Love you, hate emoticons

Over in Glamour's blogosphere, there's a debate raging about each gender's annoying e-mail habits.

He hates your emoticons, you hate his brevity.

I feel your pain. Blame it on the journalist inside me: I'm a girl who takes her e-mail communications very, very seriously. When my crushes lived halfway across the country, I relied on e-mail as the primary way to prove I was a catch.

Maybe it's not something to brag about, but I've spent hours drafting e-mails to members of the opposite sex. Yes, I really do write rough drafts of my e-mails.

After a rigorous editing process, I'd proudly click "send," marveling at the witty fruits of my labor.

Hours later, I'd get an e-mail respose:

"Cool."

That's an exaggeration, but only slightly.

The scenario is annoying. But if we've learned anything from technology, it's to not take our face-to-face interactions for granted.

So yeah, in e-mail, you might not like your partner's smiley faces. Or exclamation points.

But if real-life makes you go :) and ! then you're all good.