"I'm speechless. I have no speech." - George Costanza

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 lead what is, in many ways, an exceeding verbal life.  I'm a talker.  I like to talk.  Sometimes, I think I like to talk too much.  It's not that I don't listen, it's that I'm anxious to contribute.  Finding the words isn't usually a problem.  I've talked for work, for fun, for art.  Back in the day, when I was performing stand up comedy at least 3 times a week there was very little I enjoyed more than engaging an audience in a conversation.  The gift of the gab, I've got it.  While this has served me well in many situations, sometimes my big mouth gets me in trouble.

Self editing is often a challenge for me.  Instead of pausing, thinking and realizing that now might not be the best moment to speak that hard truth or make that joke I jump in full steam ahead thinking that the honesty will be appreciated or the humour will diffuse tension.  It almost never does.

Sometimes I think I would have done better back in the days of letter writing and carrier pigeons, so I could carefully consider each word and really think about my intentions and impact.  Instead of jumping in head first, I would pause and the words I wrote would live up to the ones inside my head the way the ones that come out of my mouth rarely do.

The thing is, I can still have a degree of that ability to perfect my message thanks to email.  Email has allowed me the opportunity to apply for jobs without coming on too strong.  Email taught me how to have a serious discussion in a relationship with a significant other without being too emotional.  Email has provided me with the freedom to take the time to find the words when they are hard to come by.  We're all speechless sometimes, even mouthy broads like me.  I'm grateful that I live in a world where technology has allowed me to find my voice and to stay connected.  Email has made us all more tactful, better storytellers and I think, better to each other.  Email helps me find my inner editor.  I call her Mildred.  She's overworked and a little cranky to be sure, but she gives sound advice.  I don't know what I'd do without her.

My Sister from Another Mister.

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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Remember when you were in grade school and you'd pass notes in class with your best friend?  That's the earliest forms of written communication that Annette and I took part in.  Burning questions like "What do you want to play at recess?" and "Do you like my new sweatshirt? The one with a teddy bear dressed as Tina Turner?"  Needless to say, I loved the sweatshirt (duh) and I wanted to dance a tango in the playground at recess.  Annette would lead.  Yeah, we were pretty weird kids.

Of course, the best stories always start when the weird kids find each other.  

Once we were in high school the note passing took on a serious, more long form nature.  One Friday morning, in grade 12 Law Studies, Annette wrote out a detailed missive explaining the entire plot to the episode of Seinfeld that I missed the night before.  I guess the teacher thought she was taking notes in my agenda book, but in reality she was filling me in on Jerry's trials and tribulations with a Cigar Store Indian and Frank Costanza's missing TV Guide.

When my BFF moved to Ottawa for first year University we'd send long, handwritten letters to each other. Me learning about dorm life and her new friends, she learning about my new job and getting the latest gossip from home.

Pretty soon we were grown ups, if you can call 22 year olds grown ups.  At the very least we were masquerading as adults, with schedules, office wardrobes and email.  Both of us, like virtually everybody else our age at that point, bored out of our minds at our desks, clock watching.  It wasn't acceptable to pick up the phone and call your pal to chat while you waited and waited for an assignment from your boss or for 5:30pm to finally arrive.  But sending an email?  BA-RING IT!!!

Over the past years 15 years, over email, we've counselled one another on relationship struggles, office politics, fashion, lunch orders and real estate.  We've planned a wedding, studied sonograms and picked out furniture.  We've made each other laugh, we've made each other cry.  And for me, those emails have brought our words to life the same way those handwritten notes did in grade school.

Pro tip: when choosing a best friend, find one who will take the time to fix YOUR dress on HER wedding day.
WHO DOES THAT?!

With a little luck, someday we'll be old ladies emailing each other pics of our grandkids...

There's still nobody I'd rather tango with.  Happy Birthday, Buddy.  Choosing you as my best friend reminds me daily of my impeccable taste.  Love you to death.  Email me!