Yesterday was my birthday!
And some years on my birthday I write in-depth, useful posts, like how to make your birthday meaningful, or about dreaming new dreams.
Yesterday I shared 47 things you might not know about me. And today I thought I’d continue the birthday treatment by sharing something where the main message to me is “just don’t take yourself too seriously.”
And I thought I’d let you see the dangerous side of blogging and writing!
EXHIBIT A: The Seriously Dangerous Group Text Scenario
A little while ago I was looking over some of the earliest posts on this blog and debating whether I should rework them. I came across rather a funny anecdote in one to do with my daughter Katie when she was 11, and decided to text it to my daughters.
So I opened my messages app on my Mac, and I found the first text where I saw both of their heads.
And I texted them this message:
Now, Katie happened to be home the day I texted that. She was right upstairs in fact (I could have just called her downstairs and avoided texting altogether). And as soon as I hit send, she screamed.
“MOTHER!!!! What did you do?!?!?”
I didn’t understand what she as so upset about, until I looked at that group text–and realized that one of her best friends, who happens to be male, was ALSO in that particular group conversation.
He actually thought it was hilarious. Katie thought I was just insane.
But it reminded me of another instance–with another one of Katie’s friends.
EXHIBIT B: In Which I Text a Teenager By Accident
This one happened when I was writing the final edits for The Good Girl’s Guide to Great Sex.
It was due in at the publisher’s in the middle of a speaking tour in Alberta. I managed to finish it in time, but a few days later my editor got back to me to say that she’d like to see some of the “Good Girl’s Dares” that I’d offered to write: short little fun things that wives can do to spice things up.
Now it so happened that on the day she asked I also had two different columns due and a lot of travel time, and very little time in a hotel with a computer. So I decided to write them on my Blackberry in the car. I did, and later copied them and pasted them into an email on my Blackberry which I then sent to myself so I could edit them on my computer and send them off.
Now, my-then 2011 Blackberry was new and I hadn’t figured out how to lock it. It kept calling my husband by accident, for instance.
So here’s what happened just a few days later. My girls were in a Bible quizzing invitational tournament in upstate New York. We left early so we could meet up with some friends at a big mall, so the teenage girls could shop for a few hours before the competition. I took my friend Kathy’s cell number so I could text her when we got there and we could meet up. Which I did, as soon as we arrived.
Kathy then gave her cell phone to her 15-year-old daughter, and the five teenage girls (including my two) went off together, while Kathy and I explored.
An hour later I looked down at my cell phone only to see, to my horror, my list of rather explicit things wives could do to spice things up. It had been texted. To Kathy’s phone. Which our daughters had.
Somehow a combination of Kathy’s number being the last to be texted, and the text to my publisher being the last thing copied, made for a very dangerous combination.
When I realized what I had done, I yelled out for Kathy, and in horror explained what I had just sent her daughter. She took it much better than I did.
When we met up with the girls we got their take. I guess they read about five before they decided they had better stop. Rebecca figured it had something to do with my book and thought it was funny. Kathy’s daughter thought it was hilarious. The other mom with us wanted me to text it to her, too. But my youngest just said I had a dirty mind.
Let me reiterate: Bible quizzing. Teenage girls. Marriage sex dares. How do I get myself into these things?
Here are just a few:
Want to See More Good Girl Dares?
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It’s a great book (my favourite I’ve ever written!) with everything about how to make sex great physically, emotionally, AND spiritually. And it has these gems sprinkled throughout!
Get your copy here. Because good girls do have more fun!
The moral of the story? Sometimes we just do seriously embarrassing things. Everyone else may think they’re hilarious, but they really are quite embarrassing. But you know what? Time goes on anyway. And the memories fade. And sometimes it’s just good to look back and laugh at yourself anyway!
Have you ever had a serious misstep with texting? Let me know in the comments!
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