To Smiley Face or Not to Smiley Face?!

I like this dude and I'm quite c'est la vie, what's meant to be is meant to be, non-crazy in regards to him but every once in awhile I get in my head. His birthday was the other day and I texted him a simple "Happy Birthday!!" and to which I received (an almost immediate!) response of "Thank You! :) " And then I was sad because I am a girl and I get in my head. "Thank you"?! Who writes that?! I mean, REALLY, what else would he write?! But still...was not satisfied. Furthermore, I began a random polling of how people thought about guys utilizing the smiley face in text messages. And by random, I mean EVERYONE. I worked last night at a terrible bar (that's a different blog entry!) and asked every guy customer, everyone I worked with, friends...everyone. This one, older man in the bar (think: creep!), told he me uses the smiley ALL OF THE TIME, as in borderline problem usage. This other group of dudes were quite against the whole smiley face thing, though one of them said he addicted to the winkey face. I, as well as all the other guys, completely cringed at his statement he justified it with the fact that he is from Peru (ah, yeah??). Those fellows listened to my scenario however and did think the smiley face in my particular situation was good and not to worry about it. My cousin's boyfriend said he does not even know how to create a smiley face. He and my cousin agree however that this smiley face paired with immediate response is better than worse as in does not mean dude hates me. We all agree that too much smiley face usage means the guy is a pussy. My mom's explanation makes the most sense: "Thank you doesn't mean 'thank you I hate you' and it doesn't mean 'thank you I love you.' It means thank you."