May 29 2011
REWIND BUTTON, ANYONE?
Greetings, Cool Peeps:
You know, there isn’t a day that goes by when I don’t think about how technology has vastly changed the way we do everything. I won’t even try to give a brief mention to everything (both positive and negative) that has come from a recent technological advance. So, I just have one question: with all of the “stuff” that has been invented, why hasn’t someone figured out how to make a rewind button?
Do you know how many miserable situations could just be avoided if we could hit REWIND and go back even five seconds in time – even two? Think about the car accidents alone that could be avoided. Now that would be amazing.
But I don’t want to get too heady here. I’m just thinking about my life and about all the times when just a five-second rewind would go a really long way.
Even if you haven’t done it yourself, most of us know someone who has chatted up either a female acquaintance or stranger with the words, “So, when is your baby due?” only to receive the mortifying response, “I’m not pregnant.” Those are the moments when you either want the universe to zap you into oblivion or the ground to swallow you whole.
A friend of mine, Dina, recently ran into a former co-worker, Caleb, on the street. She smiled at the woman by his side and pleasantly said, “It’s a pleasure to meet you. I’ve heard so much about you.”
Caleb tried to say, “I don’t think that’s possible,” but Dina enthusiastically babbled on to stranger. “Oh, but Caleb used to talk about his mom all the time. He said Mother’s Day was invented just for you. And that you make the best cherry pie ever.”
And then the earth fell silent. The woman shot rays of poison at Dina and Caleb atrophied where he stood. Finally, just as the Tin Man managed to mumble “Oil Can” in the “Wizard of Oz,” Caleb mumbled, “This is my wife, Sarah, Dina.” Is that not a total duh-you-moron-rewind moment?
TV and radio shows have seven-second delays for a reason. People, including yours truly, make mistakes.
One of the worst rewind moments ever is sending an email to the wrong person. Have you ever gotten an email which you didn’t realize was sent to multiple recipients, and without realizing it, you send a personal response to everyone? That is horrific. But it gets worse.
Once, I was in a situation where I needed to warn a friend about a recent former friend who had just stabbed me in the back. Because I was still fuming over the betrayal, I chose the backstabber’s name, and not the name of my current friend, from my email list. The MOMENT I hit “Send,” that horrific, paralyzing, sinking feeling of dread overwhelmed my senses. “ARE YOU FREAKIN’ kidding me?” I screamed to the universe. I suffered for two days, waiting for payback.
A week later, I ran into the backstabber on the street. She looked right at me and said, “Molly, I deleted your email. I have no interest in any apologies you make to me.”
Normally, I would have read her the riot act, and been very clear that no apologies were ever made to someone who had done wrong to me. (Tried to steal my boyfriend!) But I didn’t care. I had been saved.
There are all kinds of rewind moments. When I kindly hold a door open for someone who does not acknowledge me, or let someone in traffic who does not wave thanks, I often wish I could rewind and take back my kindness. But then again, I wonder. Isn’t it a better world when we put our best out there, whether or not the kindness is returned?
What about you, cool peeps? How often do you wish your life had a rewind button?
See you next week.
Yours in pickiness,
Molly
Ah Molly,
Yes, what a stellar idea, if only we had a rewind button for everyday situations. The well-known phrase, in hindsight, would soon become obsolete. I quite often use that phrase.
Thank you, for another entertaining post. 🙂
Hey there, Stuart:
Your post brings up an interesting thought for sure: a long-term rewind button. While this blog was only about going back five seconds in time, now I wonder about going back years in time and changing things. That might be a little freaky, though because as we all know, even the slightest tweak in our personal histories can change our entire lives. Very sci-fi, don’t you think? Thanks for stopping by. I always love hearing from you. YIP, Molly
Hello Molly,
A friend just emailed me your link to your blog because today I went to the bank and the teller asked me “When am I due.” I was shocked as I am a small person and don’t look pregnant at all! I said to her that I wasn’t pregnant and she looked at me strangely and said, “Are you sure?”
I did have a baby two years ago ( which I said one year ago) and I may have a little bump left but not like I am pregnant. She still looked at me strangely, not believing me.
I am still in shock. A rewind button would have come in handy so I could have come up with a quicker response to the dumbfounded expression I did.
