Philip Seymour Hoffman

So there I was shopping for one-of-a-kind, clip-on earrings in Pomegranate, an upscale, edgy boutique in La Jolla Village, CA, when I heard my iPhone chirp. That meant I had received an email alert. I usually don’t rush to check news flashes, especially when I am picking out accessories to wear.

Something made me do it this time. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The CNN alert said “Philip Seymour Hoffman Found Dead.” Then without thinking, I repeated what I had read out loud. “No!” yelled a very attractive, silver-haired woman in her late 60s who was just a few feet away from me. “That can’t be. I am friendly with his mother. I just spoke to her. I live right near her in Rochester.”

I felt so awful. My outburst had thrown this woman into a frenzy. I watched her drop the clothes she picked out to buy and reach inside her handbag for her cell. She quickly walked out of the store.

Everything seemed so surreal. I was the reason why someone else was in pain. I didn’t mean it but still felt like I did it on purpose because I wanted to share the horror of what I read.

I think a lot about email alerts because I get so many: CNN, AP, USA Today, Huffington Post, NY Times, WSJ, People, Twitter. I voluntarily sign up for all of them. When something happens in the world, they all go into action. The problem with email alerts is that they get flashed so fast you can barely read them. It is impossible to retrieve an alert because most of the time the site that sent it doesn’t even have it posted. This drives me crazy.

I looked outside of the store for the woman, but she was nowhere in sight. I walked back in to finish up the transaction I had started to purchase three pairs of earrings. There I had been joyfully buying jewelry when something tragic had just occurred. I started to feel very strange.

We just don’t know what is going to happen from one minute to the next. Scary, isn’t it?