Sarah Loves Her E-Mail

Thank you to Yahoo! Mail for sponsoring this post about staying connected. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

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I was in a pissy mood. It was hot. It was loud. Twitter was down. My husband was late.

I hate back to school night. I like it when my kids go to school, but the idea of every single student bringing both parents (or both sets of parents in some cases) to the elementary school for the same two hours is painful. Our elementary school is huge. I think there are eight different kindergarten classes. There must have been 1100 people in the gym/auditorium, half of them were 12 or younger and everything was echoing.

Also I think I was getting a migraine.

I kept checking my e-mail on my phone to see where my husband was. It was 6:00 pm and D.C. traffic is brutal. I was really hoping he wouldn't miss the entire presentation.



I stared at the latest e-mail.

It was from John Flansburgh.

Clearly I was seeing spots. John Flansburgh? Could there be two of them? Could They Might Be Giants be e-mailing me?

Blogging has allowed me some brushes with fame. Nancy Lieberman commented on a post I wrote about her on BlogHer.com. Warren Sapp atted (I don't know, how would YOU spell it?) me on twitter once, but an e-mail from John Flansburgh? That was new. His PR people, sure, but him personally?

I showed my phone to my neighbor.

"Isn't John Flansburgh the guy from They Might Be Giants?" I asked her.

She looked at me like I was crazy.

I don't think she ever even heard of the band. Then again, she actually likes Katy Perry, so I'm not sure what I was expecting.

I got brave and looked at the e-mail.

It was absolutely from that John. They Might Be Giants were putting on a free show in DC that week. It was for kids and they were hoping some of the local parent bloggers would spread the word.

The e-mail itself wasn't terribly glamorous, but I had received an e-mail from one of my musical idols and it made the rest of the night bearable. Even the PTA skit.

I use e-mail every day. A lot. I could not work or keep up with my family or talk to my friends without it. I can't imagine how we communicated before this. Phone calls? Yikes. I don't miss that. Sure, I've had more pressing e-mails and I've had more meaningful e-mails but I've only received one e-mail from a bona fide rock star. I'm glad Yahoo! gave me an opportunity to tell the story.

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