Got More Talking to Do (AKA Part Deux)

There is a talk radio station in Raleigh (not the attempted murder NPR) that has a definite conservative bent to it. The host that is on at 4:00 makes me crazy so when I'm in a particularly punchy mood, I put on his show and see how long I can last.

Mainly his topics are what bother me. There is NO variety. He (gar-un-tee you) will be talking about illegal immigration (and of course the callers lose the differentiation btw illegal immigrants and south americans in record time) or education (and of course teachers are leaches on society for hoping to earn a wage they can live on).

You can see how I, being a teacher married to a LEGAL south american immigrant would be digging my nails into the steering wheel. But, annoying topics aside, Bill Lamay (that's this creative thinker's name-- although I'm almost positive that's not how you spell it) comes up with some fabulous examples of MORE phrases I'm done hearing. Ready? Here we go:

1. It is what it is. This is an example of saying words that mean absolutely NOTHING. Seriously, just don't even make my ears do the work of listening to that crap. It's one of those "I have an opinion but this topic is so obvious I'm not going to waste my time verbalizing it" phrases. Quit it!

2. Gift it. Since when did we decide to lazily make nouns into verbs to cut down on the number of words we say? If you can the time to say "it is what it is" you have the time to say "give it as a gift". I don't want to hear about people "gifting" the free IPod they got. Enough!

3. Awesome. Now, this one I might need to defend a little. There are some things that are really awesome like a huge wave or a hard thunderstorm... but a page run off on the photocopier? Hardly. Kind maybe, but certainly not awesome. So, stop!

4. Really? . I first heard this on the Office (the Holy Grail of funny) but like "not so much" the yuppy-look-at-me's have latched onto replying "really?" to something that they might normally reply "I can't believe you just said that". The extra-annoying part is the voice these look-at-me's affect when they say this word -- disappointed and exasperated. No more of this.

As I am around more people, I am sure that we'll have to go for part 3, but this is plenty to digest for now... word?

Drama Mama

There is a new drama queen in town and her name is Tessa.

It was the first real day of school today and aside from random bits during the day, the highlight did not end up being my lovely new shoes. Instead, the high-point of my day (and possibly my year) was when Tessa got a TEENY correction about such a small thing and she reacted with full dramatic overload rolling back on the floor and crying out loud for the class to hear "I just don't care about anything!"

It was beautiful! Nothing warms my heart more than a child who can creatively whine! I pride myself on my classroom drama, but I'll be taking a page from the Tessa handbook and making random pronouncements coupled with big physical gestures -- oh, I am so excited to see what line she uses tomorrow!!!

I hope I'm over-estimating her skills, but I predict that we'll be getting some great lines from this great young scholar!