I guess you could call me a wee babe in the world of texting. I only gained texting abilities but a tender four weeks ago and still find myself getting used to the new-fangled form of communication. I’ll save my opinions about texting itself for another day—today I simply want to apologize for calling people “HO”s. Yes, HOs. You see, one of the things I’m still getting used to on my miniscule keyboard is typing the “Function” button to get symbols and the “Shift” button to get capitals. I mix the two up frequently. Usually that’s not a problem; however, there is one scenario in which I get myself into trouble…and that is the oh-so-cute smiley face. : ) Yes, the ragingly-popular little colon followed by parentheses that has become as common in our written vernacular as the words “the” and “lol” (which, although granted is not yet a word in the dictionary, very shortly will be). You see, the buttons that contain the “:” and the “)” happen to be the letters “H” and “O.” So, in my frequent feeble attempts at being a fast texter, I end up with “HO” instead of “: )” which provides for some pretty funny situations.
“I’ll let you know after the date HO”
“Yes, please! HO”
“You’re so smart HO”
It’s bad enough that I’m accidentally calling people ho’s, but the fact that it’s capitalized makes it even worse. Like it’s not strong enough without the capitalization. I’m just glad I haven’t started using texting as a way of communicating with my parents or grandma yet. I’m looking forward to the Christmas season and with it the more common usage of HO-HO-HO that might allow people to mistake it for a sudden burst of Christmas spirit or something. So anyway, I guess the point of all this is that if you get a text from me in which I call you a HO, please don’t take it personally. : )
--Heather
