Joke's on Me.

Today, I learned that the acronym "JK" stands for "Just Kidding."

Those who saw my gchat status know that up until a few hours ago, I understood "JK" to stand for "Joking," or "JoKing" (if this isn't incentive for you lame-os without gchat to get it, I don't know what is.). As one who uses the term "JK" at least daily, and usually many many times per day, I experienced an intense WTF (that means What the Fuck, right???) moment. WHO KNEW?! I asked my fellow gchatters. Well:

Hadley knew.
Daniel Skora knew.
Katie Jenkins knew.
My boss Anne Johnson knew.
My coworker Frank Impelluso knew.
Marisa knew.
Christine Murphy knew.
Jesse knew.
Andy Boroson knew.
Beej knew.
Lucy Huggins knew.
Rach knew.

I'm not JKing about this. This is no JoKe.

Quite the gchat (that stands for googlechat right???) response I got. Anyway, as stupid as I felt--and I mean, let's be straight: I deserve to feel really stupid--some good has come of it. My mistake has brought to light other dbag(that's short for douchebag, right?!)esque errors that otherwise bright, functioning human-beings have made:

My really-smart dad, for example, thinks that "brb" stands for "bathroom break," no matter how often I tell him. He really must think I have bladder issues. (A barely-related aside: I think it's weird when my academic, professorial father uses abbreviations. Luckily, these only appear on few-and-far-between text messages or random gchat conversations: "how r u," "Luv u" "Thx grl." NEtime, dad. xoxo.)

One friend (who will remain nameless, except that her name starts with an m and ends with arisa) thought that the acronym LMAO was simply a common misspelling of "lame-o." LMAO, for those who don't know (I didn't), actually stands for "laughing my ass off." When she told me, you better believe I did a little l(ing)mao at that lame-o (Jk, jk (that's: JUST KIDDING), Marisa).

She also told me about her friend, one "Steve," who for many years confused "LOL" (we all know this one, folks: Laugh out Loud), with "Lots of Love." Thus when Steve meant to send "lots of love" when he signed off on emails, people just thought he found emailing really funny.

So, I guess I'm in good company?

And in that light, I'd like to take this opportunity, to invite others to come forward. No shame, people. Partly because I like you and I want you to know that there's a safe place here for you to embrace the stupidity that may dwell within, but mainly because I want to compile a list and publish a book about it and make millions of dollars. I'm like only kind of JKing about that.

O'n'O. (over and out.)

amy