acronyms

my favorite acronym story comes from a friend of mine, whose mother was apparently having trouble keeping up with the current vernacular and had somehow had come to believe that "LOL" stood for Lots of Love.  unfortunately, he didn't know that was her misconception; he just found it disturbing when he opened up his email one morning to find the following message from her:  "hey honey.  your great-uncle passed away last night.  LOL."

we've been LOL-ing recently at liam, who has become quite attuned to the acronyms all around him.  he's mastered most of the sports ones like RBI and TD and ESPN, and also took a liking to ASAP.  but it was last week at the beach, with 20+ of my relatives for our annual family vacation, when he really latched onto one.  after hearing a few of my cousins talking, he turned to me with a quizzical look on his face.  "what does 'FYI' mean?" he asked me.  "i keep hearing everyone say it."  when i explained it to him, a smile spread across his face.  "cool!  i'm going to start using that too ... FYI."

nine days later, and there's no sign of him stopping.  "i brushed my teeth this morning FYI," he'll announce.  or, "FYI the ocean is salty," he'll state, to no one in particular.  or, "i like to eat oatmeal for breakfast FYI," even though no one has asked.  i'm sure it's just one more way he can feel older, more mature, more worldly.  (and if it's not immediately obvious how much older, simply wait a few moments.  "i'm six-and-eleven-twelfths FYI," he'll inform you.)

but i'm not complaining.  we'll ride this FYI train as long as it will have us.  i'm afraid the WTF station is awaiting us in the not-so-distant future, and once we're there, there ain't going to be much LOL-ing to be found.