It is funny the words and phrases we integrate into our vocabulary. As a kid I integrated words that I thought made me sound cool (and yes, I know that I dated myself by using the word “cool” – let’s move on). These days I integrate words and phrases that amuse me. It is amazing to me how easily some of these words and phrases come to take over my vocabulary.

When I was in Quebec for the first time I became acutely aware of the way Canadians use “eh”. Being an auditory learner the speaking pattern clicked in after a few days and I adopted the “eh” and began using it quite liberally in my non-Canadian conversations. It was, I am told, amusing at first but it quickly became annoying. It was so annoying that folks started responded to every “eh” with “B…C”. Changing my Canadian emphasis to an alphabet letter completely removed its charm and I dropped it.

There have been other equally annoying words and phrases. As I have mentioned before, “dude” came into my vocabulary since my colleague Biga arrived on the scene. I have cut way back on my usage of “dude”, but in my "dude" heyday I could use it in almost any sentence with the appropriate emphasis and tone.

The same is true of “seriously”. If there was a fine for overusing words I would be serving a life sentence for that one – seriously. My newest favorite terms are social media acronyms – OMG, WTF and BFF. I picked them up originally as a fun insert on an acronym exercise in one of my classes and they never quite went away. I have learned recently that I say them a bit too much…particularly OMG. Noah pointed out every OMG I uttered when he was here and I was shocked to see how fluid a part of my vocabulary it has become. Am I not a grown woman with a complete vocabulary?  OMG – enough with the social media acronyms!

I am going to make a conscious effort to OMG less (alright, the truth is I am on OMG probation). I desperately need a new word or phrase to fill the gaping whole in my vocabulary.  I can’t just go cold turkey to prim and proper adult language – what will people think?

Cheyenne’s new phrase, which cracks me up, is “I know…right?” When she says it I feel compelled to repeat it. She says I can’t use it though as it is her thing to say not mine. I have overused "fabulous", "peachy" and "really" and I don’t believe I can get any additional mileage out of them. I need a few new words and phrases and they need to be fresh and unique…they need to amuse me.

So go ahead, whisper sweet nothings into my ear or SHOUT AT ME IN EMAILS, but please just talk to me so that I can ferret out my next favorite word or phrase that I will overuse and abuse. My material is dated and dated is so not cool.

Day one hundred and sixty-nine of the new forty – obla di obla da

CC