What a stupid woman she was.
I think I better get back into walking 😕
I’m off to read your other blogs now. I think I am hooked.
Thank you
Yours
Harriet 🙂
Hey there Harriet:
Nice to meet you. Are you freakin’ kidding me? If someone asked me if I were pregnant and was not, I would SO not be taking that kindly. I think life ought to come with a SLAP THAT PERSON person button. OMG, there are just so many buttons we could use. Really, right now my brain is looking like a freakin’ NASA control room with all of the possibilities. Thanks for stopping by.
Yours in pickiness,
Molly
Molly,
I am thinking you were in my house yesterday when my husband said he wished there was a “Reset Button” for certain life decisions. Hmmm it must be in the air.
I also have also sent an email to a nemesis of course by mistake. Well it turned out to work in my favor because this nemesis only revealed and validated who she really was even further.
I have enjoyed your Post 🙂 Thank You 🙂
Hey Kathleen:
What a pleasure to meet you. I’m so glad my post was timely for you. Sounds like you have a very smart husband. ha ha.
You know, sending that email to the nemesis by mistake was the universe’s way of telling you that you were right on the money where she was concerned. The universe has a way of looking out for us at times. There are many incidences in my life where I had wished I’d hit REWIND, only to realize that a greater gift came from not doing so. However, that said, that does NOT apply to every situation. I contend that we are still very much in need of a REWIND button.
Thanks so much for stopping by.
Yours in pickiness,
Molly
Molly,
My rewind moment is also, an email error. I now double and triple check before I hit the send button!
Sheri
Hey Sheri:
I’m so with you, g/f. I’m a triple checker with my email, too, but in my hectic, fast-paced life, I often move faster than my brain. And that is problematic. Always such a pleasure to see you.
YIP,
Molly
Definitely had many moments like these… I know the paralyzing feeling oh too well! Where your heart drops to the bottom of your stomach.. and it’s funny how it REALLY is the feeling in your heart and gut, literally… and how it feels like you stop breathing for a good what feels like 10 minutes…
Love your post Molly!
XO
Hey Janet:
Paralyzing is RIGHT! When I hit SEND to the wrong person, as described in the blog, I think I sat at my computer for a freakin’ half hour, just as depicted in the illustration, while the actions of my fingers caught up with my brain.
Always makes my day when you stop by!
YIP,
Molly
Hi Molly,
Long time reader, first time commenter. There have been SOOOOOO many times where I wish I could have used rewind button to get me out of of the ridiculous situations I manage to get myself into.
This does make me think about other buttons which should be created such as the “get me out of here” button which will just return me straight home, or even a “fast forward” button which I could use to pass through the very boring parts of life, which would allow me to still remember and have experienced all that I fast forward pass, but without having to sit through it all, such as 3 hour lectures at university or a 24 hour flight from London to Sydney.
That would be Bliss.
Awesome post Molly!
James Morrison
Hello, James:
I’m delighted to meet you. Thank you for stepping out of the cybershadows to introduce yourself. I love meeting my readers so very much. I do think that the most interesting of people get themselves into the most ridiculous situations. I think it is a penalty we pay for being such fascinating creatures. ha ha. Oh, my, you bring up a great point about fast-forwarding through a long flight. (Be sure to check out next week’s blog — I will be encroaching on the travel territory just a bit! 🙂
You are terrific and I’m so glad to meet you.
Yours in pickiness,
Molly
OMG —- I think *everyone* can relate to this! Molly, your comment about sending the email to the wrong person reminded me of a friend who had (thoughtlessly) decided to send a “Dear John” email to a man she’d been dating for a while. However, she had a change of heart after she sent the message, so she tried to use the “recall” function that used to be on Outlook at the time.
Not only did she *not* successfully recall the message, the poor guy ended up with 12 recall attempts! Apparently, when her requests for the recall did not go through, she kept clicking over and over, each time sending another message in his box.
Sometimes the hole’s just too deep to dig out of . . . ..
