A Friday poll

I know I have, like, zero readers, but still, I put this out into the universe:

Our real estate agent seems insistent on being in contact with me, and only with me, about all things, often during my work day, often at times when I simply cannot deal with her. She refuses to call the Smelmooo in these situations, and she also almost never leaves any detailed information in her voicemails; it's more, "Hi, it's your agent, please call me back" and it will turn out that she's just calling to remind me that she's working for us. Which is fine, but, geez, just say that.

Anyway, I give that context as part of my full disclosure that I'm already predisposed to be irritated at the agent. However, I've been pleased that she's started to realize that I will almost never answer my phone if she calls me during work, and that I may be more likely to respond to an e-mail if there's actually something urgent that she describes.

But, of course, she refuses to copy the Smelmooo.

Earlier this week, I was at an all-day retreat, and one of the ground rules was that we were not allowed to use our Blackberries during the day, so I didn't get the voicemail or the e-mail from the realtor until the end of the day. She was actually calling about something real: a repair that needed to be dealt with right away, and I was grateful that she raised it, because we didn't realize our contractor hadn't fixed it.

ANYWAY. In my reply, I asked that she please be sure to copy the Smelmooo on future e-mails(she always begins her e-mails, "Hi, Tangent and Smelmooo!" so I wasn't sure if she thought we share an e-mail address or what, but I always copy him when I e-mail her, so I couldn't figure it out).

Today I e-mailed her again (and again copied Smelmooo) to tell her that the repair had been made and that she could open the house up for showings again this weekend. In her reply, just to me, she noted, "I'm sorry, I don't have the Smelmooo's e-mail address." Which is simply not true, not only because, seriously, EVERY. TIME. I've e-mailed her, I've copied him, not to mention that we gave her all of our phone numbers and e-mail addresses when we first started working with her.

So I replied, "Great, thanks. It's smelmooo@smelmooo.com; I copy him on every e-mail I send to you; you can just hit 'reply-all.'"

The Smelmooo thinks this was bitchy of me; I contend that, if she actually did know the "reply-all" trick, she would, in fact, employ it, so I did her a solid and educated her.

So, finally, the question: Bitchy or practical? ("Neither"/"Other" is also an acceptable answer if you explain yourself.

Minor rant

I took the redeye home on Friday from a conference in Los Angeles (where it was cold and drizzly, until I was en route to the airport home, but where I had delicious wine and some good conversations and ate extraordinarily delicious comfort food at Wolfgang Puck's), which always puts me out of sorts I slept a ton this weekend, but today I've been feeling nauseated and chilly and off, and I'm not sure what's happening, but it's all making me a bit cranky. Mostly, I'm cranky with people who make it harder to do my job, including:

- the consultants who continually suggest improvements to the language we use on our website, to "punch it up." This would normally be a good thing - a firm that takes initiative! - but they keep suggesting we say things that aren't true. And then I have to explain, yes, that sounds great, but above all else I actually care about our credibility more than our web stats, and are we really having this conversation AGAIN?!

- the same firm routinely changes the language on the live site, then asks for feedback (but never actually cops to doing so). Again, really? Again, we're having this conversation?

- I cannot take your line edits seriously when you keep using the word "sentance."

That is all for now, although I will add that I hate the article in today's New York Times telling me about how all the BART trains in San Francisco are crawling with MRSA and other grody bugs, because I can't stop thinking about it, and what might be infecting the public places I frequent.

{Shudder}