How to correspond with men over email.

Take note!

Ottessa Moshfegh

Mar 18, 2026

∙ Paid

Hi all,

I’m hiding from everything this month as I preapre to crash into the end of the novel I’m currently working on. Sorry I’ve been a little out of touch. I haven’t forgotten about all this.

Last night I did some digging into old correspondence and pulled out a few email threads that I thought were sort of entertaining. They’re from 2006. Basically, this was what it was like to email me twenty years ago, IF you were a dude I wasn’t trying to date.

Enjoy!

xoxo

Ottessa

“Last night I just got drunk and ate an entire deep fried fish.”

'Young Woman Relaxing', 1894, Oil on canvas, 41 x 55 cm. by Francesc Masriera y Manovens -1842-1902- — 'Young Woman Relaxing', 1894, Francesc Masriera y Manovens

Sun, Jun 11, 2006, 4:26 PM

Dave → Ottessa

Ottessa,

I enjoyed talking with you the other night. Give me a call sometime if you want to hang.

Dave
347 922 XXXX

Mon, Jun 12, 2006, 9:41 PM

Ottessa → Dave

hi Dave,

nice to talk to you too. tho i do think i was really far too drunk
to give any proper impression... (remember when i was crying? god.)
what happened after i left--anything good?

ya sure: let’s get together sometime.

bedtime,
ottessa

Fri, Jun 16, 2006, 12:45 PM

Dave → Ottessa

I hope you are feeling better now. After you left everybody formed a
circle around my brother in law who proceeded to break-dance. The
head-spin was quite impressive.

Tue, Jun 20, 2006, 6:53 AM

Ottessa → Dave

Break-dancing: maybe you won’t believe this, but as a young girl I was
a master double-dutcher and could whip around my jump-rope like a
fast-forwarding mosquito. I could even do the solo-rope free-standing
flips and double swing before landing in a split. It was my passion.
I competed nationally and then a cruiseship manager tried to recruit
me as part of this onboard carnival act. Of course my mother flipped
out. “Do your homework,” she said. Good riddance, I guess.

How’re you?

(Never heard back from him.)

Next up, some post-Halloween 2006 banter with a guy who was older and married. We were flirt-friends at work. A few years later, once he was divorced, we dated for a minute, but just a minute, I think.

Wed, Nov 1, 2006

Ottessa → Benicio

I ended up being a pregnant party girl instead for Halloween.
Last night I just got drunk and ate an entire deep fried fish.
Also, Benny, I saw the new Herzog movie. I think it’s something you could get into.
What the hell is going on with you.