Curses

No, this isn't about how I've felt like 2012 was cursed (see last post).  This is about Cussing.

You don't cuss around children. Especially when they are other people's children.  We, as a society, have decided that certain words are offensive and since children are bound to repeat curse words you don't want the neighbors to know that you use those sorts of words (although we all do).

Yesterday I was at a Big Box Home Improvement Store (buying plexiglass, of course) and walked past a guy trying to load long lengths of molding into an SUV.  He was having some difficulty and as I walked past I heard him go "Frak!"

That's right.  Frak.  A made up curse word from a science fiction TV show.

I wanted to turn around and give him a thumbs up.

When I was young my father used made up curse words around us kids.  One of my favorites was Ratselfratz (Rats, ul, frats).  As I grew old and past the age where cussing is cool I started to use made up curse words, too.  I used Ratselfratz and Frak (at the time it was a word from an "obscure 70's bad science fiction show that aired for maybe one whole season" now it's a popular 2000s science fiction show and more people have heard the term.  It's just not as cool now.) but I also used (personal fav) Duck.  

Yes, that's right.  Duck is a cuss word in my lexicon.

If you've ever had to clean up after a dozen half grown ducklings in a too-small enclosure you'd understand why.

Unfortunately lately I've slipped out of using my personal cuss words and started using "The F Word."

I blame the Historians. 

I'm not sure what it is but when I go to lunch with my friends in the history department they use the F Word like it's the best descriptive they have.  I'm picking up bad habits from them.  Which I then use in front of the young neighborhood children by accident.

Which means their parents hear that I've been using the F word and the parents think I'm some kind of low person (cause they never use words like that) and they don't want me around their children anymore and I become the neighborhood pariah.

Ratselfratz.

2012 Sucked

2012 started as a year full of exciting plans.

Get re-invigorated about blogging.  Lots of plans for the garden.

June:  Trip with The Parents and The Nephew and The Husband to London to celebrate The Nephew graduating high school (my parents raised him).

July:  Trip to Thailand to play work with elephants.

August:  Trip to Iowa to visit The In-Laws and Mr. Subjunctive from Plants Are The Strangest People.  Hopefully to pick up some Anthurium cuttings and/or seedlings (he has a few).

In between:  Work on labs for one of the Biology classes that I teach where the labs are, well, mostly boring wastes of time.

The plan changed when My Best Friend From Grad School's husband was diagnosed with a pre-cancerous condition.  This condition required a bone marrow transplant and about 4 month spent in care at a hospital two states away from home (it was a seriously rare condition).  He's back home and officially in remission now.  Can I just say that bone marrow transplants are harder (for the recipient) that you think.  For donors it's not too bad (sign up and you, too, can save a life:  http://marrow.org/Home.aspx).

OK.  So trade in the trip to Iowa for a trip to the Left Coast to be supportive Girlfriend.

Then 2012 got worse.

My dad was diagnosed with cancer.

My dad's cancer had already metastasized by the time it was discovered.

So cancel the trip to Iowa or the Left Coast so I could fly down and see my dad multiple times this year.  Cut the trip to London back to just The Husband, The Nephew (he still graduated and a promise is a promise) and myself.

My dad passed away about 2 months ago after a too-long and all-too-short battle with cancer.   I'm still not quite back on my feet and I'm not sure what I'll be doing (if anything) with this blog.

I just really, really hope 2013 is the kind of year where nothing much happens all year long.  I know I could  use the break.

And maybe I'll just order the purple Anthurium from the only place I've ever found them for sale - Hawaii.  I bet the shipping charges will be more than the cost of the plant.