AFFIRM?

Betcha Didn’t Know # 44: The letter ‘A’ has duel meaning in the Lyle Household. It carries much more authority and conviction that the rest of the letters in the alphabet.

Back in high school, my friend Shelly and I decided we wanted to stop saying “I swear” all of the time.

“I swear he likes you.”

“I swear she said that.”

You get the picture. So, we started using the word affirm instead. If you “affirmed” something, it was better than promising…better than a pinky swear…your word was as good as gold.

A year or so later, I met Jeff and filled him in on this method of eliminating doubt. He must have really liked me, because he agreed to play along with my crazy antics. Of course, Jeff finds the loop hole in everything, so eventually, if he didn’t want to admit to something, he would just say “AFFIRN”…or some variation that rhymed.

That is when I started requiring spelling.
Me: You made an A on your Tax Exam? Affirm?
Jeff: Yes. Affirm.
Me: Spell it.
Jeff: A-F-F-I-R-M

Although the mandatory spelling definitely closed the loop hole, somewhere along this 10 year journey of a relationship, we got real jobs and real careers. And we decided that if someone overheard us spelling out AFFIRM on the phone, we may be considered…how do you say…WEIRD! So we agreed that the full Affirm could be dropped...the spell out could be dropped...we would just go with ‘A’.

If you were eavesdropping on our conversation on any given night, this is what you would hear…
Me: Did you lock the front door?
Jeff: Yes.
Me: A?
Jeff: A.
It is funny, because it doesn’t even faze him anymore.