These buses and their ad? Totally angered me. Made me want to throw my bag at the buses. Or chase them down the block and jump on them from the back and crawl all along the top until I got to the front and punched the poor bus driver even though he didn’t put the ads there. I’m not a violent person, so this feeling of sudden rage really took me aback.

It also struck me as funny (not ha-ha) because Sky had complained about this group’s billboards that are over the offramp near our house a few days ago. He was pissed because in his mind, the message of the signs was basically “Cancer is totally beatable if you eat some organic juice and just exercise. And are young and healthy enough to being with.” I thought he was being overly sensitive, but suddenly, with these buses, I was right there with him. It’s the same feeling I get when I see someone wearing a pink breast cancer pin: a tight fisted, jealous little monster feeling. I feel like yelling at the smiling billboard people that maybe that had wimpy cancer. Maybe they shouldn’t be so smug, just because antioxidants and some medicine could fix them.

Part of this anger probably comes from the fact that Kathy was, just months until her death, working at the forefront of cancer technology and medicine. She was a consultant who knew it inside and out and had supervised all kinds of drug trials. She even worked with the billboard group. All those beaming 40 year olds in the posters were the kinds of people whose lives she helped save. So I get really angry at them and at those signs for flaunting their recovery. I want a billboard that reads “Life. Cancer. Awful pain. Death. Death.”*

*Not really. Really I want to get to a place where I don’t hate the billboards and are happy for the people on them

All of this anger over words got me thinking about how powerful just one or two can be. I thought I’d start a post of Things I Don’t Say or Words I Don’t Use. I’ve only got two for now, but I expect I’ll add to this.

“Drink the Kool Aid”
This is a funny thing to say that means roughly “That dude is totally in the pocket of the people in charge and will do whatever they say” or maybe “She thinks jeggings look cool when she used to think they were dumb.” Except it’s not all that funny when you realize the context from which the phrase originated. Seriously, one watching of Jonestown: The Life and Death of the People’s Temple with its long, drawn out audio recording of children and mothers forced to drink poison will pretty much stop you from saying this, ever.

“Retarded”
I used to say this a lot because I could intelectualize it and convinced myself that I wasn’t really making fun of people with disabilities. I mean, right? It was a total divorcing of the word from the actual meaning and when paired with “wicked” it’s totally allowed? Except it kind of makes me feel like an asshole ever since I saw a PSA about it a few months ago. Now I’m really aware of it and try not to use it. Sometimes it still slips out, but I’m trying.

So what about it? Do you have words or phrases you consciously avoid? Why?

Our new little place is very cozy. Have I mentioned that yet? Cozy, cozy cozy! I get home in the evening and the radiators are popping and the cats are purring and I make some tea on our awesome-fast-gas range. I settle in with a book or maybe take a bath. The world is my oyster. Sky loves it in the mornings because he has something to watch (traffic, clouds, birds) while he drinks his morning coffee and it’s not cold and dark at all in the morning. The lights are cheery and the floor is warm.

I’ve been in touch with my sister a lot more than usual after our little sister vacation. That makes me happy. It always takes me a bit of time to get reacclimated to people I haven’t seen for awhile, including, sadly my family sometimes. So it’s been nice to keep in contact – easier to talk about small things and have a rapport. I’ve also been talking to Jaime more – or she’s been good at hassling me so that happens. I still fall too easily into being hermity, sometimes. I’m lucky to have a bestie who doesn’t let that happen too often.

We’re going to Chicago for Thanksgiving and I can’t wait! The last time I visited I was about 12 years old, so I don’t remember much of anything. This weekend my mom recalled how when she was little, they would drive up to Michigan for Thanksgiving, and on their way home they would always be sure to hit Chicago in the late evening. That way they could drive along State Street with little to no traffic and check out all of the pretty sparkly Christmas lights and store displays. I promised my mom I’d take a walk there and give her a report. I hope it snows (but only in the middle of the week so it doesn’t affect our flights).

Sky’s taking his first licensing exam today – it’s 4 hours long! Wish him good thoughts and a clear mind, okay?

I think they meant “In this day and age…”

Anyone else have a good mauling of the English language to share? I joke about it, but I do find it really interesting to note how phrases can morph over time into something completely different.

One example of a phrase morphing to senselessness is the following…

“I couldn’t care less what he thinks.”
turning into
“I could care less what he thinks.”

Now the first means – I couldn’t care less, meaning, well, you couldn’t care less – you care the absolute least possible amount. The second means that, well, you could care less, so you must care a bit. I read about this phrase recently – someone was arguing that the second phrase actually makes more sense – but I can’t recall how that logic worked itself out. Hrm. Words. Tricky.

Apparently this sort of thing is called an Eggcorn. Check out many more of them on The Eggcorn Database.