"Pony for Sale"

Although we both work hard at our respective jobs, Roland and I still find time to communicate via email at least a couple times a day. Early on, our emails had tentative and boring subject lines such as:

1. "Message"
2. "Good Afternoon"
3. "Hi"
4. "Wednesday Movie Night?"

After things got serious, our emails became less so:

1. "Love you!"
2. "Sweet like a Dinosaur"
3. "Meow"

Then, one day, I sent Roland a now infamous email with the seemingly harmless and par-for-the-course nonsensical subject line of "Pony for Sale." The only problem was that Roland hadn't told me he was headed into a presentation where his computer would be hooked up to a projector for his coworkers to see. Of course, as soon as he got everything set-up and was about to close down his other programs, my email popped up with a loud "ding" and Outlook displayed "Pony for Sale" in the right hand corner, magnified to about 2 feet on the projector wall. Poor Roland got a lot of crazy looks during that meeting.

Flustered but ever good-humored, Roland sent me an email to explain what had happened as soon as he got back to his desk. The title of his email: "DO YOU LOVE SWEET BABY PONIES AS MUCH AS I DO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11"

We decided that from that point on, we should disguise our silly emails with serious, business-oriented subject lines in case an email ever popped up again at an inopportune moment. (Which worked out well, because a week later I was showing my boss some reports when Roland checked-in). Now our emails appear slightly more professional, if sometimes only at first glance:

Kate to Roland (the Design Engineer):

1. "Layout Meeting and Design Specs"
2. "Exciting Update in the World of Semiconductors"
3. "Calculator Quarterly Report"
4. "The Link Between Semiconductors and Semi-trucks: Semi"
5. "Important Engineering-Related Question"

Roland to Kate (Marketing/Promotions for a Bookstore)

1. "Sales Figures"
2. "Donate to my Personal Library"
3. "To Engineer a Bookworm"
4. "Books for Tots: Tax Deductible Donation Event"
5. "Important Book-Related Question"

These worked out pretty well for us, but now that we've learned to simply filter spousal emails to a separate folder so they don't pop-up, we can be more relaxed. I recently received an email requesting a campaign to end the serious problem of "Manatee Illiteracy," and Roland may now have one waiting for him called "Semiconductors and Squids: How Squishy Sea Creatures are Redefining Electrical Engineering."

Won't You Help Us Learn to Read??