September 29, 2012

Least favorite word

There is a word that has been on my radar lately as a word for which I care not:

yummy
adj. colloq. delicious, delectable; also as int.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first recorded use of "yummy" was in 1899: "R. Kipling Rudyard Kipling Stalky & Co. Stalky and co 239 Pretty lips..Seem to say—Come away. Kissy! come, come!.. Yummy-yum-yum!" 

I don't know why, but yummy creeps me out.  It's like some people and their problem with the word "moist".  It just sounds gross and nothing like a word I would apply to food, whether enjoyable or no.  I think this quote from The Vocabula Review's list of "The Worst Words" pretty much sums up my feelings about yummy, irrational or no:

Do I need to explain this? The sound makes my skin crawl, not only for the appalling lack of vocabulary it reflects in its user, but in the visual imagery it evokes in envisioning either the item described or visage of person from whom this hideous word emanated. 

In my opinion it is slightly overused and what for?  There are so many other wonderful, more descriptive, more picturesque words when using to describe an enjoyable dish - whether the dish is food or human, ha!  Unfortunately it has been and continues to be used by people I like, so I can't very well get away from this... word. And since disliking a word is a silly thing with little to no rational basis, I'm certainly not going to tell my loved ones to stop using it.

September 13, 2012

Big changes!

A little over a year ago, I moved to a brand new city on my own, ready to start a new part of my life in a place I had barely been, with no one familiar nearby.  Besides starting a graduate program, I didn't really know what the next year was going to bring.  In that year, though, I managed not only to start that grad program but a whole lot more.


I went back to school, which was scary since I had been out of it for 6 years, and yet I proved to be as good or better at it than I was.  I pulled down straight As, balanced heavy courseloads with two internships and volunteering, and was president of a student organization.  I graduated over a month ago with a Master in Library and Information Science!
  

I met a lot of new people, many of whom I now consider good friends, and can't imagine not having met.  Some of them have moved from Pittsburgh already and some have stayed, but I'm so glad school gave me the chance to meet so many great people.    

I lived by myself for the first time, and got bed bugs for the first time.  (That part was hell.)  

I fell in love with someone I met in my program (something and someone I never saw coming!) and stopped living by myself.  We moved in together in the spring, just moved into our second apartment together, and I seriously could not be happier.  He is the love of my life.   

I explored a new city.  Pittsburgh has so much to offer and I'm happy to get to continue to call it home, since I also was offered a full-time librarian position, less than a month after graduating!  

A lot happened in the past year.  I left this blog behind because I thought it would be good to have a "fresh start" for graduate school.  And now I'm finding that since I made the new blog my portfolio, I feel like I can't write about what I want.  I'm bringing back mostly true to see me into the next stage.  It's back, y'all.