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i don't think it's just because i'm a linguist.
setup: friend C, mentioned in the stratford trip report, has been with her boyfriend for [counting on fingers] like seven years now. they've been living together for at least four of those years, possibly five. he's moved to different cities twice because of her work and school relocations (this is relatively low-impact for him, being self-employed).
so i (and eight zillion of her closest friends and family members) get an e-mail from her on friday with the subject line "new address" and the text "sorry for the mass e-mail -- i've moved. [new address] [new phone number]. nice place. had a good summer [research trip for doctoral work]. am now frantically unpacking and planning for fall semester. talk to you all soon."
is it totally insane of me that my first reaction was "uh-oh ... she's moved"?
now, granted, a mass e-mail saying "here's my new address" isn't how you'd normally think a person would notify everyone she knows that her relationship of long standing has ended. but this girl, you know, it could be. "i've moved" could easily be code for "i'm not ready to Talk About It just yet, but here's something you should know." so i said "glad you had a good summer. am i permitted to ask how come you moved? (i was surprised not to see "we've moved", if moving was happening ...)"
and now i get back "oh. no, never fear, we moved, i just didn't think to phrase it that way. bad C. ex-landlord gave us precisely 30 days' notice that he'd decided to let his sister live in the house instead of us. so now we live somewhere else."
am pleased to have been wrong.
so i (and eight zillion of her closest friends and family members) get an e-mail from her on friday with the subject line "new address" and the text "sorry for the mass e-mail -- i've moved. [new address] [new phone number]. nice place. had a good summer [research trip for doctoral work]. am now frantically unpacking and planning for fall semester. talk to you all soon."
is it totally insane of me that my first reaction was "uh-oh ... she's moved"?
now, granted, a mass e-mail saying "here's my new address" isn't how you'd normally think a person would notify everyone she knows that her relationship of long standing has ended. but this girl, you know, it could be. "i've moved" could easily be code for "i'm not ready to Talk About It just yet, but here's something you should know." so i said "glad you had a good summer. am i permitted to ask how come you moved? (i was surprised not to see "we've moved", if moving was happening ...)"
and now i get back "oh. no, never fear, we moved, i just didn't think to phrase it that way. bad C. ex-landlord gave us precisely 30 days' notice that he'd decided to let his sister live in the house instead of us. so now we live somewhere else."
am pleased to have been wrong.