Bad day, Good day

My day began with Stephanie telling me she believed my email address book had been hacked. What a fricking nightmare. Of course she was right. My computer sent out two rounds of emails -- one peddling viagra (Hmmm... a new profit center for me??) and one said something like "urgent" but was empty so a number of people who care about me thought something terrible had happened to me and I just had enough life left in me to send them an email as a last attempt to save myself.

Not how I envisioned spending my Thanksgiving!

So I have done a full system Norton scan (with nothing but cookies showing up), changed my password, and deleted my entire address book. I also talked to AOL tech support... well, I didn't talk, we texted. After two unsuccessful attempts with the talking computer phone tree, I gave that up. ("I don't understand what you're saying. Did you say you want to change your password?" NO NO NO)

This woman was nice -- showed me how to delete my entire address book at once, which was not intuitive, so nothing has gone out since 11:30 this morning so I hope it's over. No one was pissy with me, not even close, and many thought it was funny or had an uh-oh sort of attitude. I have to say, though, that I cringed when I saw some of the people (business contacts) who got the spam from me.

Another friend told me that when it happened to her, she was in the midst of an active job search and her spams went to all these people who she was interviewing with and her spams said, "Thought you'd enjoy these photos of my family" and there was an attachment.

So, along those same lines, from time to time I get a misdirected email from someone who must be doing some close variation of PatriciaLu on AOL --- and I got this one today, and it made me laugh. There's something odd and silly about hearing about a stranger's relatives.

This email said:

Well it's that time of year again!


Myself, Dan, Andrew, Timmy, Lisa and Sarah are all wishing you and yours the most amazing thanksgiving holiday possible. We'll be up at Dan's grandma's house for a good while enjoying the fall scenery, embracing each others company, enjoying grandma Mulleys hickory smoked bacon she loves to make. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday! See all of you soon! Christmas is right around the corner!


The Mulleys

Hey, maybe I should respond asking her to send us some of Grandma Mulley's hickory smoked bacon and have everyone over for BLTs.

So, like my new friends, the Mulleys, I hope you are enjoying your holiday and "embracing each others company."