Lori Day who writes at Huffington Post:

I am in a shame spiral.

I can’t get out of it with my signature pomegranate martinis. I can’t get out of it by seeking support on Facebook from people who know that I’m not a bad person. No amount of reading of blogs by other people who have made the same mistake is assuaging the feeling that my stomach is in free fall.

Why oh why did I click ‘Send’?

Or Peter Cashmore, who confessed to The Daily Mail:

Even now I can still remember the words of the email as clearly as if I’d only just written them. That night, I had typed in a frenzy of anger without thinking or pausing for breath.

‘Nicola,’ I began. ‘Well, I guess that shows me what kind of person you really are. I hope I never see you again, and had no idea that I had been going out with someone so cheap in the first place. Clearly I made the right decision when I kicked you into touch.

‘Well, you have fun with the poor new bloke, whoever he is. I’m off to find myself someone less plain than you — and maybe not so fat, as well. I need someone like you like a hole in the head.’

Then I clicked the ‘send’ button — and changed the path of my life for ever.

Have you ever sent an email then regretted it?

Song of the day: Frankie Goes To Hollywood (twice in one week) “Relax”
(I’m still quite startled this track made it to Number 1 in the UK … I mean … 1983 … Fairly confronting …)

PS The story behind the Friends image … as per Friends Wiki …

[Rachel] calls Ross over to give him a box of his stuff, helping him “move on”. Ross acts out on this, and asks for a lot more of his stuff, including the tiny T-shirt she sleeps him. Out of spite, Ross wears the T-shirt he hasn’t worn since he was 15 and leaves her apartment in it. When he sees Rachel leave the apartment the next time, she’s leaving with Mark. Chandler tries to stop him at all costs, and makes Ross realize that the Ross-Rachel relationship is truly over and that, in some way or another, he must find a way to move on. Some time later, Ross gives Rachel a box of her stuff – which includes the tiny T-shirt she loves so much.