Meanies "Я" Us

We sent an email to our family and friends recently that was just plain hilarious. In this post I would like to justify the sending of this letter, and include some statistics on responses we received to it. (If you didn't get it, you can scroll down past the stars and read it here, if you like. It's really not that interesting but you'll at least see what the hulabaloo is about)

I admit the idea was mine. It started innocently enough, and I had written a few misleading lines, followed by an explanation. Greg said it needed to be dragged on a bit. So I dragged it on a bit, or possibly more. I kind of thought the subject of the email would be a good enough hint to get people in the proper frame of mind before they started reading. Still, I started to think that maybe it wasn't all that funny. After all, it's a pretty serious thing to joke about. And I remember what it's like to hear that people you care about really are going through something like that. But I did a test run, and was told, after that person recovered, that I should send it. Greg also insisted that it was "all about the shock factor", so I did send it, with a slight sense of trepidation.

To give you an idea of what our family and friends thought of it, here are some snippets from the responses we received to this email:

2 uses of the word "crap"
1 use of the word "flippin'"
2 callings of the name "stinker"
1 near fainting
1 reminder that it wasn't April
1 calling of "time out"
6 claims it induced one or more heart attacks (or partial attacks)
1 person shaken up a bit
2 "not funny"s
1 use of the term "idioci!" (that's idiots, in case you couldn't tell)
1 threat of sending us their hospital bill
many, many capitalizations and exclamation marks
And
1 wonderful and lovely person who knows us best who "[has] seen this coming for a long time"

I recently read on a friend's blog (a former mission companion--and current friend of Greg's named Vaughn) a post I enjoyed entitled "Badly Needed Senses of Humor" about how we need to be able to laugh at ourselves and not take offense so easily. It refers to a "lighthearted sense of humor." I'm afeared that this little Pawlik Prank didn't really fall into that category. Oops! I wish his title had been "Needed: Bad Senses of Humor" because I'd be feeling great right about now!

Well, I still think the idea was funny. We'll just be sure, next time, that we make it a little more obvious and shoot for the confusion factor. Or possibly wait until April and stick with the shock factor.

We do apologize to anyone who was affected by this more than we intended for them to be!

And nerd pictures are coming up next week.

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Subject: change of address

There is some important news that Greg and I feel we need to convey to you all.

We've been sharing together for nearly 11 years. 11 years of complete unity. We both agree that overall, our union has been successful in many ways. It was really going well for a long time. After 11 years, however, it's becoming more and more apparent that things just aren't working out. Our lives are just so busy and overcrowded. Sometimes it's almost like we are together in name only, but in reality, we function completely separately. Lisa's into blogging and keeping up with her family, and Greg is occupied with work and Church responsibilities. Since we're really just each doing our own thing, it really isn't practical for us to try to keep it together anymore. We both agree that the time has come for us to separate. This is a pretty big decision, but we feel that it is the best one for both of us. We know we'll get used to it and hopefully our lives will be in better order than they have been thus far.

As we will now have different addresses, we wanted to update you on the changes so you can make a note of it in your address books. We are writing to you from the address that will be Lisa's, -----------. Greg's has now changed to ---------------, or ------------- ,both will send his messages to the same place. Please make a note of the change in your address books! Of course, Lisa is still willing to forward anything that comes in for Greg to him, if you forget.

Apart from our email addresses though, we STILL are completely united! We still share almost everything else, except our toothbrushes! What? Oh, I hope you didn't think I was talking about our relationship earlier on in this letter. I guess I should have mentioned that I was referring to our situation with our joint email account. But, come on! You know us better than to think that anything could be amiss between us! (I hope I don't give anyone a heart attack with this. If I do, please forgive me!)