A Great Big Thanks to everyone who visited me yesterday for my big SITS Day in the sun!
I am overwhelmed that my little blog received over 1,600 hits yesterday and hundred of comments. I’m working on sending everyone a proper thank you for your visit. I so appreciate it!
The May edition of our small town newspaper came out today. And nope, it’s still not online. And because I want a copy of my monthly articles, I am sticking them on this here blog.
This month’s article is custom written for the good folks who live in our little town. But if you happen to be from a small farming community, you’re sure to appreciate the humor. For security purposes, I’ve changed the name of our town and some of the points of interest. But if you’re from here, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about.
Enjoy!
*************************************************************************************
I must apologize. I missed the deadline to submit my April article. I don’t usually miss that type of thing. All right, I do sometimes. But I had a really good excuse. I upgraded my cell phone and signed up for unlimited texting!
As usual, I’m a little behind on this cell phone stuff. My old phone was consistently on the verge of battery death, stuffed somewhere in the bowels of my purse. On the rare occasion that it did get charged, I had a chorus line of messages from telemarketers waiting to be “deleted“, “saved in the archives” or “replayed“. My friends knew better than to leave a message on my cell phone and definitely knew there was no chance that I was familiar with texting. I was a virtual cellular technology dinosaur.
But as my circle of friends has grown here in Cowpoke, I’m finding that more and more of them are “Texters”. So when my husband suggested that maybe I’d like to get a phone I could text with, I caved.
I spent the last couple of weeks engaged in Texting Proficiency 101. I figured out how to space between words, capitalize letters, and backspace. But I found that it takes up so much time writing out all my sentences with correct spelling, proper grammar and punctuation. My daughter would watch me fumbling around on my miniature keyboard with distain in her eyes.
“Geez, Mom. Why don’t you use abbreviations? It’s so much faster!”
My knowledge of abbreviations was limited to the universal LOL (Laughing Out Loud) and ROFL(Rolling On Floor Laughing). So, as I do with all things unfamiliar, I Googled “texting abbreviations”. A whole new world opened up to me! I made myself a little cheat sheet on a sticky note and stuck it on the back of my phone. I can’t say that it’s any faster for me to un-stick the paper, look up the abbreviation and type it out than it is for me to write out the entire word, but it’s pretty fun.
Included in my list are these fine and useful abbreviations:
G2G Got to Go
JK Just Kidding
MTFBWY May the Force Be With You (trust me, in a house full of Star Wars fans, it comes in handy)
PLZ Please
L8R Later
SRY Sorry
THNX Thanks
PUKS Pick Up Kids
KROS Kid Reading over Shoulder
IBL I’ll Be Late
ADL Article Deadline Looming (Just a little reminder to myself)
As I was thinking about the efficiency of texting abbreviations, I had a thought. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a universal list of abbreviations specifically for our community here in Cowpoke? I present you with my list of Cowpoke Texting Abbreviations:
GV! Go Vikes!
CTSBST Can’t Text Stuck Behind Slow Tractor (Please never text while driving. Have your teenage passenger do it for you)
CLSAR Case Lot Sale at Ridley’s
ABBDTFFBS At Burger Boy Drive Thru For Fresh Banana Shake
LLIBY Livestock Loose in Back Yard
CUAHSC See You at Hunter Safety Class
MBBDCSPFD Must Be Burn Day Can’t See Past Front Door
4HMAS 4-H Meeting After School
WBHISSB Wind Blowing Hard I Smell Sugar Beets
JBHCFN Just Bought Half a Cow From Neighbor
Feel free to write them down on your own sticky note and share them with your “Texting” friends here in town. And if you come up with some of your own, email them to me and I’ll share them in next month’s article. And PLZ keep them clean, because I may have KROS. L8R!
**************************************************************************
I can’t bring myself to use LOL. Ever. If I am indicating a laugh, I always say “Ha!”
Great article. I live in a small town AND I’m technology-impaired, so I can definitely relate.
I need a new cell phone too! I’m in that battery dying all the time stage and I have to leave it plugged in basically all the time. Still, I’m scared of all the new phones and all they do. I don’t text, and don’t even know who I would text. I really only use my phone for phone calls. What a concept!
Love the picture on the side bar of the Salt Lake temple. Really beautiful.
The kids are gorgeous too!
Happy SITS day, one day late!
Good article. And sooooo exciting about your spotlight. I stopped by last night to see how many comments and was blown away! Yay!
My favorite abbreviation? LLIBY and CUAHSC – you KNOW I’ll be using those soon!
XOOX
Jen
That was a great article. You are such a great writer! I’m not a texter, either. I’m so slow! A few months back I caved too and purchased myself a Blackberry. I LOVE IT! It has the internet so I can facebook and check Google Reader wherever I am. What more do I need?
Great acronyms! Very creative. My teen borrows my phone to text her friend. A two minute “borrow” turns into a two hour texting marathon. I have to pry the phone away, then I have to change my settings cause in boredom she makes the background a picture of her and changes my ringtone and organizes my pictures, etc.
Too funny Wendy. We just began texting with an unlimited family plan in February. My poor teens were nearly the last in their entire world without the ability to text at will. I will admit it has been convenient, it has also been bothersome, and one of my twins lost the use of her phone or the privilege of carrying it to school after she was caught texting in her Algebra 2 honors class………silly girl. It’s a brave new world out there.
Texting is SO convenient. I have a good friend who still hasn’t gotten with the program, and I’m afraid it’s all to easy to leave her out of the loop!
Love the article. And I’m glad you enjoyed your day yesterday.
That’s fun. Of course I ummm don’t know how to text either. And I refuse to pay for it. So far…. I may beg Verizon to change my plan after last month’s disaster 🙂
And I had no idea that the Viking love went that far west. Way cool!
Very funny stuff – and kinda helpful too! Go Vikes? Are you from MN??? Nahhhh – Happy Friday; )
xJ
MaidenShade.wordpress.com
Visiting here from SITS. It sounds like you live in a town like I’m use to. I do not live in Shiner, TX but tons of family does. This post made me laugh thinking of them or myself for that matter texting. At least now I know if I get texting activated on my phone I can google for help.
I’m visiting from SITS, better late than never, right?
Anyhow, I have really enjoyed browsing your blog. Your photos are absolutely stunning!!
Oh, and the commenter who complained about your castrating post should visit Pioneer Woman (one of my favorite blogs too). Sheesh, you’re mild compared to Ree!
🙂
I read your article in the Gazette today and saw that you had a blog to go with it! How fun for you to do this (instead of laundry)! I love blogging, not sure I’m up to par on the whole texting thing though. I look forward to reading your upcoming articles! Good luck!
-Jami Wyatt
jwyattphotography.com
p.s. nice pics 🙂
What fun acronyms! If it weren’t for Jack texting me a couple of weeks ago, and Barbara coaching me how to respond, I could say I had never texted, but I am never too late or old to learn. Thnx for the fn read. See you soon.
We’re not quite as rural as that, but a few of those abbreviations could have come in handy.
I am just catching up with my featured SITS bloggers, and glad to have stopped by.
Ms. Mama