I got this crazy, panicky email full of doom a little while ago. You know how you can flag an email to a colleague in Outlook to show it's important? My mom sent me a flagged email. Also, every email she ever sends me has the same subject: Houston. Is she reminding me where she lives?
Hurricane Rita is expected to hit somewhere in Texas, anywhere from Corpus all the way to the tip of Louisiana. That is one huge non-specific target. So while my mom is freaking out because she's sure it's going to hit Houston, she's also freaking out because she thinks it's going to hit Corpus, where my 96-year-old grandpa Tex lives by himself. Houston and Corpus are 207 miles apart. I don't think I need to say it, but I will. It is impossible for Rita to hit both places.
Here's an example of self-created drama: She's been calling my aunt down in Corpus repeatedly, and my aunt won't call her back, so she is getting more and more worked up about not knowing what's going on with Tex and if he's safe so she sends me an email and I can tell she's on the verge of being hysterical and she's not thinking logically.
So I called Grandpa Tex and asked him what he was doing. He's fine.
His housekeeper packed a bag for him and his medicine is all in order and he's going to my aunt and uncle's very nice ranch where he'll be safe and sound. See how that works? I wanted to know what Grandpa Tex was doing for the hurricane so I called him up in Corpus and asked him. I did not call my brother in Colorado every five minutes to get an update. Like my aunt isn't busy enough trying to leave town to answer 50 relatives calling to find out what's going on. Tex loves it when people call. Call Tex!
You know in the movies when the one girl won't stop screaming and someone slaps her? I know exactly how they feel.
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