Ha ha! I’m lovin’ this story. That is one deep hole, for sure. Even a freakin’ ladder wouldn’t have helped her climb out of that one. That’s sitcom material; it so could have happened to any of us. Thanks for sharing. Awesome. YIP, Molly
Dear Molly —-
Your post reminded me of a somewhat similar email catastrophe. Since I am in the midst of a messy divorce, I was sending brief messages to my friends letting them know the latest. The only problem was that I had forgotten to add my rabbi’s name to the original list.
So I forwarded the message to him, but failed to take out the word “MoFo” that I used to refer to my x within the body of the message . .. . . . . I can so feel your pain about being nervous about the fallout! I knew I was going to hell for sure!
Turns out, two days later, he writes me back and asks me what that means. After a quick google search, I had amended Frank Zappa’s original use of the phrase, which was “The Making of Freaking Out,” and used the phrase to mean “(in the) Middle of Freaking out.” I hastened to add that the acronym had a much more vulgar meaning that I would have *never* implied because I don’t use that kind of language. Luckily for me, the rabbi accepted this explanation. And lucky for me, there was google.
Cheers to pickiness!
Caroline
Hey Caroline:
Nice to meet you. Loved your story. OMG, I have so been in your shoes. In my haste to copy and paste, I have often left in dicey words, passages & information NOT mention for the recipient. I always come up with something, but I HATE when I do that. Google can really be your friend, for sure. Thanks so much for sharing. Yours in pickiness, Molly
Hey Rebecca:
Nice to meet you. And you have my sincere sympathies. That must have been positively brutal, g/f. I have had similar experiences, but flying from New York to Japan with a flatulent seat partner? I’m surprised all of the gas masks on the plane didn’t drop down. They should have. Wow, thanks for sharing. YIP, Molly
James and Molly, I just had to chime in with one anecdote related to fast-forwarding and travel.
Imagine this:
A flight bound for Japan (I live in New York).
Stuck next to a man
who has perpetual gas . . . .
I think my vision was permanently damaged.
Nice to meet you as well, Molly! I usually just “lurk” on people’s blogs, but I felt I had to jump in on this week’s topic! If you don’t mind, I’ve got another great example of an “uh-oh” moment, dealing with family.
I was meeting my ex-husband’s parents for the first time back in 1987. Living in the very conservative rural South, tradition is often as thick as the accents. I met his entire family for the first time at his parents’ 20th wedding anniversary celebration. Trying to make conversation with my now-former monster-in-law, I asked “So what year was it again when you got married? 1967?” to which this hideous woman replied, “yes.”
Then, without even thinking, I said, so your son (my x) will be 21 next month. It will be time for another celebration!
GULP . . .. .
I didn’t even realize until I got an askew glance from the husband what I had just said. She was 8 mos. pregnant when they married, which would have been an insurmountable tragedy in those days. . .oooooooooooooopppppppppsssssssss. . . . .Open mouth, insert foot.
Ok, Molly, I don’t know if posting on this thing yesterday has put some sort of hex on me, but you are not going to believe this . . . . .
Today, after work, I decided to pick up some Chinese food on the way home. So I’m in the restaurant waiting for my food to be ready and I start flirting with a very handsome man near me. Conversation continues and it looks like I may have found a new friend.
My food is ready, so I take my wallet out of my purse to pay my bill. Except I don’t take out my wallet.
About four tampons fall out of my purse and onto the floor, right at his feet.
Rewind, indeed!
I paid my bill and left, mortified.
OMG, Rebecca. That is a classic REWIND moment if I ever heard one. That is a ground-please-swallow-me-whole moment. Thanks for sharing. You are way cool, g/f. YIP, Molly
Technology is the worst culprit and one of the biggest reasons I need a rewind button. Much like your email incident, I’ve sent IMs to the person I intended to complain about. I was able to talk my way out the first couple of times it happened, but the last time, I just told the person, yes, I meant to send that to someone else, and yes, it was about you (it was time they found out that they were making my life miserable).
Glad I stumbled on your blog – read some other posts and enjoyed them, too!
Hey Amber,
I’m so happy to meet you. Thanks for stopping by. Technology does cause many rewind moments, for sure. I’ve done the IM thing like you when I’ve been chatting with more than one person at a time. Let me tell ya — NOT a good thing to be talking to one peep about another at warp speed and not expect to mess up! 😛
Hope to see you again,
Yours in pickiness,
Molly