Burp
After lunch I sat with my coworkers, discussing some lame spreadsheet I'd put together and that my boss had edited. The conversation went on too long, and eventually the focus turned away from me, but then -
"Ellen!" my boss said, "Is something wrong? What's wrong? What did I do to the spreadsheet?" She had noticed a peculiar look cross my face just as I clapped my hand over my mouth.
I didn't answer immediately, because I was considering if a lie was a good approach. It wasn't.
"I was stifling a burp."
Moan
Gary is on such a decline he is following the doctor's instructions regarding proper dosages, that's how sick he is. I drove him about a little today, since my car is in the shop, and he moans almost non-stop when he is around light: sunlight, car light, and the light shining off chrome on a custom Mini.
The poor guy. I hope kicking up the Topamax does him some good. It was working for a while before he turned against it.
Walla
I was reading online message boards last night as I tried to get my iPhone Gmail working. (The trick: turn the phone off and on again.) There was a new slang word that kept showing up in message threads, to wit:
"I did all the steps for the two-step verification and set an application-specific password, and it worked. WALLA!"
"What is WALLA?" I wondered. "Is it like, 'White Girl's Holla?'"
I saw a few more WALLAs. It began to look like an acronym. I am all about using the acrolingo: BRB, FFS, WTF. Since I've been watching Breaking Bad I've had to stop myself from saying "Bounce." "Yo, catch you later bro, I gotta bounce." Or, I would probably just wave goodbye and say, "Bouncin'!"
After about ten minutes of reading message boards, voila, it hit me.
I totally got caught stifling a burp at the gym. I might have eaten too close to my workout time.... the good news is my trainer laughed instead of being offended. The Walla thing drives me nuts! But a lot of other dumb misspellings and incorrect word usage. Maybe I need better meds.
Posted by: Amy in StL | January 05, 2012 at 10:22 AM
Walla is half a town in Washington. Viola is an instrument in an orchestra. Voila is abused badly.
Posted by: Caroline | January 05, 2012 at 09:27 PM
1) I burp quietly. I know it's a gift that I've been given.
2) People who get medicine and then think that they'll get better without it are frequently incorrect.
3) I cannot stress how much I dislike it when people don't bother to learn how to spell. I dislike it very strongly.
Posted by: Tami | January 06, 2012 at 11:54 AM
People using "walla" when it should be "voila" drives me bonkers. Clearly this is the right place for me to hang out.
Posted by: Kristie | January 07, 2012 at 12:23 PM
AmyinStL - Burps are a part of life. I got the same reaction ("What's wrong!") the next two times I stifled burps.
Caroline - It seems Walla means water in Native American, and repeating it is diminutive. So "Oooo! Oooz a cute widda baby body of waters?"
Tami - re 2) I want him to communicate with the doctor so he gets a different med. He kiked up the topamax and voila, two more nights of seizure activity. If he would just say "Isn't there another drug?"
Kristie - Mercy! Mercy boo-coop. I've told myself they are saying "Walla" ironically. (Ala "How do it know?")
Posted by: TheQueen | January 07, 2012 at 03:59 PM