Swim

After a long day, cold and pent up in a conference room I trudged up 23rd St. to the Foggy Bottom metro stop.  It was hot, about 92˚F with 82% humidity.  I pushed my way down into the metro's abyss along with the thousands of other brain-dead commuters.  I try not to think about the reality of where I am or how I am traveling because otherwise it would scare me too much.

I squatted down, leaning against the wall that divides the seat from the train's door.  I read my book:
Comfort by Brett C. Hoover, more on that in a subsequent post.  I got off at my stop and exited the metro station.  It was still hot as Hebes, except now it was raining.  People walked home like zombies.  Everybody knew where they were going but they seemed to lack emotion or purpose.  I got to my friend's apartment and quickly grabbed my things to go to the pool.  After 8 hours of sitting, I needed to move.  We walked to the pool, chatting, as friends do.

The pool was extremely crowded.  Not what I am used to, but then again, I normally attend the pool back home and at 6 in the morning.  It was really nice to see so many people swimming.  I shared a lane with 2 other men.  When we would coincide at the end of the lane, I would offer them to swim ahead of me, explaining that I was a slow swimmer.  One young guy said "Slow and steady wins the race, right?"  A huge smile came across my face, "that's right."

Thank you, cute swimmer man.  You and your 4 leaf clover tattoo on your left shoulder made my day.  

Use Your Words

Words people should and could wean out of their vocabulary:

like
thing
stuff

We don't even notice how many times a day we use the word like.

The art of speaking is being able to select the minnimum number of words to describe exactly the point you're trying to get across, how you're feeling, the way a food tastes, etc.

Eloquence.

I worked for a mad scientist my senior year of highschool, Joel. He had grown up in New York with Orthodox Jewish parents. He had the entire dictionary memorized, as well as the Old Testament and loved to make people, like me, look bad at parties by showing off his knowledge and history of Christianity and simultaneously showing off my ignorance, despite my being a self-acclaimed, and foreign mother dictated, Catholic.

The novelty of vulgarity hadn't worn off since the first week of 6th grade. I was then in Middle School, a big kid. Joel challenged me to not curse. This was 6 years after I'd made some 6 words a key addition to my vernacular. Well, not when I was around my parents, a work, school or at church, of course.

I got to thinking, anybody can call somebody an asshole, but if you try to explain why you don't like the person or what they have done to upset you, not only is it more difficult, but you are forced to reevaluate why you don't like them and it is much more satisfying when you do think of an insult.

The guy is a lazy cheapskate who always mooches off of me.

I was at my favorite cafe today waiting to meet a friend for lunch. I overheard a guy talking about "when China switched from like feudal monarchy to that communist thing"

I once had a class - an Organic Chemistry course in which the professor took the first week of lecture to acquaint the students, with the vocabulary pertinent to that subject matter. Technically we had all been studying chemistry for at least 3 or 4 years but it was amazing how many processes we could not properly describe using chemistry terminology. He told us to not bother coming to office hours or even asking a question in lecture if we were going to use words like "thing" in reference to a water molecule. It was a wonderful learning exercise, I learned how to describe processes that I'd technically been learning for years, but now actually understood.

Use Your Words.
A common phrase used by pre-school teachers and mothers teaching toddlers to speak. Or at least it should be.

We have words to our advantage - let's use them instead of throwing tantrums, which I'm disappointed to say do not go away with age or education level.