LOL

...and other confusing things about nonverbal communicating...

I hate "lol". But I still use it and understand that it's necessary if you want to be accepted in the world of texting or online chatting. However, sometimes I pretend I'm smarter than I am. I still remember the first time I received an LOL from someone. I'd been tracked down on the internet somehow by an ex-boyfriend who lived out of state. It was a few years ago and I thought, ok, online chatting is harmless, and hopefully it's been long enough and he's over me...yeah right, it hadn't been a lifetime yet, so duh, preeetty sure he's not over me. J/K, lol. (please note my usage of chat shortcuts.) So, my ex-BF (continue to notice) said something maybe funny, I don't know, and then he sent me an LOL. Me in my mind: Oh crap, he's still in love with me cuz I'm pretty sure LOL means lots of love. (what else could it mean??) So I was like, WTF should I do?? So in trying to keep it cool and casual, I sent a "LOL back at you." He responded with something like, Oh good I'm glad you thought it was funny. Me in my mind: What?? He sends me love and then I try to be cool about it and send some back and then he makes it a joke??...Does he not know anything about girls emotions?!? So I said, Wow, umm, not so funny. Don't just throw that term around like that. Him: Umm...but it really was a joke, that's why I typed LOL, to make sure you knew. Finally I figured it out...and smoothed it over by saying..."yeah, I was just kidding too, haha, I'm still LOLing about it." Or should I have said I'm still LingOL? So then I made one up like, SSCBC. Which of course means, Sometimes Shortcuts Can Be Confusing.

I have to admit, most of the time when I send an LOL, I'm not really LOLing. So maybe we should invent one like, LOTI. Laughing On The Inside. Or, S. Smiling. Or, HS, Half Smile. But then the receiver might think, High School? What about High School? Cuz I use HS for that sometimes.

I wonder if we'll ever go back to using cell phones to talk to people...probably not. Oh well. Some of my best (and worst) conversations have happened in text messages. I hate hate hate talking on the phone. If I become friends with someone who doesn't text I teach them how, or I help them come to grips with the fact that it won't be a lasting friendship. Here's what made me think about this. My mom has a friend from her ward that she wanted me to get together with and chat sometime. I was fine with it, but had never met the person. Said person called me a couple days ago and I missed the call. She left a voice mail about getting together for lunch sometime this week, and at the very end she said call me back and let me know...I got this blah feeling like...man, I gotta call her...(nothing against her at all, just the thought of talking on the phone.) then she said, the thing that brought joy to my soul: OR, if you're a texter, text me and let me know your schedule. WooHoo!! Easy. I texted, we planned date, time, place, all via text and had a fab time together the next day. However, I agree that texting has changed the way of communicating. And as someone who su-ucks at communicating, texting may be ruining my life. (dramatic much?) Ok, not really, but I think there was a GC talk about it once...brb...(be right back). K, I'm back. Yeah, here it is. I didn't read it, I skimmed it, and I'm pretty sure it was the one I was thinking of.

Here's some dangers I hope none of you have to face. Imagine you're planning a party with the hottest guy/girl ever, via text. You're coming up with all these awesome ideas and you're texting them to him. He texts some feedback on your ideas and you try to sense a tone from the texts to decided how he really feels. Then he texts: Let's KISS! And you're thinking YIPEEE!!! My ideas are so awesome that they've triggered his hormones and now we're taking this whole party planning/text thing we got goin' on to the next level!!! But what he means by 'Let's KISS' is: Let's Keep It Simple, Stupid. Oopsie, sad. I could probably come up with more, but I'm getting bored. Oh, and this KISS thing didn't happen to me. But it probably could have. And then there are the fast texters (we've all done it) who forget to check their predictor, and send messages like this. "Hey, wanna come over for had cream and able?" That's suppose to be, "Hey, wanna come over for ice cream and cake?" I've had harder ones than that to try and translate.

Ok, that's all. I'm sorry if this is 4N (foreign) to some of U. BTW, (by the way) I found some web-sites with txt (text) shortcuts. Just google it. You should look them up ASAP, but really ICCL, (I couldn't care less). N E way, maybe I'll blog more 2moro. So, thx for reading. TTYL.