What's wrong with OK?

[jsbowden]

I get asked fairly regularly how I'm going. My default response is 'OK'. People apparently have a problem with this. I don't know why. So tell me InterTubes, what the hell?

When someone hands me a check for multiple millions, we'll move from OK to fan-fucking-tastic, or maybe even out-fucking-standing, but until then? I still have to get up and go to work, so I'm doing OK. I'm OK with OK. People need to Get. Over. It.

Comments

[silmaril.livejournal.com]

Aaaand Jamie sparks a rant.

My default response is also "OK," and I used that contentedly for a long time before occasionally someone started chiming with "just OK?"

Apparently, "OK" makes you sound like you are... not all right. Or something.

Well, see, if I am not especially cheerful, if nothing in particular happened that day that made me bounce, I am going to be OK. All right. Fine. Seriously, people, that is a good thing, denotes a healthy status, and is a good answer.

So in conclusion, yup. I'm also OK with OK.

[mjschaef.livejournal.com]

Its weird that either of you have gotten push-back from saying ok. This particular question is mostly rhetorical and just a societal construct. It's just mandated pleasantry to ask someone how they are. In most cases, people WANT you to say ok, either because they don't really care or they don't have the time to listen to you talk about your life.

I could be having the worst day in the world and I would still say ok when asked how I was doing.

[ceara.livejournal.com]

My old boss would always say "Just OK? You should be fantastic! Ecstatic!" My response was usually along the lines of "Enh."

[annewashere.livejournal.com]

Grrrrrr. These people should be first against the wall, along with people that pass me in the hall and say "smile! it's not that bad!" when I'm NOT EVEN FROWNING.

[prince-corwin.livejournal.com]

GYAAHHH!

We have one person here who just can't be trained out of that. I'm just not a smiley person. We pass in the hall, he greets, I wave or nod, that's all I'm required to do by the rules of Chicago civility. I am not, goddammit, required to stop and smile explicitly at him to show how goddam cheerful I am, unless, by God, something extraordinary has happened to make me cheerful!

And frankly, even then, he's not the kind of person I'd go out of my way to share good news with unless it was explicitly related to a project he and I are both on.

And the ironic thing is, this guy has nothing good to say about anyone, ever! No, seriously, I know what you're thinking, I'm the same, but I'm not. This guy is a constant fountain of doom, gloom, depression and idiocy, and he takes everyone else to task for not spreading cheer!

GYAH!

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Smile like my icon and reply, "Oh, yes, it is, you just don't know it yet."

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

It's not an answer. But then, "How are you?" or "How's it going?" aren't really questions, either. So if people get upset, tell them, "Well, i was OK until you got in my face about some dumb shit."

[orzelc.livejournal.com]

I was talking with a student a few months ago, who said she was from Memphis. So, I asked her how she liked being in the Northeast.

"It's really weird," she said. "People up here will as you how you're doing, but they don't care..."

The real reason for posting, though, was this:

Current Music: Fury in the Slaughterhouse - Radio Orchid

Dude.
I thought I was the only one who bought that album.

[jsbowden.livejournal.com]

Nope, we've had this conversation at least once before. Love that album.

[thormation.livejournal.com]

The best response to someone who doesn't like "okay" (or in my case "not too bad") is to fuck with them. Just respond to their inane "How's it going?" with a matter-of-fact "Sparkles and rainbows". By the time they parse that, you can be around the corner and gone.

[leighdb.livejournal.com]

I've recently taken to answering this question with an absolutely deadpan, "Groovy-groovy."

This, I've noticed, tends to disconcert people.

[culfinriel.livejournal.com]

Ok.