Ah, Young Love...

Greg's Ninth Birthday

...sort of.

You may know that Abby and her friend Greg are very close. They decided years ago that they would get married when they grow up, although their respective ages (he's six months older than she) when said happy event is to occur varies from eighteen and fresh out of high school all the way to their mid-twenties (which would make parents much happier). Greg's parents are among my favorite people in the world, and while Greg makes Lizzy look calm and reserved by comparison, he's a sweet boy with a good heart.

A&G @Leanna's Birthday 2011

They met when Greg was just eight, and Abby was seven-and-a-half, and according to Abby they loathed each other on sight for a whole afternoon. By the next day they were fast friends, holding hands and swapping Silly Bands and generally acting like pre-pubescent soul mates. Greg has been featured in this blog more often than any of Abby's other friends, and as we tend to refer to her friends as "Abby's Fan Club," that's saying something. They are legion because she too is a good-hearted soul, and people just like her as a rule. It's a useful quality.

A&G at a Game Night in 2012

Tonight I asked Greg's dad if he had a cell phone or other texting mechanism. He does; it's not a phone but it does about everything else. So he and Abby were happily texting away - thank goodness for unlimited texts - when Abby said she was going to go to bed (the 9:30 cutoff has been relaxed now that school is out). About ten minutes later she texted me from her room (natch) to say that she was going to go to sleep now. About ten minutes after that she got a text from an email address that included a picture. It was a single fuzzy orange square in a black field, and I discovered that I can only block her texts in and out if they're from a number, not an IM acting as an SMS. Okay.

Twenty minutes later she gets another one, and I reply to it, saying that the sender must cease sending texts to this number. Then Abby gets a text from Greg, saying that he got this creepy message asking him to cease sending things to her. Oh. Ohhhh... so Greg got a lesson in Web etiquette (always identify yourself when sending from a given account the first time), Abby got the same lesson, and Mom got the chance to realize that unfamiliar accounts are not always evil.

Good lesson, and it also taught me some stuff that I will be needing next week when I start a new job at my cell phone carrier.