Ellipses

For reasons I'm not entirely sure of, I find myself adding ellipses (...) in many of my emails. Now, you might think that I'd be a bit more fastidious in my use of punctuation, considering that I'm the guy who surreptitiously rubs out incorrectly used apostrophes on pub chalkboards, but I just seem to keep misusing, or at least overusing the damned things.

What fascinates me is that I'm not even sure what I mean by them. Take, for example, a mail that I sent to my friend Richard tonight. I hadn't seen Richard in a while, and at the end of the mail, I wrote "good to see you..." Why did I do that?

To be honest, apart from implying that the thought preceeding them (it?) will be continued at some undefined point, I'm not even sure what the correct use of an ellipsis is supposed to be. Nor am I certain of the correct form to use. Them? It?

I guess my intent in using them is to show that I may have more to say, and although I haven't said it, I reserve the right to do so whenever the mood strikes me. Actually, that's probably overstating it. I really think that it's sheet laziness on my part. By inserting an ellipsis in a relatively short email, I'm effectively saying that I've more to say, but the reader can fill in the blanks for himself.

That's a pretty good cop out...