Make out like a rogue and disembogue

Mawkish [MAW-kish] Adjective. Exaggeratedly sentimental or emotional. The word of the day today is mawkish which means overly sentimental or emotional. I can only relate to the second part of that. I've been so emotional since I've been pregnant. I'm bawling as I type this. I'm just so sad and I feel so lonely. I've felt sort of empty this fall. I know if I was still teaching I wouldn't feel this sad but I'd definitely be stressed to the breaking point. Now that I don't teach and I spend so much time alone, I just feel empty. Godamnit though, I have it so good. I have the most flexible schedule anyone could ask for as a contractor. My team is great to me. The company may be a dumpster fire right now, but my team is amazing. Will I just always be unhappy with something? I don't want to be that person. Maybe mawkish isn't the most fitting word--it's probably closer to schmaltzy or something that makes you cringe like soap operas. Wh

Ersatz [er-zahts] Noun. Describing an artificial substitute for something, usually of inferior quality; simulated or imitation. I just heard Father John Misty's "Real Love Baby" on the radio and that's where I'm starting because it was the first thing that popped into my head when I thought about writing from the word "ersatz." I don't know where the term "ersatz elevator" came from and I'm going to resist the urge to look it up right now, but I think it's from some YA fantasy book I probably read. Or maybe it's a short film by some art students I know? Either way, what a terrifying concept. To get into an elevator only to realize it's not really an elevator, and worse, you're trapped in there. There are so many ersatz things in our daily life: other people's emotions, the words people write on social media, social media itself (what are its more nefarious purposes besides connecting people?) I think people know it

Anodyne an-ə-deyen Noun. Intended to avoid offense or disagreement. I've been at Burien Press for almost 2 hours doing some work remotely, and there is a teenager or young adult sitting a few seats down from me in the corner stomping his foot and occasionally growling. It looks like he's playing a video game on his phone. I wonder if he should be at school. Judging from his demeanor he doesn't look like he'd be too happy stuck in a classroom right now. He reminds me of some of the surly kids I've taught in the past, kids who refused to get off their phones, who saw school and my class as an intrusion into their lives, into their video game progress, and a pointless waste of time. I gotta sympathize, sometimes school is a pointless waste of time, but goddamnit, stop stomping your foot and growling! Have some civility, you're in a public place, young man. I feel so old! I remember skipping class in 8th grade to go smoke cigarettes at Hardee's wit

Penumbra [peh-nəm-brə] Noun. The partially illuminated outer part of a shadow created by a solid object; The outlying, fringe area in which a condition exists to a lesser degree. The 60s housewife existed only in the penumbra of her husband. He was the breadwinner. He was the one people paid attention to. He was the one whose hand they shook. He was the one whose words had meaning. She was the one who made his bed, cooked his meals, folded his underwear, and eventually birthed his children. The children lived in a different type of penumbra, especially the female child. Their father's word was law, and every action he took eclipsed every story they had, everything they'd experienced that day. But the weirdest thing happened when the male child, at age 24, got a sex change. He became she, and his father, as much as he wanted to look away from this, had to look. The child was disowned, pushed into a different penumbra. But in the process, that child eclipsed his father an

Syzygy [siz-i-jē] Noun. The arrangement of three celestial bodies in a straight line; The metaphorical alignment of two people, ideas, or events   You can't force three planets to align--you have to wait. You can't always force people to align. You can't get everyone to like eachother or work together or be at the same place together at the same time every time. You can't be at three different events at the same time, or sometimes even in the same day. Syzygy is tricky, frought with frustration, and sometimes impossible. And you just have to accept that. Scientists throw out hypotheses all the time. Sometimes their hypotheses smack of syzygy. People get harebrained schemes all the times, but scientists are careful with their harebrained schemes. The goal of scientific experiment is to possibly prove that your harebrained scheme isn't actually harebrained at all. Maybe someone who was really stressed out at worked and fed up with the way his or her company or

Blatherskite bla-thər-skīt Nonsense; A person who is prone to speaking nonsense Genius word of the day examples: "I don't want to hear your blatherskite — I need you to speak clearly about things that really matter." "The teacher had great insights, but he was such a blatherskite that his students never understood them." ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking at the Genius word of the day examples, I'm starting to fear some of my colleagues--perhaps the whip-smart editor with dry delivery--could've written this entry about me or more likely me and a bevy of other teachers and colleagues in their life. *GULP* Is it just my self-consciousness and paranoia? But it's true, I am full of balderdash and rubbish sometimes because I tend to joke and I go off on tangents! Speaking and writing clearly is the biggest challenge I have