Observation – Page 6 – All The Best

Honestly?

If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?

When? Why? Wherefore?

All of the above.

🍑🌏⚘️🪻🌷🌻💯💌💟❤️🤸🤸‍♀️

These emojis just aren’t who I am, and yet, in some ways, they are an improvement.

I speak of the suggested responses my cellphone setup offers in text mode.

I can shoot a starry sun out or a cup of hot coffee to greet my friends.

The options often brighten my day. They send a kind of “enough said” message out that represents me in my best light.

Plugged in

How do you know when it’s time to unplug? What do you do to make it happen?

If I knew when the time to unplug was ripe, I don’t think I would have been checking for prompts at 12 am

That said, my timing has improved over time. And I write for the sake of my best mental health.

The Human Story

It used to be a much simpler human history in my school days. Now, they tell me that evolution wasn’t as linear as we were taught.

Humans and Neanderthals and other hominids all roamed the earth at the same time.

Our earliest direct relatives emerged from Africa some 50 thousand years ago.

Others of the 15 to 20 types of early humans continued to co-exist with them.

So I am thinking, it’s kind of akin to cats. Look at how diverse they are. Look at how many different species live in jungles and mountains and homes across the world.

Juggling acts

How do you balance work and home life?

Since I never had children at home and married late in life, the balancing act was never a big concern.

Single people can work longer hours with no effect on their home life.

That’s the theory.

When you do not have family or a partner at home, you feel carefree. The truth may just be a little different from the perception.

It’s a documented fact [and we women love to cite it] that married men live longer. There could be undocumented evidence that marriage benefits women as well.

In part, we could say it’s because men are cared for; that’s just one side of the picture. They also have to care for their family or partner.

If being unattached means you are carefree, it can also mean you are free to be careless.

Married people, both men and women, have cares. They need to be careful in the best possible way.

Being without a care in the world is overrated. Caring with the worries it brings is a better place for all of us.

There may be more to balance between our homes and our offices, but we are fortunate to have all those balls in the air.

The best things

Do you have a quote you live your life by or think of often?

There are three closely related truisms that could provide guidance on any given day.

“The best things in life are free.” “Money can’t buy you happiness.” “Money can’t buy you love.”

Folktales

Recently, I started wondering whence those picturesque expressions we’ve all heard originated.

Well, of course, something like madder than a wet hen has to have country roots. We city dwellers wouldn’t know a wet hen from a dry one. We also wouldn’t have any idea how angry being wet would make her.

These little bits of the vernacular can make your speech more colorful and colorful language makes conversation more entertaining.

I have favorite colloquialisms, of course, but I’ll be gobsmacked if I understand where they came from.

Some are just cute as a button. Others are cumbersome. As? What? I don’t know a slangy comparison for that one.

Unwieldy as a tractor on a mountain top? Is a tractor that uncomfortable with heights?

Familiarity with animal husbandry or just animal psychology does enter into some of these choices. You’re as hungry as a bear. Then there’s “as cunning as a fox.” How about ‘as persnickety as a porcupine’?

The argument or assumption that this flavorful language has a Southern connection may stem from too many episodes of Designing Women. Idioms come from all over.

Sometimes, the really clever raconteur adds another component, doubling up on the metaphoric. The analogy can become more specific if s/he says, “as cunning as a fox with a PhD.”

Why can’t word-play be more urban than rural? “She’s as twisty as Columbus Circle” may not be sheer poetry, but it’s my start. “He’s tracking farther than the A train?”

“He wears so many hats that he’s Fifth Avenue on Easter Sunday.”

I have to admit I am on the fence about most of the little similes I just built.

I wish I could say my linguistic alterations made me feel as cozy as two peas in a pod

Emotional expression

What are your favorite emojis?

Emojis are intrinsically confusing, at least once you are past a certain age.

I tend to use three “favorites” without a clear understanding of what it is they represent. 😕 😞 😌 Sigh 😕 😔 😪 😞 😑 😢 😕 [see what I mean. All this came up when I typed that one 4-letter word.

My preferred sign-off emojis are: 😇 🙃🧐