I just read smartypants and saw almost the exact words I uttered to Cynthia in the cafeteria in her first line. I hate it when people just stop in front of you. It happens in the mall all the time, but also at school and in the cafeteria and everywhere. Ack! She also ranted about pants without pockets--another pet peeve of mine. I *love* pockets. I use them a lot--they are always filled with coins and tissue and lipbalm and my cell phone and assorted other things. They're a necessity in my life which is why the 3 pairs of pants I bought without pockets haven't been worn in 6 months. What *was* I thinking?

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I'm disturbed that lately the only word I can think of to describe something that falls short in my approximation is lame. I'm not the type to be stuck on one word at at time. I have an extensive vocabulary. I've been a professional writer and editor for 12 years. I was an English major in college. But here I am--stuck on lame. Everything is lame these days, too. It seems that once I got stuck on that word, suddenly it seemed to apply to everything in my life. Why is that? Why can't I get rid of that word? It's worse than an earworm.

The thing is, I'm really sensitive to repetitive phrases and words that other people use. Take Mario Batali--he's very fond of saying 'gild the lily' but obviously he is aware of it so I recently heard him say 'embellish the lily' which was painful to hear. He says a lot of other things repetitively but that's the one that bugs me most. And Ming Tsai? He likes to say 'good to go' all the time. He'll say it about 10 times in a 30-minute show. Lame.

So if verbal tics bother me so much why have I succumbed? Why can't I get that word to go away? Or at least to think of other words? What else can I use to describe something that is, well, lame? Half-assed works in many circumstances but I don't like to use that so much. Maybe I should just not be so critical so that there are fewer lame things to comment on.

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My A&P final was today and it was *hard*. I think I probably got in the mid to high 80s. The other people I talked to said it was very hard, too, so hopefully when he sees that last term's highest score achiever got a B he'll curve it up. He said that when his A students get Bs, he knows the test was too hard and he curves it up. Let's just hope he does that this time!

My chem presentation went well--I expect to get an A in there. Now all I have to do is study tomorrow for my stats final on Wednesday and I'm home free!

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This morning Joey and I saw a varied thrush on the back fence. We didn't know it was a varied thrush--she insisted on finding it in the bird identification guide. When she found that, she sat down at the dining room table and wrote a little report about seeing the varied thrush on the back fence and drew a picture of it on the fence in the backyard. It was so cool. She's a cool little chick. :-)

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I can't wait to go to Hawaii. I'm a littl apprehensive about the airplane, though. I wish I had some Xanax or something.

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Tomorrow I meet with Joey's pediatrician to talk about her anxiety and stress level. I just want to know that she's within normal ranges and if not, get a referral for someone Joey can talk to or who I can talk to. I probably need it more than she does!!

Later!

--L