Hurray for Everyone!

My boss keeps pronouncing the new majority leader's name "Boner?," adding the slight question mark at the end to indicate uncertainty. I'm pretty certain a politician wouldn't make it that far pronouncing his name "boner," but then again "delay" and "bush" made it pretty far.

Another funny thing my boss did (I hate to tell these stories back to back, so I'll just give a quick intro that my boss is one of the smartest people I know, and on top of that is sweet and efficient and amazing) was asked me what "siral" meant (she spelled it for me, and pronounced it like the name Cyril, I think). She thought it might mean peaceful or relaxing or something. I said I'd never heard it, but she said "You know, people always go 'oh, that's so siral!' but I just don't know exactly what they mean." Eventually we worked out she meant "surreal" which maybe she's never seen written. It sounds really different with a Texas accent, and her spelling had been based on her daughter's friends name. She got concerned that Siral's name didn't indicate peacefulness, but indicated bizarreness, and wondered if the parents knew. I feel that since it took me 5 minutes of concerted effort to make the connection between Siral and Surreal, the parents have little to worry about.

I was torn between titling this "Hurray for Everyone," as stands, or "Wake up, do it again." Did I make the right choice? Why was I so taken aback when my job was described as "mostly admin type stuff" this morning, when that is how I myself describe it to everyone? That was weird. That probably tells me something. Maybe in my heart of hearts I don't think of my job "like, secretarial," my standard response to strangers who ask. Maybe I really do just say that because it's simpler, and not because I revel in being a secretary. Just because the databases we're entering data into were also made by us, and are holding really important stuff, it doesn't make me any less of a secretary. Just because I've learned the basics of programming and enjoy lots of parts of my job doesn't mean much either. Wait, this is depressing. I do like my job mostly. Probably as much as I'd like any job (much better than the job at Chuy's, and probably even better than my second job at the doctor's office). Six months ago I wouldn't have cared, but this morning I wanted to yell out "No, it's important!" I'm sure it wasn't meant to imply otherwise when they cheerfully said "Well, someone has to do it," like it was taking out the trash, or filing things no one will every look at alphabetically. So, here is what I have realized in writing this paragraph: I think my job is important, but am frustrated and not confident enough that I can defend its importance without feeling, well, defensive and delusional.

Here are two better arguments for both "hurray for everyone" and "wake up do it again."

Hurray for everyone!! If I link to the 100th Monkey, and idea that's really intiguing me lately, I link to the "WOWZONE," which is very much like "Hurray for everyone!" If enough people understand calculus really well, it will become second nature to everyone, which means it can be taught by age 8, just like in Star Trek the Next Generation. That means TNG is a feasible reality.

wake up, do it again:

Think of every town you've lived in,
every room you lay your head.
And what is it that you remember?
Do you carry every sadness with you,
every hour your heart was broken,
every night the fear and sadness lay down with you?

• Half-Acre, Hem