Word of the Day: Procrastination

I know. I know. I'm suddenly the kind of blogger that I hate. The one who doesn't post for weeks on end and then when she finally does, has nothing to say. The thing is, well, I just don't have anything to say. I think a year and a half of blogging every day has run the well dry. Let's face it. I'm boring. Ever since I learned that Gene was ending his chat until next May, I have had very little will to write. How can I survive without Gene? And then to add to injury, Allofmp3.com is closing down. Now where will I get my music? You don't know me at all if you're thinking right now that I should use iTunes.

So it's my favorite time of year again (sarcasm intended). Every parking spot in every parking lot is taken by serious shoppers looking for bargains. I have done all of my shopping via the Internet this year. Starting this weekend, I'm no longer leaving the house for anything except work. The crowds are insane. I cannot take one more person cutting me off in traffic, one more crazy parent pushing a stroller over my foot, one more insane child screaming over the toy their parent won't buy them. Why do people lose their common sense at Christmas?

Word of the Day: Accent

I'm from Oregon. I have no accent. The only word I pronounce strangely is "bandana" and that is only because I choose to change the a into an e and call it "bendena". It's non-scientific silliness. Anyway, I was flying back to DC from Oregon a week ago and I noticed something rather peculiar. I've known this for a while because my mom and sister do it, but I had forgotten until I heard it again and some people next to me laughed at the absurdity. The flight attendant was telling us that the flight to Washington DC would be boarding soon. Only she didn't say Washington, she said "Warshington". This would also occur when someone mentioned doing the warsh or warshing the car. I think it's strictly a west coast thing, maybe even just Oregon. But my coworker says that her dad uses the extra R there too and he's from Texas. So maybe not.

The other word I can think of that we use in the West that I don't think is necessarily used here is "sack" as in a grocery sack. People here only use the word bag.

So I took this quiz and it predicted my accent correctly in that it showed The West as being the highest donominator... but The Midlands? I don't think so. It seems to think that people from Pennsylvania don't have an accent and I greatly disagree...

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Midland "You have a Midland accent" is just another way of saying "you don't have an accent." You have a good voice for TV and radio.
The West
North Central
Boston
The Inland North
Philadelphia
The South
The Northeast
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Word of the Weekend: Architecture

I went to Chicago for the long weekend to visit a dear friend of mine whom I haven't seen in a while. She used to live in Washington and we were inseparable. Then she moved. :(

Anyway, she took me on this incredible architectural boat tour along the lake which taught us everything we'd ever want to know about the buildings of Chicago's downtown area, including the Sears Tower and the Woolworths buildings. I learned a lot of great things about both the architectural styles and Chicago itself, but the overall feeling I came away with was how depressing the Modern style is. Whoever thought that was a good idea (his name is Mies van der Rohe) was pulling a fast one over on everything. Imagine the money he made off of these designs. And all they really amounted to was a rectangular box with no ornamentation, no detail, no creativity. Just a black, lifeless box. Here's an example of the typical Mies van der Rohe design. Those buildings in the background have parking on the lower 20 or so levels. It's rather disconcerting to see cars hanging out where BBQs should be.

Oh and I tried two different kinds of Chicago deep dish pizza. So now I feel that I've had the Chicago experience and I can add it to my list of cities that I actually know something about. I'd never move there though -- too darn cold. While it was 75 degrees here, it was a mere 35 there. Brrr.

Word of the Day: Vow

vow 
noun: a solemn promise, pledge, or personal commitment

I went to Oregon last week for an emergency trip. The late notice ticketing of course gave me no options as to flight times, etc, and that makes for some crazy routing. Why one has to fly an hour north to get 2 hours south is still something I'm comtemplating days later. I had three layovers on each leg of the race -- er, flight. I have also discovered the worst possible way to spend your birthday. It involves a security gate, four-inch wide coach-class seat and the option to buy a pre-heated ecoli burger with onions for $10.

The trip was worth it though because I got to see my family, whom I often don't see but twice during the year, and I was able to see my grandmother, whom I see once every three years, if I'm lucky. She and my grandfather were married for 70 years. If only we could pull that off in our own generation. It took incredible amounts of dedication and patience, I'm sure, but today we are so divorce happy that a 10-year marriage seems long. Look at Britney... two years was actually kind of a long time to be married to that loser, but did she really go into that thinking she'd be happily married to Kevin Federline for 70 years? I don't think we go into marriage for the long haul anymore. I think we only consider marriage with our "today" glasses on. Maybe I'm wrong, but look at all these celebrities with kids and broken marriages.