Oh wow, I didn't even look at different *types* of ginger. I was just going to grab some healthy looking ginger root from Whole Foods, plunk it in some dirt, and hope for the best . Did I mention, I don't do much gardening?

Thanks for the tip about mint! I love mint... that could be really fun to try too!

Sorry that you're having to see so much of your mom lately. That would drive me nuts. My mom is actually traveling, out of the country, so I'm getting by with just an email for M-day!

That would be hard for me too, having my mom show up an event. Didn't you go through something similar last year? I seem to remember something posted on the forums, maybe you invited your mom for an afternoon, but she wanted to stay for the whole weekend? I'm probably getting it confused with something else.

I think that it's a bit early to start worrying, you'll just cause yourself stress. You forwarded her the email... did she say anything? I think if she doesn't reply at all, you don't need to say anything else about it. The ball is sort of in her court, and if she doesn't reply, and she ends up finding out that you went, you can just honestly say, "Oh, I didn't think you were interested, you didn't reply when I sent the email."

Maybe she won't reply!

But I know, it's frustrating. I have those moments too, where I say something to someone, then realize that this is the last person I should have shared with. Sometimes I just get swept up in the conversation, and don't realize until later that I didn't want to share something (or commit to something!)

So... are the annoying interactions actually annoying while they're happening? Like, you're uncomfortable and annoyed when you're talking to people? Or is it just when you're trying to craft a reply? I sometimes spend too long on replies too... I just did that with something from my boss last week. He sent out a (frustrating) email asking for help with something that he had just emailed us about a couple months ago. Someone had tracked down the info for him then. And, I assume he deleted it and forgot about it, and is completely unable to actually use our intranet to search for anything himself . I had the old email, so I replied to everyone (to make sure no one else wasted time looking for it), but I wanted to give credit to the person who found it last time... but I did NOT want to sound like I was chastising my boss for not keeping it (though I'd like to!). So I got a little stuck trying to say, "here's what you asked for. This is what so-and-so sent out a few months ago." Bah.

I don't know, I guess for stuff like that I've come to realize that it's more important to ME than the person receiving it, usually. My boss really very rarely cares. I put a million times more thought into the words I use than he ever does when reading them (or replying, for that matter). So, when I catch myself doing that, I try to back up and just say what I need to, and not overwrite it.

Do you realize what's happening when you do it? Or do you just get into trying to get it right, and then realize you've wasted an hour and still haven't sent anything? Maybe realizing it in real time is a first step?

Although, I have to say, I would be SO incredibly annoyed at that woman you're dealing with, the one who didn't bother replying to you, but is now trying to schedule meetings. I'd be very tempted to resend the email, but cc the whole team! That's probably uncalled for though at this point. I'd probably email her again, and try to assume she didn't get the first one (either it got lost, or she meant to reply and it got buried). I'd still be upset though, it really sucks when you can't get your work done because somebody else can't be bothered to reply! That's just rude on her part!

Oh, and with the long email that came through about why you shouldn't actually meet... I've seen people reply to things like that with a simple "Agree." and that's it. Especially if it was all explained clearly, no need to be fancy and re-explain it all, it just lets everyone know where you stand and supports the original emailer.

It does sound stressful to deal with all that stuff. Did you ever get any kind of response to the promotional materials you designed?! And, is this the group you were going to try to step back and act non-committed, like everyone else on the board?

Thanks for the congrats, the board game group has been pretty fun. A little stressful to get everything done around the house before I go (it's Sunday evenings, 2x/month), but fun. I'm glad that it's only twice a month! Enough to meet regularly, but not feel like it's taking up every weekend!

And, ugh. It's so hot feeling here. Almost 90. I was out trying to do errands, and just feel totally drained. I need to move somewhere cooler! I'm really over living in the South!

Hope you got to do something fun this weekend!