Plaxo SNAFU

Well, let's start out with the announcement that I sure screwed up in yesterday's posting. No---all that nice stuff about Myra Lewis is just as true today as it was yesterday. I doubt that information will ever change when it comes to Myra, but yesterday marked the second birthday for her this year. Her first one was in February.

Thanks to me and Plaxo, she turned another year older again yesterday. Myra didn't seem to mind, but she did think it was important to tell me about her real February birthday. After reading her nice note, my brain went into overdrive, thinking a whole bunch of scary thoughts: had I just imagined those reminders I received from Plaxo? Was I losing it?

After all, the first reminder came seven days before Myra's birthday, announcing the June 5 date and suggesting cards or flowers to mark the occasion. I held onto that reminder, figuring as the date got closer, I'd do something to mark my teaching friend's birthday. When the reminder came on June 4 that the big day for Myra was tomorrow, I again held onto it also, knowing for sure, it would help me remember in the morning, and I could devote my blog posting to Myra.

That's precisely what I did, and when the posting was complete, I deleted the reminder. So, when Myra wrote me her appreciative note and gently told me of the error, I immediately grimaced---why did I delete that reminder? It could have offered some clue as to why this big blooper had occurred. Thankfully, I scrolled down and found the 7-days-until-Myra's-birthday reminder.

Sure enough, someone screwed up somewhere, I thought, feeling relieved that I still had a few faculties left but that something was certainly amiss about my faculty friend's birthday. How could Plaxo do such a thing, I wondered?

Plaxo is an online contacts program which I signed on to a few years, thanks to my attorney Bill Berg, who passed it on to me. Sounded like a good idea, and, of course, it suggested that I add a few of my friends to its data base. They could make up their minds if they wanted its services, so there was no pressure. Since then, I've received reminders of birthdays similar to what those for Myra. Sometimes the birthdays are those of people I don't even know who somehow showed up in my Plaxo data base.

Anyway, when Myra's name came up, of course, I took note. So, I was perplexed as to how such a mistake could happen. Suddenly I remembered a similar "egg-on-the-face" incident when Myra had written two years ago and told me all about her new granddaughter. I'd written back and congratulated her, making some comment about which of her daughters had this new kid. To which Myra Lewis wrote back and told me she really hadn't had any new granddaughters---recently, at least.

The new granddaughter actually belonged to another Myra from Sagle, one whom I've known for a long time but one with whom I rarely correspond by email. Yup, that was an embarrassing situation, when I had not even acknowledged the real Myra's granddaughter and had unwittingly added one to the nest of the other Myra.

So, it happened again. Plaxo needs to put last names when they remind us of birthdays. And, Marianne needs to remember that she has two friends named Myra. And, Myra Converse would like to know how Plaxo knows that her birthday was yesterday cuz after I called her and wished her a happy birthday, she wondered how I knew. So, I told her about Plaxo, and she appeared to have never heard of the service.

Here's something official. Both Myra's are very nice ladies. Both have only one birthday per year----Myra Lewis's is in February, and Myra Converse's is in June. And, when Myra Converse sends me a note to tell me that she has another new granddaughter next week, I'm gonna remember this time who's talking to me---but I'm not going to tell Plaxo.

The last official item is that I sure screwed up yesterday, but I don't feel so bad about it cuz nobody suffered from the mixup, and when all was said and done, I got to talk to two Myra's, which, in both cases, was a pleasure.