HNY, a friend signed off her email. HNY? What’s that? I wondered.

Since I traded my office as a public relations agency executive for an office in my house where I write in relative solitude, I often feel completely out of it when it comes to the latest trends. My writing genre choices don’t help – a memoir about my childhood in the 1950s and now historical fiction set in the early 1900s.

These days I spend my time trying to put my head in an era without electricity, a time when horse and buggies were the most common conveyance, a time when a ‘glimpse of stocking’ was something shocking. It takes a concerted effort to strip away all allusions to electricity, air travel, and sex. Actually, sex is all allusion, so that’s a different issue.

One of the things I always enjoyed about working in the public relations world was being on top of the current pop business phrases – “tipping point” and “at the end of the day,” for instance.

Alas, I find myself slipping further and further behind. The 2012 Banished Words List actually includes words I still like and use, like “Amazing!” It does not help that I don’t use a smart phone. I have a cell phone, but I seldom use it. My texting ability is limited to ‘ok.’ And I sometimes get that wrong.

Perhaps Twitter will help. I’m trying it out – @CABodensteiner. For someone who is challenged to write short blogs, having only 140 characters forces me to abbreviate.  Twitter demands I keep one toe in the 21st Century.

Hence my problem with HNY. All of a sudden, people are signing off seasonal messages with HNY. It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that meant Happy New Year.

Oh well. HNY to all of you!