Yay, boo!

One of the small details I love learning about people is their catch phrase. You know what I’m talking about, right? It’s the word or phrase that a person uses all the time. There are two things I find particularly fascinating about this. First, people are often unaware of how much they use a phrase until someone else points it out. For instance, in recent months, I’ve taken to saying, “I know, right?” approximately every ten minutes. I didn’t realize it until my sister cursed me for causing her to start saying it, too. I balked, saying she couldn’t have picked it up from me. But now that I am paying attention, I realize that she is right. I say that all the time.

The second thing I find interesting about catch phrases is how well they can capture a person’s personality. For example, for a large part of my childhood, my mother continually used the phrase, “Far out!” Keep in mind that this was the 90s, not the 80s, so she was pretty much the only person on Earth who still said this. But I never found it embarrassing, because it just suited her somehow. One of the things I’ve always appreciated most about my mom is her unfailing enthusiasm. She can always be counted upon to be excited for me when I accomplish something, large or small, that is important to me. Her level of excitement can almost catch me off guard, actually, so saying “Far out!” always just seemed like an extension of surprise.

I’m always listening to pick up these catch phrases, and I must admit that because I am so attuned to them, I often start saying them myself. The most recent example of this is running rampant in my vocabulary, and it comes from one of my coworkers, Carla. I blame her for my recent affinity for booing.

That’s right, booing. When Carla does not approve of something, she boos it. It sounds terrible, doesn’t it? But it’s catchy because it’s so therapeutic! I encourage you to try it. As Carla would say, some things just need to be booed. Let me give you some examples.

Today is April 11, the day before Easter. April means spring. Spring means at least a little warmth. Yet last night and this morning, whenever I was outside and the wind blew, it felt below freezing. My hands went numb, and I needed to be wearing my down winter coat. Know what I say to that? Boo wind! C’mon. I know you agree. Go ahead and say it, out loud. Boo wind! Boo cold weather! Boooo!

Earlier today, in an effort to escape the crappy weather, I was standing on the el platform and waiting for a brown line. A green line came by. I waited another ten minutes or so, then another train appeared in the distance. As it approached, I realized it was another green line! Two greens in a row? Boo green line! Boo CTA!

I have a coupon for $1.00 off a box of Celestial Seasonings tea. It expires soon, so on Thursday I took it to Walgreens. I’m not super picky about the flavors of tea I drink. I’m partial to apple cinnamon and peppermint, but I’m willing to try a lot of different things. However, when I arrived at Walgreens, I discovered that they had ONE kind of Celestial Seasonings tea. And what was the one flavor? DECAF GREEN TEA. Seriously? Boo Walgreens!

I recently incurred a rather bad running injury to my hip. When I went to an injury screening, the therapist told me it could either be a stress fracture or a strain of my psoas muscle (one of the hip flexors). I was rooting for a muscle injury, because it would mean taking less time off running. At this point, I’ve become convinced it’s my psoas, because the pain is worst when I get up in the morning, not after I exercise. At first I was glad about this. Yay psoas! But despite barely running in the past two weeks, the strain doesn’t seem to be getting any better. It actually hurts just as much when I sit around all day as when I run, and it looks like my recovery is going to be long. So, yes, yay not stress fracture, but not yay psoas. Boo psoas!

After I finished grad school but before I found a full-time job, I did some freelance work. I used to work at the company I was freelancing for, so I was unable to use my social security number as a freelance ID. Instead, I used an employer identification number. While filling out the forms to get this number, I made one error: I wrote a 1 instead of a 0 on the line that asked how many employees I had (I thought I was employing myself, but I really wasn’t). Because of this, I ended up paying taxes on my freelance income twice, then having to request a refund that took forever. I also had months of correspondence with the IRS, trying to get that one error corrected so that I wouldn’t requests to file forms I didn’t really have to file. Finally, in December, over a year after I used the ID number, I thought I had the whole mess straightened out. However, yesterday I received a letter from the Illinois government saying the Feds told them I reported that freelance income to the national government but not Illinois. I am not certain, but I believe that is a lie, and this is still a result of me writing a 1 instead of a 0. Monday I am certain to be on the phone for a hour trying to figure it out. Boo bureaucracy! Boo government’s inability to correct a tiny error in the eighteen months since it occurred! BOOOOOO!

See? Carla’s right. Some things just need to be booed. It might seem unkind to say Carla’s catch phrase is descriptive of her personality, but it really is, and not in a negative way. Carla tells you what you thinks, and I admire that.

Feel free to leave a comment about something you think needs booing. I bet you’ll feel better!