what?

recently - not so recently, really, but in the last year or so - the baron has taken to sending text messages from her mobile phone rather than taking the extra time to make a phone call.

this - texting - works for her for a number of reasons, including that the baron has always preferred email communication to actual talking on the phone. (in fact, the husband initially courted the baron almost entirely via email... and for their first christmas together, in december 2002, she gave him a hard copy print out of all their correspondence to that point.) there are very few people with whom the baron wants to talk on the phone... sending off a quick, declarative sentence or a quick question seems to her an optimal choice.

ahem.

it hasn't been super easy for her, you should know, reader. though she grew up in the post-atari age, she never really got good at video games the way some of her peers did; the dexterity required to make quick, deft and relatively short finger movements doesn't come naturally to her. (this is why, if ever you've sent her a text message, it takes her awhile to get the reply back to you. that, and she has this phone; not so easy to pick out letters on the razr.)

ahem.

so, the baron likes the idea of texting, but isn't good at it, but she's game and is trying to capture the zeitgeist and get with the program.

but.

somethings she just cannot abide. somethings like this [on the topic of wedding invitations and rsvp cards]:

"the baron: 'Just got the invite! So pretty!"

respondent: "!im scared sum1s invite unraveled. i rcvd a reply card mailed 2 me with no info on it."

what? is. that. supposed to be? the thing is, the baron's brain would not have been able to make those words... for her, the message read like a word puzzle, one that was hard and that she sucked at. don't misunderstand, reader: the baron takes PLENTY of liberties with the english language (these all-lower-case sentences, for instance! her liberal use of the word 'hacky', as in 'oh, god, this angel season 3 is sooooo hacky.'). there's only so far she can take it, though, and into the realm of letters and numbers and punctuation joining together to make single words is TOO FAR. so. don't expect any shortened words from her, reader, oh, no. you'll be getting the whole, long, bloody mess EVERY TIME.