Terms I Hate

Today I had to go to the doctor. And they couldn't get me the CT scan right away so I had to make another appointment to go back. Also, I passed all of the funny neurological exams (now I see why Matt very nearly went into neurology—you get to play all sorts of funny games with people!) which was far less interesting than if I had gotten to see myself failing every now and then [whoa! Look at that! I can't tell if he's pushing my toe up or down! Whoa! I just said "moon" when he asked me to say "boat..."]. Now that would have been cool. Hehe. So, anyway... Boring visit. Another visit on the horizon. And, to add some icing to the cake, a long wait at the pharmacy.

But was that all the icing? No.... The worst was still ahead of me! Trying to get back to the freeway, I encountered some kind of tremendous mess. I inched my way through several blocks, only to be two cars—two!—behind the point where a police officer finally stopped traffic altogether and made the rest of us turn around. Urgh. I backtracked my way to a different freeway and took a long way home. What took 10 minutes on my way TO the doctor ended up being an hour back. Very frustrating. 

And then, in my very tired, very headachy, very hungry and frustrated and sad mood, I heard a term I hate, and it made me reflect on other terms I hate. Hehe. Now I'm home eating yummy homemade french-style flan (using yummy vanilla beans) with tremendously good cherries (some gourmet thing from Costco—they're amazing!) in a pistachio-hazelnut pastry crust (Matt, you're my hero. Again...! :)) and feeling like the only thing left to finish off this catharsis might be to share what I was musing about earlier today. :) These are some terms that make me feel like poor little Mickey here:

Cali • Ew. I used to only hear this at BYU (I never once heard it before I was 20...), but now it seems like there are wannabe-high-schoolers in other places as well who think saying "Cali" somehow makes them cool. California is *actually* cool. Not high-school style cool. So "Cali" really, really bugs me. It always makes me want to stop talking to the person who said it—I stopped hanging out with 15-year-olds a long time ago for a reason....

Reverse Racism • Um.... Are you kidding me?

Prego • I can't handle this one, either. I don't know. It's way, WAY too flippant for something so great. Or even for something that's just so crazy-intense! If someone had dared to call me "prego" while I was suffering through my pregnancy with Seth, I probably would have wanted to punch them in the face. Watch out, people! Hehe.

"At Altitude" • Living in Denver for four years, we got to hear this one all the time. Especially if Kobe came to town. Hehe. "It's just hard, cuz, we gotta play at altitude. But we just gotta execute...." :) But even true Denverites can't help but say it sometimes. The word is "elevation," Kobe! Denver IS a mile high, it's true. But, as far as I can tell, it's on the ground.... (Which doesn't mean you can say "at elevation," either, so help me!! Hehe. Maybe try "at a high elevation...." "An elevation of a whole freaking MILE!" Or, "a higher elevation than the pile of donuts I saw yo' momma eat!")

Trail of Tears • You may think I'm referring to, you know, the actual Trail of Tears. The one where countless Native Americans were forced to travel and die on. The one where they all caught disease and died and then died some more and then kept on dying. The one where just calling it a "Trail of Tears" hardly does its tragedy justice. But if you're LDS (or maybe even if you're not) you've probably heard some Mormons call the trail out of Nauvoo (where they left to go to Utah to finally be left alone...) "The Trail of Tears. . . ." . . . Uh. . . . That's not ok. . . . There's already a Trail of Tears. If someone wants to try to usurp the term (which is totally disrespectful in any case...), they should at least sort of have a similar tragedy. The Mormons suffered, no doubt—but nothing even in the same universe as the suffering on the Trail of Tears. It's an icky, icky thing for a Mormon to say. Let's stop saying it—please...?

"Broken Heart and a Contrite Spirit" • Hehe. It's not the phrase I mind. (I guess I'm breaking away from the definition of "term" with this one....) But say "contrite" in another sentence. Or "contrition." Something like [go ahead, say it out loud!], "I was so horrible to throw that banana peel at my bus driver, and now I want to make amends because I feel so tremendously contrite!" Hehe. Now say..."broken heart and a contrite spirit." Did you say "contrite" the same way both times? AH-HAH! I bet you didn't! Everyone seems to know that the emphasis in the word "contrite" is on the second syllable unless they're saying "broken heart and contrite spirit," in which case they mystifyingly put the emphasis on the first. It's mind-boggling, really. Not actually something I hate—not something that makes me feel like Mickey up there—just something that I find mystifying. :) And while we're on the subject of pronunciation, there's no such thing as mischeevious. :) Just thought I'd throw that one out there.... :)

Ah.... I have more, but mischeevious cheered me enough to feel debriefed from my day. Well, at least enough to be ready to get more flan and maybe watch another episode of Lost. Ha! We're so addicted! I'm glad we didn't start watching this show until just now—in fact, I actually really resent that we discovered it this early. It's a highly painful show in terms of wanting the whole thing to be over already. But we're totally hooked! And will be until [gulp!] 2010! All because we started watching it now instead of two years from now.... Bummer. Those of you who haven't started watching and think you may sometime....WAIT! You'll be glad you did!