not-that-Carol

That's how I sign frequent emails. I don't think of my name as being so common, but in this technologically connected world, it doesn't take long to bring us all together.

Gmail started in 2004 by invitation only. I asked my brother to send me an invite. I looked back and my first message from Gmail is dated 11/22/04,

"First off, welcome. And thanks for opening a Gmail account. We hope that Gmail will become something you use everyday."

Ten years later, that hope has been realized.

The address I signed up for was of the form: carol.last@gmail.com. The period separating the names is unrecognized so that any mail addressed to carollast@gmail.com comes to me. I get quite a bit of it and not just from commercial email accounts but from real people trying to get in touch with some other Carol.

I have received photos of someone's great aunt and somebody else's kid on the soccer field. I am on the email list of a symphony in New Zealand. One Carol wanted to buy property in Georgia and one was car shopping in California. I get invitations to hen parties in Pennsylvania and fundraiser picnics at Lismore Castle. There have been notices that I rented a car in Florida. I was cc'd on an email giving Father Tom comments on the order of service for a funeral.

And the latest, if you care to look at the picture, the Royal Mail successfully delivered to me a package from FIVER LONDON LTD.

The sad thing is that I'd love to chat with the Carol in Pennsylvania or Georgia or California or New Zealand or England. I just don't know her correct email address.