Howdy!

Just wanted to send a shout out (actually a "howwwwww-dyyyyy") to Liz in Texas! It's an honor to have ya'll aboard!
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Interesting about that whole "ya'll" thing. I grew up in Southern California, people! Those folks don't use "ya'll". They use "gag me with a spoon" and "gnarley, Dude" and "I'll take a pair of the silicon in size 36DD, please". But I have a strange quirk; I adopt words or different pronunciations of words from the places I travel.

Yep, I spent a summer in Massachusetts as a kid and I distinctly remember coming back and getting harassed by schoolmates because I had started pronouncing "draw" as "drarrrr" and "wash" as "warsh". It took many teasings before I fully reverted back to West Coast Speak.

Come to think of it, several weeks in Europe had me using "pardon" (pronouncing as "per-doh-n") instead of "excuse me" when trying to pass people or accidentally bumping into people. Yeah. "Pardon", "Pardon a moi", "Sorry, pardon". Sigh. That took many, many strange looks from strangers and several glares from Mr X before I was able to revert back on that one.

Now my use of "ya'll" I think I picked up after I spent a week in the fair city of Dallas, Texas. Because I certainly don't remember saying "ya'll" at any point when I was growing up. And I haven't spent any other time in the south (yet ... it's on The To-Do List) to point fingers at any other city (well, a week in Nah Awlins but I'm fairly certain that was after "ya'll" was already happily ensconced in my vocabulary). But because "ya'll" seems pretty harmless I'm okay with keeping it around. In fact, I do believe I enjoy it!

But one I am NOT so thrilled with is the use of "dude" in my daily vocabulary. Nope, not at all. I'm a 37 year old professional (oh, okay ... "professional" (*grin*)) woman not a 20 year old surfer! I should not be calling people "dude". But alas, I spend so much time with my friend "Buck" and he was saying that for awhile .... and now I've caught it. Damn you, "Buck"! That one IS your fault. And the real pisser is I think he's stopped using it! DUUUUUUDDDDEEEE!

Of course, the worst (and the one that has now stuck for over a decade) is my use of the "F" word*. Everybody please join me in thanking New York City for that one: "Thanks New York City!!!!". Thought it was very unladylike and completely unnecessary to ever use that word before I spent a summer there! Yep, but alas, one summer in NY and I came back swearing like a sailor! I heard it everywhere there: "How the F you doin'", "F no", "Alright, F'er, I'll catch you later" as well as, of course, the "F you, you MotherF'er!!!". So I started mocking it with Mr X as a joke between us And. It. Stuck!!!!! Argh!!

Now my hope is that when I go back there next month that I will leave that little habit back where I found it. But what are the chances?? Slim to f'in none I'm thinking.


*Mom, unfortunately this "F" does NOT stand for "Fudge"!