New Year, New...Something: The Weekly Hodgepodge

Join the fun! 

Come on over to 

From This Side of the Pond 

for the Hodgepodge link-up!

Share one happy moment/memory from the holiday season. 

In my last Hodgepodge, I mentioned that I was looking forward to a white Christmas--just not a white Christmas Eve.  Mercifully, we didn't get our first big snow until December 31.  This stay allowed me to fully celebrate the holidays.  I had the joy of attending Colorado Community Church's Christmas Eve service, as well as worship with my friends at Table Mountain Baptist in Arvada.  I also had great dinners with friends on Christmas day and the day after.  I spent New Year's Eve refreshing Google to check on the Alabama vs. Cincinnati game.  Yes, the TuneIn app blocked the semifinal game AGAIN.  They do this every time Alabama goes to the playoffs or the championship.  Oh, yeah, Miss Joyce said happy moments.

Let's be reasonable with our expectations going into this new year, k? What is one thing you'd like to accomplish/improve/complete/do in 2022? 

Reasonable expectations don't mean throwing in the towel and giving up or expecting less.  The further we get from "the thing," the more I expect out of life.

Anyway...

Among other things, I'd like to improve the consistency of my blogs.  The past three years have been the most inconsistent since I started blogging in 2012.  In all fairness, in the past three years, I've had school, then a new side hustle as an Adjunct Professor.  I don't have any desire to stay chained to my computer every waking hour.  However, I know that with blogs absence does not make the heart grow fonder.  Absence makes y'all forget I'm here.  I'm taking a writing workshop at work, so maybe I'll learn some pointers on more consistent writing.  I don't want to write simply for quantity; I want to actually say something in my posts.

Every January 1st (since 1976) Lake Superior University has published a list of words they'd like to see banished from the Queen's English. Words may be banished due to misuse, overuse or just general uselessness (go here to read more about how the words are chosen). Here are the words/phrases they'd like to see banished in 2022-wait, what?-no worries-at the end of the day-that being said-asking for a friend-circle back-deep dive-a new normal-you're on mute-supply chain. Which of these words/phrases do you use regularly? Which of these words would you most like to see banished from everyday speech and why? Is there a word/phrase not on the list you'd like to add? 

I ask this every time this question comes up:  Who died and made Lake Superior University the gatekeeper of language?  Hey, don't let the word "Superior" in your name go to your head.  Some of these are legitimate words or phrases.  For example, the supply chain is a real thing (it's screwed up right now, but it's real).  "You're on mute" is a legitimate phrase for Zoom meetings (how else is someone going to know that they're talking while on mute).  If folks would pay more attention to what they're doing, it wouldn't need to be said so much.  Some of the other phrases are tired corporate catchphrases--circle back, deep dive, that being said, etc.).  I wouldn't mind either seeing them go, or at least be used much less.  Words or phases that should absolutely go?  How about the phrase "no cap," calling anyone pejorative terms for male and female genitals, commenting "first" on any social media post or YouTube video (what are you, twelve?), and  "I can't even" (You can't even what?  Complete sentences, please?).

Best thing you ate in the month of December? 

Cranberry relish from the grocery store.  I'm a big fan of jellied cranberry sauce in the can and want to learn to make homemade cranberry relish.  However, I had Christmas dinner with friends and they had relish from the deli at King Soopers (our version of Kroger).  It was the best I'd ever tasted. I don't know if it's available all year long, but I'm going to find out.

January 5th is National Bird Day. Are you a bird lover? What's your favorite bird to see in the wild? Choose a phrase from the list that follows and tell us how it relates to your life currently...eat like a bird, bird's eye view, early bird, bird-brained, free as a bird, a little bird told me, or kill two birds with one stone.

I like all kinds of birds.  My favorites to see back home were the cardinals. They and the bluejays fought every summer over the seeds of sunflowers I grew in my backyard.   Here, the prettiest bird I've seen so far is the black billed magpie.  I saw one out in the parking lot at my old office and tried to snap a picture of it.  Why do birds sit still until you try to snap a photo of them?  Oh, well.  I plan to try my hand at painting one sometime this year.

I'd say early bird is the best word that describes my life right now.  My years of getting up before God does when I worked at the YMCA have made me a permanent early bird--just not THAT early.

Insert your own random thought here:

Welcome to 2022, y'all!

In case you missed it:  

*My last Hodgepodge post, "Just a Little Trim," is here.
*My latest Five Minute Friday post "Behold," is here.
*My latest 2021 Flip and Sip Reading Challenge review of All Earth is Waiting, is here.
*My latest Simple Woman's Daybook "A Buggy Full of Lemons," is here.
*My latest Auntie's Workshop post "Finishing and Fixing III," is here.