Emoticon for Drowning in Work?

This comes from a friend with whom I had some correspondence last week.  In response to my statement that I'm drowning, she said there must be an emoticon for this.  If there isn't, there should be one.  How about --Y-- (as in person with head and arms above the waves); then when the tsunami of work hits, lo' about three or four weeks from now: WyW (as in person below the waves), or maybe ---.--- (as in person barely visible below the water) or --- (person not visible below the water).  Or maybe --°-- (as in a bubble coming up through the water, indicating that there's a person down there somewhere)?

Anyway, --Y-- for the time being.  Arms still flailing in the air.  So far so good.

Though I see there's also an image you can use of a smiley face who's now drowning , available here.  And another creative one is here -- which makes me think that perhaps drowning in work should be:

 --\I/--  Still, there's something elegant and simple about --Y--

Comments

[Peter Yu]

~~\o/~~?
(Source: http://andrew.harrison.org/notes/new-emoticons/ )

[Alfred Brophy]

Yes, Peter, I like that. I linked to Harrison in my post (that's the one I said was creative). But Harrison says that's ”I see a drowning man, but I can’t swim, so he will have to drown.” No reason, of course, that it couldn't also stand for: "I'm drowning. Don't talk to me." or "I'm drowning, I can't talk now." or "I'm drowning help me!" Though I rarely find that the last one gets me help!

I'm still partial to --Y--. All of this makes me wonder if there's a theory of minimalism for emoticons?!

[Kim Krawiec]

Brilliant! I'm partial to --°--.

[Alfred Brophy]

--°-- will be me in a few weeks -- certainly by the beginning of October. But right now I'm only --Y--.