"Surprise?"

So last night just before 10, I was half asleep on the couch, laptop in my lap, when a "ping" alerted me to an incoming e-mail.

It was from a Canadian pregnancy and parenting magazine -- which, for obvious reasons, I haven't touched for years.

"Your Pregnancy: Week 5: Taking Care of You." it read.

WTF?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I said to dh "What the...??!!!" and showed him the e-mail.  

"Umm, is there something you're not telling me?" he said.  

"I'm almost 52 years old, with not exactly a stellar track record in these matters. What do YOU think??" 

The first line of the e-mail reads, "Still trying to process the fact that you're pregnant?" And a little below, a section that reads:  "Surprise?... If your pregnancy was planned, you're probably feeling overjoyed right now. If, however, you were taken by surprise by that plus sign on the pregnancy test, you probably have some mixed emotions right now. You're not alone."

Needless to say, "surprise" doesn't even BEGIN to describe what I was feeling at that moment. Was someone playing a cruel joke on me?

I thought about sending a return e-mail saying, "You are barking up the WRONG tree, people!" Instead, I just clicked on the "unsubscribe" button and went to bed, shaking my head.

Then, this afternoon, I logged into Facebook -- and there was one of my ALI friends posting that SHE had received the exact same e-mail. Many of her friends chimed in that they, too, had received an e-mail, and that, if the buzz on Twitter was any indication, half the female population of Canada had too.  

There is nothing about it on the magazine's website at the moment -- but they did post an apology on their Facebook page, saying they are trying to get to the bottom of what happened. Some people think it's hilarious -- but not surprisingly, there are also quite a few people who are (quite rightly) pissed off, many of them mentioning infertility & miscarriages, and many wondering how the heck their names got on this particular mailing list. I'm guessing it's either some weird technical glitch, or some hacker's idea of a practical joke.

But it's comforting to know I wasn't the only one.